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Farm employee training has changed

With low unemployment and the challenge of keeping skilled workers on the farm, farmers say they are changing how they manage people. 

Dairy farmer Daniel Rice is with Prairieland Dairy in Firth, Nebraska where 25 people manage 15-hundred cows and a compost-to-fertilizer operation.  He tells Brownfield it’s the ongoing training that has changed. “What we do is once a month, we have an employee meeting and then everybody gets assigned a video or training that they have to go through that month. And then, they take a test and get a certificate, and they’re all proud of their certificates taht they get at the end of the month.

Douglas Grotegut from Grotegut Farms near Newton, Wisconsin says most of the 50 workers on his 27-hundred cow dairy have been there 15-to-20 years, but it’s important to make them feel like an important part of the team. “It’s kind of a little bit like a family. If somebody’s left behind, it’s hard to keep them motivated to keep doing the things they want to do.”

With low unemployment, farmers say it’s important to develop the right culture to get and keep good employees.

Grotegut and Rice spoke with Brownfield during the recent Dairy Strong conference in Madison, Wisconsin.