Employee mastitis lessons – delivered to your mailbox
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EmailNeed some help in providing on-going training for your parlor employees? Here is some practical help.
Every issue of Hoard’s Dairyman magazine from Sept. 25, 2015 through August of 2016 has an article about mastitis control written especially for employees. The articles are partnership of the magazine with Michigan State University Extension. They appear under the heading “People and Parlors” and are in both English and Spanish.
These articles are meant to help employees understand the background of mastitis control and milk quality, or the “why” behind what you train them to do. Use these articles as an opportunity to have a discussion with employees about mastitis control. Each issue of Hoard’s provides you a new opportunity. In addition, employees can complete a quiz in each issue with questions taken from the article in the previous issue.
Here are some of the quiz questions so far. See how you would answer them and think about how valuable it would be to have a discussion with your employees about them.
- A cow is considered infected when her SCC exceeds what level?
- On average, a cow with a SCC of 400,00 is losing how many pounds of milk per day?
- What is a key sign that the teat end has not yet closed after dryoff?
The three–question quizzes can be completed on paper and sent to Hoard’s, or they are also available online. Every employee who completes a quiz will receive a certificate from Hoard’s at the end, with special certificates for those who complete all the quizzes.
The greatest benefit is to the dairy producer, because more knowledgeable employees are more engaged employees. Why not look up your recent editions of the magazine today and ask your employees to read them. Then, schedule a time to talk about the information in each article and relate it to your farm. A 15-20 minute discussion after each issue of the magazine can be one of your best investments.
