Personnel

7 Health Insurance Solutions for the Self-Employed

Fri, 30 May 2025 15:59:38 GMT

If there is anything that could derail your business literally overnight, it’s a serious injury or illness in your family.

That’s why health insurance is an absolutely critical risk management tool, even though the cost of the insurance itself can also strain your business. While it probably won’t cover every medical expense for your family, it can protect you from the catastrophic effects of a major health event.

The majority of farm families agree with that sentiment, according to a 2017 study by HIREDnAG. The survey of nearly 1,000 farm families in 10 rural states found more than 75% of the respondents viewed health insurance as an essential risk management tool.

At the same time, however, many farm families still roll the dice by going without health insurance. The most recent USDA data on the subject shows more than 10% of U.S. farm households do not have health insurance, which is slightly higher than the general public. But even more telling is the type of farms that forgo it the most: dairy farms. They made up more than 40% of all farm households without health insurance, which is more than double any other type of farming enterprise.

Options to Cover Your Family

For those who are insured, many farm families rely on off-farm employment to secure health insurance — about 56% according to the USDA data. But what options are available for the rest of the families or individuals who wish to purchase their own coverage? Penn State University Extension’s Maureen Ittig, family well-being educator, and Ginger Fenton, dairy educator, recently presented a webinar where they shared the following suggestions:

Health Insurance Marketplace. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 created the federal Health Insurance Marketplace. Americans who do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance can secure coverage through the marketplace, which provides credits for factors like income and family size. A handy calculator to estimate credits and plan costs can be found here . All ACA-compliant plans must cover 10 categories of services that includes things like prescriptions, pediatric care and emergency room services. Open enrollment for ACA plans is usually in the fall, but special circumstances can allow for enrollment throughout the year.
Medicaid/CHIP plans. Lower-income families may qualify for Medicaid and/or Children’s Health Insurance Program plans. These plans vary by state. They typically are less costly to families and may provide additional services, like dental and vision coverage, compared to ACA plans.
Association-based plans. Farm organizations and cooperatives may offer group plans to farmer-members. These organizations also offer guidance to help farm families understand the “language” of health insurance and aid in decision making.
HSAs. Using a Health Savings Account (HSA) is a popular way for farmers to maximize their health insurance dollars. HSAs are actual bank accounts that families fund annually and can be used to cover qualified health expenses. Any dollars not used can remain in the account for expenses incurred later on and even invested into higher-yielding financial funds. To access an HSA, the insured must have a High Deductible Health Plan, which can be accessed via insurance brokers, association-based plans, or the Health Insurance Marketplace. HSAs offer the “triple-treat” tax advantages of pre-tax contributions, tax-free growth and no tax on qualified withdrawals.
Skinny and gap plans. Some states allow for skinny plans that have lower premiums, largely because they are not required to offer the ACA-required 10 categories of services, like allowing entry with pre-existing conditions or maternity coverage. They also may have lifetime payout limits. Gap plans offer short-term, emergency coverage in some states. After 180 days, the insured must enroll for new coverage. They also may have exclusions and lifetime limits.
Armed forces health insurance. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, about 9% of U.S farmers are veterans. They and their families are usually eligible for TRICARE or Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health insurance programs.
Healthcare sharing ministries. Several faith-based group health coverage ministries are available that share healthcare costs among their members. This is not health insurance, but many users find they are able to negotiate rates with providers similar to discounts offered to insurance companies. Enrollment may require specific belief systems and lifestyle choices (no tobacco or illegal drug use, for example). Users pay monthly fees similar to health insurance premiums. When they incur an expense, they pay their bills up front and then submit them for reimbursement.

The Penn State experts advised looking not only at costs, but also at the services your family might need, such as maternity and mental health coverage.

“The array of options available hopefully will allow you to pick an option that works best for you, your budget and your values,” Fenton notes.

Your Next Read:
A Promising Horizon for U.S. Dairy

Nothing Lost but the Handshake: The Rise of Virtual Recruiting

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 22:37:13 GMT

Taking the entire hiring process online, without meeting a candidate in person, seems drastic, but it has become the standard today for many organizations. Recruiters rely on technology to reach potential new hires, from virtual events to online applications, interviews and assessments that allow remote evaluation of potential candidates.

Some might argue this takes the personal touch out of the hiring process and creates a negative candidate experience. Still, the fact is many employers report that “nothing was lost but the handshake” during virtual recruitment. Along with flexibility on the job, candidates expect flexibility in the hiring process. Most employers also find significant cost-saving and efficiency improvements when using virtual recruitment methods.

Virtual recruiting, including career fairs and interviews, caught on before the pandemic, but now they’ve become the norm. Some virtual recruitment benefits organizations noted include:

Eliminates travel time for both the interviewer and candidate, saving time and money.
Speed: Accelerates the hiring process with easier scheduling.
Inclusive — the ability to invite remote coworkers to be involved in the interviewing process.
Flexibility: Candidates can schedule interviews during lunch or join a virtual career fair between classes or breaks.
Diversity and Employment Brand Expansion: Traditional recruiting often targets local areas, familiar organizations and specific college programs. Virtual methods expand your reach to diverse locations, groups and a broader range of education and experiences.
Consistency: Virtual interviews lend themselves to greater consistency, helping to reduce bias in the hiring process.
Formality: Online interactions tend to be more casual, giving both the employer and the candidate a clearer insight into their everyday behavior.

We recognize and value the importance of in-person meetings and face-to-face communication, but virtual recruiting serves as a valuable addition to the hiring process. Beyond posting a job on AgCareers.com, expanding your employment brand and receiving job applicants, AgCareers.com hosts a series of Feed Your Future virtual career fairs, virtually connecting agri-food employers with candidates nationwide. Most participants say the Feed Your Future virtual career fairs were as good or better than in-person events.

Your Next Read: I’ll Never Regret Giving Them the Stock Show Life

The Number One Secret to Motivate and Empower People

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:45:14 GMT

I sat down recently with Juan Quezada on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast to learn about his story of working his way up through the Wisconsin-based Milk Source dairy enterprise, starting as a milker more than 25 years ago, and today overseeing and influencing 650 employees as director of training and development.

So what does an incredible leader, filled with so much knowledge and wisdom, who has had his hand in the tremendous growth and advancement of an organization like Milk Source for a quarter century, teach employees through the company’s leadership classes?

He emphasizes this seemingly simple, yet so very powerful habit: Listening.

“I ask employees: What is the secret of the best salesman in the world?,” Quezada says. “And it is to listen.”

Assumptions are missed opportunities

The power of listening is a leadership principle that Quezada instills among his team. He explains, when we work with the same people every day, and even become accustomed to the same topics of conversation, it can be easy to assume what is on someone’s mind. Perhaps the usual banter is about a football game. And while it can be easy to bypass those conversations as unimportant or unproductive, each time we stop and give that team member time to listen, we open the door for what may be a critical conversation in the future.

“Sometime we assume that same employee is coming to talk to us about the same thing … but the next time, that employee may be coming to you with something very important,” Quezada says. “So listen. Take the time and stop for a couple minutes.”

Four words that destroy employee relationships

While stopping and listening opens a door to engage with others, Quezada acknowledges that there is one statement that can close the door very quickly and make it hard to open again:

“I don’t have time.”

The damage to the employee relationship isn’t just in the words, but in the overall message that response sends to the individual. Quezada adds, “That’s saying to me that I’m not important.” And that response can be internalized with that individual as “I’m not going to come back to you again.”

But so many dairy farm owners and managers are busy, and their time is stretched. How can you respond to an employee’s request when you don’t have minutes to spare, yet want to motivate and empower your team?

The simple answer can be to schedule a future time for the conversation, and following up on it.

As Quezada reassures, the key to motivating and empowering people is this: “Listen. Listen to what they want to say.”

Hear more from Juan Quezada on his “Five Principles of Leadership” from the Uplevel Dairy Podcat here:

And share this conversation on leadership in Spanish, featuring Juan Quezada and Elsie Gonzalez Leach from Motiva Dairy Consulting:

Employers Pivot Focus to Retention Strategies

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 22:47:56 GMT

In recent years, agricultural employers consistently emphasized talent acquisition, but there has been a noticeable shift towards prioritizing retention as the primary focus in 2024. Agriculture and food employers express that employee retention is their top human resource concern currently, according to the AgCareers.com HR Revie w. This survey offers an annual HR trend analysis specific to the agriculture and food industry.

Retention also emerged as a priority when we inquired about employers’ recruitment focus for the upcoming year. In the coming year, the primary goal for agriculture and food employers is to retain the existing talent within their organizations. The most substantial growth in recruitment focuses for 2024 is internal hiring.

Companies reported that regular pay increases were the primary tactic for retaining staff. Notably, flexible schedules, remote or hybrid work options, and retention bonuses were top retention strategies that experienced a sizable increase. Many of the strategies employers have utilized to attract and hire employees in recent years continue to be some of the most effective methods for retaining them.

Factors that contribute to employee motivation in their roles are also likely to influence employee retention. The top two strategies for keeping employees motivated and challenged were bonuses and training and development. A bonus can serve to reinforce and incentivize excellent performance, while training and development are essential to achieve results, providing employees with the tools they need to be successful.

Flexibility in the workplace continues to be a key theme for employee retention as well. Flexibility will differ among organizations and may hold different meanings for each employee. Hybrid work arrangements were the most common tactic, allowing employees to spend time in an office and home. Flexibility in schedules can also reward employees, enabling them to adjust their schedules while meeting the organization’s needs. Regardless of the type of flexibility, it is crucial to listen to the needs of employees, as this can enhance retention and productivity efforts.

Salary increases were also a key finding from this year’s HR Review. In the last several years, companies have experienced market pressures to increase wages at higher-than-normal rates. While employers must remain aligned with market trends to remain competitive, the prevalence of higher increases waned compared to last year. In the U.S., the predominant salary increase was over 5%. In 2024, the predominant range reported will be 3.6% to 4%.

Salary Surveys, like the AgCareers.com Compensation Benchmark Review , can arm agricultural organizations with accurate pay data by ensuring employees are compensated accurately for their job duties and responsibilities. Demonstrating to employees that your organization has dedicated time and resources to reviewing company data can boost employee morale and motivation.

To learn about more human resources trends and to view the full Agriculture and Food HR Review, download a free copy here .

What is the Biggest Challenge in Animal Agriculture? The Answer Might Surprise You

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 17:06:38 GMT

The list of challenges facing animal agriculture is complex and multifaceted. This is what Dr. Robert Hagevoort from New Mexico State University Dairy Extension shared at the 2023 Milk Business Conference in Las Vegas.

Hagevoort summarized that the top concerns of leading dairy processors include price volatility, disparate sustainability initiatives, emission accounting methodology, aligning supply and demand to include the world demand and labor availability. Although he discussed several other more persistent and emerging challenges for animal agriculture.

Sustainability “I think the [dairy] industry is doing a really nice job in terms of coming to grips with sustainability and moving forward and looking from a self-motivated reason in terms of efficiency. Anything we can do to reduce our carbon footprint and make sure carbon doesn’t go into the atmosphere is a good thing.”
Animal Welfare “As an industry, we’re looking at cows very differently. Animal Welfare does not live in a vacuum. It’s something that we do with our employees. The result of us working with our employees, making sure those animals are fed well, treated well and all those different things. Yes, it’s a challenge, but it’s something we’re well aware of and moving in the right direction.”
Global Food Security “Global Food Security is a challenge. If you look at the amount of food that is currently being wasted (around 40%) and we find answers to infrastructural problems…then we’re working in the right direction.”
Antibiotic Resistance “The way the industry is working, and the way we are now treating our cows, we are doing our due diligence to do the right thing. I think we’re also moving in the right direction. It’s not to say that we don’t have challenges or issues.”
Consumer Preferences and Awareness “We’re certainly dealing with the new influx and the challenges associated with all these plant-based and fake protein foods that are out there. But I think at the end of the day, the need for animal proteins is going to prevail in that department.”
Technological Advances “There’s a tremendous amount of advancement and trends of technology that we’re implementing, and we’re moving more and more in that direction.”
Regulatory and Trade Issues “There’s no doubt that we currently have a challenge with regulatory and trade issues. We’ll always deal with those.”

Hagevoort also highlights rising input costs and labor shortage as worries that not only keep producers up at night, but as real concerns impacting the industry.

“Just look at the last year as an example with extreme feed prices, high labor costs, and very high cost of production,” he says. “And then the labor shortage is a serious threat to an industry from a sustainability perspective. If you’re not economically sustainable, you won’t be around to do all the other ones. So, economic sustainability is the first pillar for sustainability.”

Producers say Labor Management is Their Biggest Issue

Aside from feed and milk prices, Hagevoort says labor is a producer’s biggest issue.

He shared a September 2023 Wall Street Journal article which stated, “Work experts have warned for years that the combination of baby boomer retirements, low birthrates, shifting immigration policies and changing worker preferences is leaving U.S. employers with too few workers to fill job openings. While the labor market is softening, none of those factors are expected to change dramatically in the coming years.”

Hagevoort says this magnifies the importance of talent management and ultimately looking within to develop talent.

“We need to change from what is referred to as the hunter and gatherer environment where we hired a guy with the right talent to maybe home-grown philosophy,” he says. “How much money are we leaving on the table by not taking advantage of talent either undetected or underdeveloped in your operation?”

Hagevoort says there isn’t much producers can do about labor availability.

“The question is how much money are you leaving on the table by not getting 100% on your employees,” he asks. “We want to make sure they are willing to give you their 100% because that is the best ROI you can create in your business.”

The shift the dairy industry has seen means owners and managers are now managing people, not cows.

“Yet, they were raised to be cow managers,” Hagevoort says. “They went to school to learn about dairy and farm management. They did not learn how to manage people.”

Training Challenges

The challenges producers face training employees on dairies have increased because of several factors, including low literacy, a non-English speaking workforce, a high employee turnover rate, limited to no internet connectivity and limited computer/IT resources.

Hagevoort says his general observations and findings is that the employee workforce has drastically changed over the last decade.

A large majority no longer come from an ag-background.
The large majority have no experience working with large animals or equipment.
60% of employees are at a 5th-grade level education or below.
High level of illiteracy or low reading comprehension level.
Very high level of labor turnover on dairies, especially in the first 6-12 months.
Shift in typical workforce make-up to more Central Americans.
Different culture - indigenous (Mayan) vs. Hispanic.
Different language (K’iche vs. Spanish).
Different body stature/build.

Hagevoort encourages you to ask yourself, ‘What does all of this mean for productivity, results and performance metrics?’ He reminds producers that labor is not only the main challenge, but that managing people is far more difficult than managing cows.

“Most owners and managers are at a total disadvantage,” he says. “They are great cow managers.”

Two things Hagevoort shares successful owners do is get out of their comfort zone and purposely focus more on leading people.

“If that is not in your personality, then hire somebody excellent to help do that,” he says.

Click on Extension Dairy Home (nmsu.edu) for more information on the U.S. Dairy education and Training Consortium.

Combat Labor Headaches Head On

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 21:45:13 GMT

Labor shortages are no longer a stark headline, but instead a continued headache dairy farms are faced with. Recently on an Ag Future podcast, Dr. Luke Miller, dairy technical support specialist at Alltech, spoke about training and retaining labor on dairy farms.

Miller has a wealth of expertise in this topic and a deep pedigree in the dairy industry, including his experience as the general manager of a 6,000-head, multisite dairy in central Calif., managing a team of 45 employees. In addition, Miller served as a large-animal veterinarian and became the owner of a practice that addressed all facets of large-animal medicine.

While the struggle is real in finding labor, Miller recommends dairy owners hit pause and understand who they are trying to hire in the first place.

“The basics, to begin with, is to start understanding who we’re trying to hire and understanding where they came from and their basic levels of both education and interest in the group, in the dairy,” he says. “We know that many of our laborers are not loyal to a particular place or particular farm, so we try to invest in them as much as we can.”

According to the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), immigrant labor accounts for more than half of all dairy labor, and dairies that employ immigrant labor produce 79% of the U.S. milk supply. NMPF takes a bold stance on key issues, like labor and immigration reform and says if the U.S. dairy industry lost its foreign-born workforce, it would nearly double retail milk prices and cost the total U.S. economy more than $32 billion.

Helpful Tips with the Hiring Process

Miller offers some tips to help with the hiring process, including:

Organizational Charts

Miller suggests an organizational chart, something he says that a dairy of all sizes should have.

“I preach this every place I go, that — understanding employees want to have a box,” he says. “They know where the top is and know where the bottom is. They want to be put in that box, and they want to understand the basics of their job so that they can fulfill what you want them to do, and they feel like that’s gratifying to them.”

Job Description

Many dairies do not offer job descriptions to their employees. Miller says they are simply hired because they showed up that day.

“Job descriptions and some early vetting of who we’re actually bringing into the dairy is important.”

Proper Hiring

Miller strongly encourages producers to take a stronger stance when it comes to proper investment in the hiring process. He shares if a carload of employees stopped, asking for work, very few producers would turn any of those employees away.

“In reality, at least 20%, at least one of those guys or girls in that car —someone in that car is going to hurt you, and it might be through OSHA. It might be through morale. You might turn around and six months later, your entire workforce has flipped over and it’s a negative experience, and that is not what we want to do. We need to understand who we’re bringing in,” he says.

Top 10

Miller says part of the onboarding process should include 10 questions. He shares that there is no cookie-cutter questionnaire list.

“I think that having 10 questions - and they don’t have to be my 10 or your 10 or anybody else’s 10 but having the 10 for our dairy — you can sort a lot of things out if you just ask the basics,” he shares. “The second step of that is to train the trainer. We have to have somebody on the dairy who knows how to train people, and we put them in charge of — not the hiring, but the actual onboarding of the person when they start. We find a guy we like. We find someone we want to put on the dairy. We send them out with a trainer. You have an hour, two hours a day — whatever it takes to appreciate their skill level.”

To listen to the entire podcast where Miller talks about educating employees on stockmanship, technology input, employee feedback and more, go to #211: Training and retaining labor on dairy farms | Dr. Luke Miller (podbean.com) .

9 Reasons Your Best Employees Quit

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:28:26 GMT

Recruiting team members for a bovine veterinary practice can be extremely difficult. But before you spend your time and energy on that challenge, focus first on employee retention, suggests Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics , a human resource consulting firm.

“Put retention in front of recruiting,” he says. “Become a place that people want to work, and then when people hear you have an opening, they come to you.”

How do you prioritize retention? Analyze why employees leave, Kleiman coaches. Many times, their departures fall into these nine categories.

1. Substandard Co-Workers: “The good employees aren’t paid enough to cover for or put up with the hiring mistakes,” Kleiman says. Don’t force your good employees to compensate for others who are lazy, indifferent or undependable.

2. Mind-Numbing Tasks: Don’t force new employees to only perform boring and repetitive jobs, he suggests. An employee’s manager or supervisor must find ways to make roles on your farm fun, more meaningful or challenging.

3. No Attention or Authority: “When a supervisor is so busy fighting the fires created by problem employees, he or she never has any time for his best people,” Kleiman says. Many times, this busy leader also fails to delegate authority to capable employees, leaving those employees frustrated. Learn how to be a magnetic manager .

4. No Training: Kleiman says managers must prioritize training and move away from that often-repeated phrase that training is not a good investment because “they’ll leave in three months anyway.”

5. No Chance for Advancement: Is your default setting to promote from within? Or does every new opportunity go to someone outside the business? Recognize how advancements drive retention and job satisfaction, he says. Read some tips to reduce employee turnover .

6. Lack of Respect: Employees need positive recognition, Kleiman says. “Praise in public and criticize in private,” he says. Learn how to provide meaningful recognition: Beyond Atta-Boy: 5 Tips to Maximize Employee Recognition

7. Receive the Jobs No One Else Wants: Even though your all-star employees are dependable and won’t complain about menial tasks doesn’t mean they should be in charge of them. Spread the dirty work around.

8. Lack of Recognition: Quality and effective feedback is critical. Many times, Kleinman says, supervisors avoid positive feedback for fear the recipient might ask for a raise – this is the wrong approach. Read more: Use Feedback to Nurture Good Habits and Squash Bad Ones

9. Scheduling Conflicts: When an employer promises “flexible hours,” but it turns out that means having to work whenever and however long the boss wants them to, good employees look for the exit door.

Read More

Tips To Reduce Employee Turnover

Are You the Boss No One Wants to Leave?

10 Tips for Finding Allstar Employees

Find more results and resources from the 2019 Farm Journal Ag Labor Study at AgWeb.com/ag-labor

Veterinary Technicians Key to Underserved Rural Areas

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:52:23 GMT

Imagine working less and serving more clients. Is it hard to picture? Maybe it’s time to reimagine what you’re doing—and whether you’re effectively utilizing a critical member of your veterinary team.

Veterinary technicians can be a solution to underserved rural areas, says Dr. K. Fred Gingrich II, the Executive Director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP).

“A lot of times veterinarians in those communities are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the workload can be tremendous,” he says. “And veterinary technicians have the skills and the expertise, that they can do some of those technical procedures, as well as train producers to do those technical procedures, which then frees up the veterinarian to do the things that they are experts at,” he says.

There are a number of opportunities for veterinary technicians to grow within the veterinary profession, and those opportunities don’t stop at the private practice, says Dr. Jason Nickell.

“I would urge you to gain as much experience there as possible. But I would also encourage you to look at opportunities within academia, opportunities within industry opportunities potentially within government,” he says.

Nickell also encourages the veterinary profession to look to human healthcare and how they utilize nurses, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants as a model to explore to serve rural areas where producer numbers are holding steady but there are fewer large animal veterinarians.

Dr. Geof Smith, professor of ruminant medicine at North Carolina State University School of Veterinary Medicine, agrees.

“I think learning how to use technicians appropriately and food animal practice can be a great builder, particularly in those practices where you’re covering a lot of territory,” he says. “Maybe use the veterinary technician. Veterinarians don’t always have to be on every farm, and we can find ways to utilize those technicians and help us in our day-to-day role.”

Watch the video here:

Have you seen a rural veterinarian shortage in your area? Take the poll here :

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What’s $143,757.82 in vet school debt got to do with it?

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