Good People, Good Cows

Jeremy Visser

Sumas, Wash.
Visser milks 3,200 Jerseys and Holsteins near the Canadian border.

Cows are the most important aspect of our operation. To keep the cows comfortable and healthy, you need good people who are able to care for them. I tell my guys that they work for me but I work to serve the cows, so let’s all try to keep the real boss(ies) happy. The focus is on the cows because without them, we are all redundant.

We have never run a newspaper advertisement or other style of ad looking for employees. Generally, we have people stopping in to look for employment because they have a friend or family member who is working for us already. Different things motivate people, and it is my job to figure out how to keep the attention and focus of different personalities.

I have dairy managers or herdsmen who are responsible for training new and current employees in how and why we do things the way we do. Continual training is probably one of the most important and difficult jobs for myself and my managers.

We can all get so busy doing our thing that we forget or put off the business of retraining and improvement.

I know that the buck will literally stop with me, so I need to set the tone and continue to work at training. My managers will follow suit.

I expect much from my guys, but never expect them to do what I am not willing to do myself. I am very lucky to have a great group of guys who care about their cows and want to do the right thing.