Management
Aligning Incentives for Employees
Publish Date: December 21, 2011
Production agriculture is rapidly changing. Producers are constantly being asked to learn the latest technologies, new production practices, and keep up with regulations coming from an increasing number of interested agencies and parties. Not surprisingly, the skills necessary to successfully manage todays increasingly complex farming operations are rapidly evolving as well. Perhaps the most evident change is the size and scale at which farms are operating. For an operation to remain economically viable, farms must often hire additional labor beyond the family labor available. Hiring non-family employees is becoming more common for farms across the country.
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Absent and Tardy Employees
Publish Date: November 8, 2010
Employees that are absent and tardy to work are major concerns for farm owners, supervisors and managers. Too much management time is spent on problems related to attendance and too many farm supervisors and managers tend to be casual about it. That will not work. You need a plan. Here are things that actually encourage poor attendance: • Out of date leave policies under which employees lose unused leave. Scrap the old“use it-or-lose it”policy. • Employee awareness of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) • “Flexible scheduling”that makes it hard to see who is tardy and who is absent
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Biosecurity Practical Applications
Publish Date: June 3, 2006
Biosecurity measures are farm management protocols designed to keep diseases from spreading from infected to healthy animals.
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Baby Pig Management - Birth to Weaning
Publish Date: June 3, 2006
Good care and management in the farrowing quarters has a major influence on the number of liveborn piglets that are weaned and on how well they perform in later stages of production. According to a 1995 survey of swine management practices in the United States, the average number of preweaning piglet deaths per litter on farms was .88 or 9.4% of those born alive. The two leading causes of preweaning deaths were laid on (48.7%) and starvation (20.5%). Other surveys have shown that over 50% of the deaths occur in the first two to three days of life.
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