Fantastic Fishbone diagram - a lean tool We did our PD testing a couple of weeks ago and our empty rates this season were well above our target of 7% despite having an amazing season, lots of feed, great above average weights, excellent production, good results for our submissions etc. So it was very disappointing. We have to remember this is a defect so a waste for our business. We could have said "oh well, hopefully we do better next season". Or we could have just jumped to a … [Read more...]
Time/ Work life balance a challenge on your farm?
Poor work/ life balance? 38% of UK farmers that attended my recent webinar on lean for dairy farming, said that their biggest challenge at the moment is time/ work life balance. Farmers that I have worked with in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and other countries also share this challenge. Is this you too? If yes, why can’t we make farming the “lifestyle” we actually want by working smarter not harder and getting our time back. Lean management is used by hundreds of thousands of people and … [Read more...]
Challenge the status quo – what 2020 has proven – & Merry Christmas!
Well we are coming to the end of the year. And what a year it has been! While many have really struggled with the unchartered times, I have thoroughly enjoyed this year. Not only did it give me time to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life that really matter - spending quality time with my family without checking my phone for emails – I also for the first time truly appreciated and enjoyed the beauty of our farm – having picnics in paddocks under trees among our cows, swims in our river, … [Read more...]
A farmer’s biggest frustrations and burning platforms
I have run dozens of LeanFarm workshops and worked with hundreds of farmers again this year and we always start the workshops by asking “what are your biggest frustrations/ problems” and “what is your burning platform for being here”. It is really interesting that no matter where the farm is, what type of farming, time and time again I see very similar challenges and frustrations pop up. That tells me that farmers everywhere are experiencing the same type of pain points and want similar things. … [Read more...]
Mating team training session
We started mating this week and so last week we had our Mating team training session as we do every year to refresh the team on our mating process, make any adjustments needed and answer questions. Mating is a critical process on farm - its important to get it right. So its one process where its a good idea to have a clear visual standard process that everyone follows. We use one page standard key point charts that are our standard processes and are displayed on the wall in our team … [Read more...]
Time for a Calving Review
Stop and Reflect Today we had a busy day on farm. We've finished calving and we have mating starting next week so some important things to do including our big picture strategy session, calving review and mating/ bull training. Firstly if you have just finished calving then its a great time to do a review of how the calving period went with your team while its fresh in everyone's minds. Team Feedback We did that today with our team. We asked everyone to think about and write down "what … [Read more...]
How much “motion” waste do you do each day on farm?
Over the last few weeks we have been doing some good old fashioned time and motion studies using 21st century apps. We are experimenting with this to understand where our time is spent and how much non value added "motion" we are doing every day. Tracking your movement on farm during your day is an extremely powerful tool to use to begin to understand the flow of what you are doing - your spaghetti diagram. Here are a couple of images of two of Mat's work days over calving recently. (He has been … [Read more...]
Data on Farm – you’ve got to love it!
One great thing about farming is the amount of data available on almost every element of farming and yet we hardly tap into it. Data is so valuable and it helps you look at your farm in a different way. Not for everyone but so powerful! Being an engineer I am a number geek and love data. We are fortunate that we have a system that captures significant data each day on our herd. But while we have used basics we never really dive into real details and analysis. So over the last few weeks we have … [Read more...]
Farm Strategy Planning
During the last few workshops I have run with farmers, there has been huge interest in our farm's one page strategy document. Lean is not only about the tools we often talk about, but also has a huge strategic component. In a lean company a big process is strategic planning and cascading goals throughout the organisation - this is known as Hoshin Kanri in Japanese (goal policy deployment process in translation). While on our farm we keep the process much more simple and not as robust as … [Read more...]
Dry off – our easy lean “moving assembly line” process – working smarter not harder with lean.
Dry off - the crappy job that is done at the end of the season that no one looks forward to. Well with our lean "moving assembly line" dry off process, our team actually look forward to it. It is significantly less stressful for our people and cows. We have improved quality, reduced stress, improved hygiene/ cleanliness, reduced mastitis, reduced costs, and reduced the time significantly - our fastest round 13 minutes for 50 cows. Average 34 minutes/ 100 cows. It was a wacky idea last season and … [Read more...]
New Grass management – do it well & keep cows safe
New Grass - is it safe? For some farmers its "new grass" time. Good new grass management is vital to ensure good long term growth and cover. But even more important is good awareness of nitrate poisoning and keeping our animals safe. You will be surprised how many people (even those that have some Ag courses behind them) are not aware of risks of nitrate poisoning. Sadly we have lost calves in the past due to poor process and lack of awareness. Why? Well it was our error for "assuming' everyone … [Read more...]
Giving & receiving feedback – a key skill for farm success
Last week during our weekly CI (Continuous Improvement) session we started a series of discussions about some “soft skills” with our team. We will continue to work on these “soft skills’ over the coming months. Soft skills are our people skills – they cover communication, leadership, management, work ethic, teamwork, problem solving, decision making, time management, networking and conflict resolution among other things. Our particular focus is on constructive feedback and moving from … [Read more...]