Remember the song entitled “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”? Humorous? Yes, you couldn’t help but smile when you heard it! Wish you could do so? Yes. Realistic? Probably Not! Steve Chandler, in his book 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, states, “Don’t worry. Or rather, don’t just worry. Let worry change into action.
Business advisors George Ford and Gordon Lippitt summed it up best: “Some self-confronting questions: ‘Where do I want to be at any given time?’ ‘How am I going to get there?’ ‘What do I have to do to get myself from where I am to where I want to be?’ ‘What’s the first, small step I can take to get moving?’”
The savings and loan debacle of the 1980’s changed forever how banks were required to document and monitor loans. 2008’s financial meltdown simply amplified this same effect.
“Wow! Isn’t that exactly what we are facing in the dairy industry almost every year?”
At a Leadership Conference at Duke University several years ago, I enjoyed a keynote address given by Duke University’s head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski entitled “Building a World Class Team.”
Set goals for your Team and tell them what’s in it for them. For Coach K, it has been to win multiple gold medals for the United States. For you it might be to increase production per cow to a certain level or to reduce the average days open in your herd and shorten your calving interval. You decide. You might be surprised how interested your employees are in helping you reach your goals.
Since early 2015, the dairy industry has been a difficult place to operate. Despite feed costs dropping considerably these past two years, the decrease in this expense area pales in comparison to the precipitous drop we have seen in milk prices since the end of 2014.
To survive and thrive, we need to move faster, act more decisively, and respond more courageously. There has never been a better time to increase our efficiencies than now.
As Victor Frankl said of his experience at Auschwitz, the vilest of Nazi concentration camps, his survival depended upon the realization that his old life was over. His new life and future would be vastly different. The same holds true for us in the dairy industry. The old game is over. We are in a new game now.
These past two years have forced many producers to decide whether they are truly committed to being in the dairy industry long term.
