Who Benefits When the Employee is Trained?

Negative energy balance, rumen acidosis, toxic metritis, LDA, RDA, ketosis, milk fever, hypocalcemia, fatty liver syndrome and mastitis – most of you with dairy work experience know these are all potential transition cow problems. To a new employee or laymen, however, it can seem like a foreign language.

When you have an employee who is unfamiliar with terms (or tasks) related to their position, it can be difficult for them to correctly complete their responsibilities and can ultimately cost your operation. In contrast, when an employee is properly trained, your entire operation thrives.

This is true not only with transition cow management, but also with your repro team. When an employee is put into a position on the breeding team without any prior experience or training, the employee may have the fear of failure in the back of his or her mind. To overcome it, the employee uses all the knowledge, experience and ideas he or she can muster to accomplish their work.

Often in this situation the inexperienced employee creates unrealistic protocols as he or she tries to survive. For example, his or her focus may be more on breeding cows quickly than doing so effectively. Perhaps the employee is not waiting the full 2-3 minutes for semen to thaw via the Pocket Thaw™ method or is lifting the semen canister above the frost line unknowingly damaging the sperm.

While no one will argue that proper training is important, for many reasons it often just doesn’t happen. Some may feel it’s not economically feasible or perhaps training is difficult because of language barriers. Time can also be a factor if an experienced member of the breeding team leaves, and the position needs to be filled immediately. However, proper training helps your employees help the dairy and enables you to be more satisfied with the results.

Think about your synchronization protocol training. Does it stress the importance of giving the right cow the right shot at the right time? It may, but does it also teach why each shot is important and why timing is crucial? A deeper understanding can lead to better buy-in from your employee and therefore increased protocol compliance.

Your cooperative is here to support you in your employee training endeavors. Your local GENEX representative is a good source of information regarding heat detection, semen handling and artificial insemination protocols.

GENEX also offers the A.I. AccuCheck service where training specialists observe and evaluate your herd inseminator’s technique. The training specialists provide customized recommendations for improvement through hands-on instruction as well as routine follow-up for continued personal development. The end goal is a more educated and more successful herd inseminator.

For those seeking new ways to learn, there’s also dairylearning.com. Visit the website and explore the many opportunities for online learning. Courses such as Reproductive Anatomy & Physiology and Semen Handling Procedures are available in multiple languages.

Commit to employee training for your employees' benefit, your benefit and your dairy's!

When your employees are properly trained, your entire operation thrives!