Dairy Worker Training Experiences

Abstract

In recent years, the dairy industry workforce has changed considerably, creating challenges to effective communication, oversight and direction of worker effort. Effective training interventions are necessary to assure that dairy workers have the skills and knowledge to make sound animal health and production related decisions. One approach to this challenge is to formalize a dairy worker training curriculum and offer culturally sensitive training opportunities for Hispanic dairy workers. Training opportunities range from individualized training programs designed to address health and production issues specific to a particular dairy, to centralized training sessions designed to provide basic and general knowledge and skills to employees of multiple dairies. Training methodologies should engage this cultural population into the learning process and address producers' needs regarding topic coverage and preferred delivery methods. Such programs can be popular and successful, based on producer and worker course evaluations.