Dairy advisory teams

A tool for production medicine veterinarians

Abstract

Dairy Advisory Teams (DATs) improve farm management success when producers and advisors have the skills and attitude to make them work effectively. Basic team concepts are taught during team training workshops and in follow-up communications. Teams learn to recognize individual farm values, objectives and constraints before identifying areas in which improvements could be made. Teams are selected from people with skills and abilities that complement farm goals. An advisor who is not part of the owner/management group organizes and runs the team meetings in consultation with the owner. Advisors with team facilitation skills and experience make the best coordinators. Teams formulate action plans that are critical to success. Regular team meetings (monthly or bi-monthly with experience) increase the ability of farm advisors to monitor and make midcourse adjustment to farm plans. Farm owners make all decisions while benefiting from timely diverse advice from multiple professionals. Our study confirms that veterinarians are one of three critical team advisors and provide essential advice for teams when health information is integrated into the farm decision-making processes. Further, this study suggests that certain elements are key to success of a dairy advisory team. Teams most likely to continue after the first year tended to advise larger, better-managed herds. They had producers dedicated to the team process, experienced coordinators or new coordinators that adhered to the team process. Successful advisory teams functioned for multiple years, had larger teams and had goals that were more strategic (long term) than tactical (immediate). Smaller herds with DATs made faster progress on several indicators than larger herds, primarily because they were further behind initially Therefore, DATs can target smaller herds and make significant progress. Four to five team members appears to be the practical size for herds up to 150 cows, and six to seven team members for herds milking over 200. Team size is not as critical to success as the dedication of the producer and the leadership ability of the coordinator. Although herds with production challenges made greater progress, producer attitudes and coordinator effectiveness contributed most to sustainability. The financial and professional rewards for consultants may be greater when working with larger farms and dedicated producers.