There is no magic to getting workers to do exactly what you want. It’s possible by simply executing good management. But you’ll need help from a few key workers who can assist if you’ve put them in the right position within your management scheme.

I’m going to use your milkers, the single largest group of employees and generally 50 percent of your workforce, to illustrate my point.

Step 1: You, the manager
Managers execute the three steps of management responsibility: organize work; train, motivate and discipline workers; and monitor results and provide feedback to workers. While you are responsible for all three steps, you can’t physically do all of this yourself.

Regarding milkers and your parlor performance, you should determine the number of milkers per shift, the position or routine they use (territorial, sequential or grouping) and the steps they do (predip or spray, forestrip, wipe, attach units, some of these, all of these and the order of the steps).

A manager is responsible for cow throughput and quality, so only you (not the head milker or milkers) are responsible for determining the milking routine and procedures.

Advertisement

You may want to confer with parlor management experts to provide you with expectations and tips to maximize performance, but ultimately the decision about how to milk on your dairy is yours.

Step 2: Clarify the role of your head milker
All milkers benefit from having supervision. Their supervisor, the head milker, connects with his fellow workers, coordinates their work activities according to the routine you’ve determined, deals with problems and emergencies as these arise and represents you in your absence.

As I work on dairies across the country, I find no other position that frustrates both dairymen and milkers alike more than that of the head milker.

Rather than being a help to milkers and a leader representing the manager, the head milker simply becomes a more expensive, longer-tenured milker that does nothing more than performs milking system wash-up.

This disappointment and frustration, I believe, is the result of two things: failure to clarify the responsibilities expected of a supervisor and inappropriate selection of the individual to fill this supervisory role.

0813pd_fuhrmann_fg_1

See Figure 1 (which is the same illustration used in the corresponding article in the May issue of El Lechero ) describing the appropriate roles of managers, supervisors and workers.

Step 3: Selecting the right person
A head milker has a leadership role much more than a management role. The person selected for this role must be able to accomplish the following:

1. Make a connection with each person on his shift

2. Share his experience

3. Train and teach

4. Explain the expectations or “what success looks like” (e.g., cow flow, cleaning and stimulating teats, quick machine attachment and good post-dip coverage)

5. Help the new, slow or problematic milker

Do you have this kind of milker on your staff now? How can you tell if you do? Observe your current milkers. Who is always on time? Gets along with all other workers? Helps fellow workers?

Comes to you when someone needs help or a favor? Who is more serious? Asks questions? Offers suggestions? Generally has the respect of fellow workers? Whether or not this person is bilingual, the most tenured or the person you like most – he is your next head milker.

Step 4: Selling, growing and developing this supervisor ...
There’s a good chance your next head milker doesn’t understand the transition required to move from being a good milker to being a leader and supervisor.

Imagine what a huge jump it is to go from the follower to the leader position.

Tell this person why you need his or her help, why he or she is qualified, what the benefits are to him and the advantages to the rest of the milkers.

Give the prospective candidate time to think and process; give him or her the encouragement and challenge to do better.

If your candidate has leadership skills, he or she will respond.

Accept “no” for an answer to your request to accept a supervisory position if that is the decision, then move on to the next candidate.

You may run out of potential supervisors today, and you may have to make do with what you have, but now you’ll recognize the diamond in the rough that you need or want for a supervisory position in the future. PD

00_fuhrmann_tom

Tom Fuhrmann
Veterinarian
DairyWorks Team