You've thought long and hard about your dairy's future. You've got a mission statement in hand. And you know where you want the business to be five, 10 and 20 years from now. Are you finished with the paperwork and planning or could you take it a step further?
As you look at managing your dairy with total and consistent quality in mind, there are a few more planning phases to consider. A Total Quality Management (TQM) program (see April issue, page 8) organizes work and details so everyone on the dairy knows what to do and when.
"The key to consistent results is consistent execution," says veterinarian Jim Bennett, Northern Valley Animal Clinic, Rochester, Minn. "If you expect a certain result on the farm, a task has to be done in a certain way."
To ensure consistency, organize your dairy by identifying systems or units of specialization that affect your business goals and who is responsible. Each dairy's list will differ in priority, but the systems will be similar. For example, specialized units or systems would include the milking herd, calves and heifers, health and reproduction, dry cow management, feeding and so forth (see examples 1 and 2).
Organizing management in this manner does three things, says veterinarian Tom Fuhrmann, Tempe, Ariz. It allows for specialization, giving the person or team in charge the opportunity to concentrate all their efforts on maximizing productivity in their area. It provides accountability and makes it clear who is responsible to attain goals. And it establishes those specific goals and monitoring systems so everyone knows what to do and what to shoot for.
After you identify the systems or units, then detail the responsibilities or objectives under each one.
"Objectives establish what needs to be accomplished in general terms, not how to accomplish it," Fuhrmann says. Objectives are established by the owner with participation from each group of workers. Once objectives are clearly written and understood, then specific goals and work routines are determined by workers with the owner.
If residue avoidance is one of your farm's systems, then you would list what to do to avoid residues: follow 10-point quality assurance program, test milk before it leaves the farm, maintain treatment records, and so on. The list would be your system's objectives.
"Once you look at your farm, you can easily identify areas," Bennett says.
Committing these things to paper and having to detail everyday practices may seem unnecessary to some. However, as more dairies rely on hired labor, the owner can't assume all work will be done according to his/her expectations.
"Once you have documentation, you can force accountability," Bennett says.
Next month: Organizing work routines and setting performance standards.
Example 1
Total Quality Management
Establishing Units and Objectives
Owner
Milking Health Feeding Calves Maintenance
teams and and and
reproduction heifers relief
Head milker
and milkers
1. Milk cows according to a specific routine to achieve maximum quality and cow throughput
2. Identify and separate cows with clinical mastitis
3. Wash milking equipment according to a specific routine to maintain hygiene
4. Clean and maintain parlor equipment
Organize your dairy with a diagram and list units of specialization you believe are important to your farm's profitability. Note who is responsible for each unit. Next, list objectives. Here, we show objectives for the milkers. In finishing this example, a producer would also list objectives for health and reproduction, feeding, calves and heifers, and maintenance and relief.
Example 2
Total Quality Management
Unit/System Objective/Process
Preweaned calf management -Colostrum delivery
-Milk/milk replacer feeding
-Starter feeding program
-Vaccination/treatment protocols
-Calf comfort/sanitation procedure
Youngstock management -Ration formulation and feed delivery
-Breeding procedures
-Grouping and maintenance of healthy environment
-Vaccination/treatment protocols
Milking management -Premilking cow prep
-Machine handling procedure
-Postmilking cow protocols
-Stall/alley maintenance
-Mastitis treatment protocol
-Daily record monitoring
Lactating cow nutritional
management -Fresh-cow feeding and management
-Early lactation
-Mid-lactation
-Late lactation
Lactating cow vaccination/
treatment management -Routine herd vaccination protocols
-Sick cow management
Reproductive management -Control late-lactation body condition
-Hoof trimming/foot care
-Dry-cow care
-Calving monitors and assistance protocols
-Fresh-cow care
-Breeding period
Dry-cow management -Dry off procedure
-Far-off dry-cow feeding and assessment
-Close-up dry-cow feeding and assessment
-Dry-cow vaccination/treatments
-Dry-cow comfort/sanitation procedures
-Calving monitors and assistance protocols
Residue avoidance -10-point quality assurance plan
-Milk testing procedures
-Treatment protocols
-Cow ID
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