Center for Dairy Excellence Mid-Summer Check In

July can bring a little calm in the summer chaos, with the spring forages harvested, the corn in the ground, and any straw now baled and put away. The warmer weather often provides an opportunity for painting barns, tending to the wear and tear on facilities, and trimming back overgrown hedge rows. It can also be a great time to do a mid-summer check-in with your farm team. Your farm team can include anyone who has a stake in the success of your dairy operation – from your family members to your employees, to the consultants and advisors you are working like your veterinarian, nutritionist, agronomist, or accountant. How are they feeling about their role on the farm?

It could start with just a simple conversation. As dairy producers, we can be guilty of being so immersed in the day-to-day activities on the farm that we forget to simply check in with those around us to see how they are doing. Something small that could have been addressed in a one-on-one conversation can grow to a much bigger problem if it’s left unchecked. Take the time to ask your employees and family members working on the farm for feedback. Be intentional about the questions you ask. What do they think is going really well, where have they seen improvements in the past few months, and what do they see that could be done differently or more efficiently?

Scheduling a one-on-one with each of your team members can provide a platform for that conversation. So often conversations we are having on the farm are reactionary – “this cow is sick, what treatment does she need?”, “the baler feeder is broken, who do we get to repair it?”, “the heifers need moved, who is getting the trailer?” Rarely does the conversation start with just the goal of getting honest, open feedback on how things are going. In my role at the Center, we do one-on-one check-ins every four to six weeks. Sometimes, it can feel like one more thing to clutter up my calendar. But often those conversations uncover issues and opportunities that I didn’t realize existed that affect the larger business. They also can lead to greater employee engagement because people feel seen and heard.

Those check-in conversations can extend to your broader team. With herd health protocols honed in on many dairy farms, veterinarians are visiting farms less than they did in the past. Often, the bi-weekly or monthly herd check may be your only opportunity to check in with your veterinarian. The cost of spending an extra half hour checking in with them and asking for their feedback could be far outweighed by the value of enhancing your overall herd health and performance. The same goes for your nutritionist, and don’t just keep the conversation focused on your dairy. Ask them what they’re seeing on other operations that is working really well and that may work well for your operation.

Another way to bring everyone together for those check-in conversations could be through implementing a profit team. A profit team is an advisory group that brings together your internal farm management team and your most trusted advisors, like your veterinarian, nutritionist, and your accountant, collaboratively. A profit team gets everyone around the same table to find solutions together instead of you having to navigate between what your nutritionist tells you, your veterinarian suggests, and what your herd manager is saying you should do.

Some farms bring their profit team together once or twice a year, while others meet as often as monthly. Team meetings can focus on milk production, herd performance and overall farm efficiency. They can also address larger issues, like business transformation and generational transitions. No matter what the topic or how often you meet, the most important thing to remember is to keep conversations proactive and solution based. Profit teams work best when an agenda is developed ahead of time, ground rules are set, open conversation is encouraged, and feedback is solicited from everyone involved. Having a non-family facilitator, like your local dairy extension agent, can often help with this.

Listening to the recent “Protecting Your Profits” webinar with Robert Goodling from Farm Credit East is another way you can do a mid-summer check-in. Recorded on July 17^th, the webinar offers a mid-summer pulse check to review your farm’s financial health. With low milk prices in the first quarter of 2026 slowly reversing, Goodling discusses how to identify what is going well in your operation and what changes may need to be made in the second half of the year.  Along with offering insight on budgeting and monitoring performance, the webinar offers ideas on what milk production and operational efficiencies could help improve or reduce costs without impacting performance.

To access the webinar recording, go to www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/pyp. For ideas on how to set up a profit team, go to www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/team-resources. Or call Melissa Anderson at 717-788-0296 for more information.