Success starts with SMART goal setting

By Dr. Jenn Trout, Cargill Calf and Heifer Specialist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How you set goals can be the difference in achieving them or not. This year strive to make sure all of your dairy goals are SMART.

Specific. What exactly do you want to accomplish?

Measurable. How will you know you’ve accomplished it?

Attainable. Is it in your sphere of control?

Relevant. Will this goal have a positive impact on your business? Is it worth the time and resources to achieve it?

Timely. When will you accomplish it? Do you have the time to focus on it?

 

Here are examples of taking a standard goal and making it a SMART goal:

Goal A	Increase average daily gains.
SMART Goal A	Increase average daily gain from 1.6 to 1.9 within 30 days by updating the nutrition program.
Goal B	Reduce morbidity.
SMART   Goal B	Reduce morbidity from 33% to 20% within 60 days by updating health and sanitation protocols.

 

The beginning of a new year (and a new decade!) is a great time for dairy owners to do a thorough assessment of their business and set goals. For business planning purposes the starting point is your current reality. Did you set goals the previous year and were they achieved? If they were, did achieving the goal help your business they way you thought it would? Why or why not? If the goal was missed, what prevented you from achieving it?

For us to determine where we need to go in the future, we have to know where we currently stand. What metrics do you currently track on a regular basis? A dairy operation that has recently improved heifer mortality from 15 percent to 10 percent might be feeling pretty great about their current reality. However, if they looked at the 2014 National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) study they would realize the industry average for heifer mortality was 5 percent, leaving them room for further improvement.

To help discover areas you can improve consider assessing your current reality by comparing your numbers to some of the industry data available through NAHMS.

 

Average Daily Gain >1.8 lb./day	16%
Calves with failure of passive transfer of immunity	19.2%
Pre-weaned Heifer Morbidity	33.8%
Illness from scours	56%
Pre-weaned Heifer Mortality	5%

 

 

 

 

 

 

If your numbers are already better than industry averages, consider gaining fresh perspective by bringing in a third party to audit your farm to gain insights on areas that might have room for improvement.

Once your SMART goal is set, share it with your management team and trusted advisors. The more people that know where you want to go, they more likely you will be to get there. Be sure to have a plan in place for measuring your progress, and if things aren’t progressing the way you need them too, have a contingency plan in place.

While having goals are important, having SMART goals are imperative to keeping a dairy farm sustainable and profitable for future generations.