Don Tyler

I thought I would step out of my normal blogging on family, employee and management issues and forward a few observations and notes from conversations with producers across the midwest.  My travels this spring and summer have taken me to most of the parts of the country that have seen weather extremes, so I thought I'd share what I've seen and heard.  These comments are all anecdotal, so use them at your own discretion.....

 --In speaking with a seed sales rep in the central/eastern Iowa area, they cut off re-seeding beans in the flooded areas on July 10.  The reason being that even if they do come up, the same areas that are prone to flooding are the same areas prone to an early frost......

Managing People in Tough Times:

A client of mine who is a Texas dairyman was going through a rough time several years ago, and asked about managing his people.  He realized that he was going out to the parlor more often and looking over the employee’s shoulders, talking about how tough things were and making sure that everything got done right because there was no room for error.  We talked about the parlor manager there, and sure enough—he had been there for 12 years and was considered one of the best in the entire industry.  So why look over his shoulder and nitpick?  We discussed the possibility of not going out there and interacting with the people unless he had a positive attitude and could avoid micro-managing the staff.

A brief note to mention that PORK Magazine has asked me to spend some time in their booth at the World Pork Expo for some Q & A with Employers and Employees.

Their full announcement is:

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Answers to Employee/Employer Questions

Whether you’re an employer or an employee, plan to stop by the Pork magazine booth during World Pork Expo with your employment-related questions and seek advice from Don Tyler, employee and business management consultant and Dear Boss columnist. Tyler will be available at Booth 763 in the Varied Industry Building on the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday, June 5, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., and again on Friday, June 6, from 10:00 a.m. to Noon.

During a recent visit with a client in Iowa, the owners talked about a challenge that they had in getting their employees to “care more about the pigs.” They had discussed ventilation issues, appropriate watering and feeding, watching for sows that didn’t eat, etc.—all the important stockmanship training issues—but it seemed that it was not getting through to their people.

Instead of reviewing their training process and regular monitoring, I asked them about what areas the employees did seem to care about. “Well,” the wife said, “they really like to see the pigs ‘happy.’ They can tell when they walk into a building if the pigs are ‘happy’ and they seem to like seeing the pigs behave that way.”

“Helping” Employees with Gas Prices

“If you don’t help me out on what it costs me to drive to work, I’m going to go find another job!”  This frustration is being heard by more and more employers with the increase in travel expenses that all employees are experiencing.  There are many traps that an employer can fall into in this situation, so here are a few suggestions:

Time Management—Some Basics

The most efficient businesses have a philosophy that they can always improve on their efficiency and time management.  They communicate their priorities to all employees and train their managers to develop practical time management strategies.

Here are some of the keys to developing a philosophy and “culture” of high efficiency and effective time management.

I will leave specific ways to lower production costs to the economists and successful producers, but here are a few practical ideas on how to develop a “culture” within your Company where everyone strives to eliminate waste, improve efficiency and keep costs at their lowest practical level:

• Explain costs in the simplest form possible so that employees can relate their actions to costs of production—examples:
  • cost per day to run a heat lamp or heat mat
  • cost per pound of each feed ration
  • total labor cost per hour for the entire operation
  • cost per dose of each pharmaceutical
  • value of each animal (and $$ invested in each animal) at each stage of growth or each weight range
  • $ value of each pig produced over the target number
  • Cost per hour to run a heater or furnace

• For a time, label each bottle of medicine used with the cost and the cost per dose so they see the value of the materials they are handling.
• Use a magic marker and write the total cost per bag on each bag in the feed mill so that people can see the value of the materials they are handling.
• Include an explanation of costs as a part of your regular training.
• Have budgets for each area—feed budgets per group, supply budgets per month or per stage of growth, vet/med per pig, etc.  Track them regularly and discuss them with the staff on a consistent basis.  Help them to see how their daily actions affect each of these costs.
• When someone has an idea be sure to ask for their analysis of the cost/return for this idea.  If they don't know how to do a simple analysis, or don't have the information they need, help them.  Instill in them that a critical part of each suggestion is the financial returns that it could generate.
• Take pictures of proper and improper feeder settings and have them readily available for comparison and as a training tool.
• Include the discussion of costs in your everyday conversations and daily discussions of duties.
• During your regular staff meetings, talk about input costs and their affect on the bottom line, recognize actions—no matter how small—that employees have taken to reduce costs since the previous meeting.  Have a part of the meeting dedicated to taking ideas for reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Don Tyler; Tyler & Associates