“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky may have been talking about scoring goals on the ice when he spoke those famous words, yet, hitting goals in the dairy farming business isn’t all that different.
I was reminded of this on a recent visit with Jordan Matthews of Rosy-Lane Holsteins when he said: “If we want to be the best, if we want our cows to strive to perform the best, we need to try things. We can’t be afraid.”
As we sat down in the farm office in Watertown, Wis., he went on to say, “ You’re going to have a failure here or there, or jump on board on something maybe too soon. But if that’s only one out of 10 times, you’re ahead by nine.”
Progress in the dairy industry has never belonged to the comfortable. It has always belonged to the courageous. The producers who changed the trajectory of their farms — and often the industry itself — were the ones willing to step into the unknown, test a new idea, and accept that improvement rarely comes without a little risk.
Those words land because they are both motivating and convicting. They challenge every dairy producer to look honestly at their operation and ask: Where have we become too comfortable? Where have we stopped questioning the way things have “always been done”?
The most successful dairies in today’s environment are not necessarily the biggest, nor even the ones with the newest facilities. They are the ones that create a culture of continual improvement and calculated risk. Like Rosy-Lane, they trial new feed strategies. They test different housing or ventilation approaches. They experiment with technology, data, genetics and management styles. Some ideas stick. Some don’t. But every attempt brings learning — and learning fuels better decisions.
The future of dairy will be shaped by those who are willing to test, adapt, and evolve. Markets will change. Technology will advance. Consumer expectations will continue to rise. The dairies that stand out will be the ones that see change not as a threat, but as an invitation.
Because excellence is rarely the result of standing still. And as Jordan Matthews reminds us, if we want our cows and our people to perform at their best, reach their potential and hit those goals, we have to keep taking the shots.
Watch the full Uplevel Dairy Podcast, here:
