Steps
to Upgrade and
Modernize Your Dairy
KEVIN
JANNI
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering
University of Minnesota
DAIRY
PRODUCERS UPGRADE and modernize their operations for
many reasons: to boost income, cut costs, meet environmental requirements,
save labor, improve working conditions, fulfill personal dreams,
and so on. The bigger the upgrade, the more complete and detailed
your plan needs to be to ensure that the changes meet your needs.
Be sure to include these steps:
SET
A TARGET
Develop a broad vision, goals, or mission statement to describe
your upgraded dairy that fits your values.
SET
PERFORMANCE CRITERIA AND DIMENSIONS
Define the upgrade, its size, the management plan, and required
and desired elements.
INVESTIGATE
AND INNOVATE
Find innovative ideas by visiting other dairy operations, reading
dairy articles, and talking to people.
EVALUATE
ALTERNATIVES AND OPTIONS
Sort through the ideas and information collected and compare them
with the required and desired elements.
SELECT
Select the best option for you. Remember that there is no single
ideal solution. Every design includes trade-offs.
PREPARE
PLANS
Have blueprints prepared and develop bid specifications.
TROUBLESHOOT
THE PLANS
Check the plans for accuracy and completeness. Check flows of
cows, milk, equipment, feed, water, air, manure, and people.
IMPLEMENT
THE PLAN
Get bids, select contractors, and modify the operation. Monitor
construction to ensure that your plans are followed as specified.
EVALUATE
THE FINAL PRODUCT
Make sure that everything was completed as specified. Celebrate
your accomplishments. Learn from mistakes.
DO
IT AGAIN
Identify
your operation's next high priority goal or bottleneck and tackle
it next. |
