Building an effective team

Join us on June 24^th where Paul Harris of Real Success will show you how to develop an effective farm team.

Paul, an expert in people management, will be joined by strategic dairy farmers, Kenton and Charlotte Bennett of Perry Farm in Dorset, who have developed an efficient and profitable farm based on highly developed protocols and high standards of cow welfare. 

However, this strive for exceptional performance has come at a cost as they have found it challenging to maintain these high standards and achieve regular time off - a situation which they both recognise is unsustainable. 

In this session, you will learn more about team dynamics and how understanding your staff's personalities can have positive effects on farm performance. We will also explore:

• The benefits of identifying skill gaps
• How to provide 1-2-1 coaching
• The importance of staff management, personal reviews, and team meetings.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in building breadth and depth in their own farm team and improving their staff management skills.

About Perry Farm

Perry Farm’s herd consists of 200 Holstein cows crossed to Danish Red and Ayrshire yielding 8,500 litres. All heifer calves are reared as replacements in house and the beef crosses are sold at 2-3 weeks. Perry farm is 144 Ha owned by the Bennetts, consisting of 121 Ha of grass (mixed permanent pasture and rotational) and 23 Ha of cereals which is used to provide wholecrop, grain and straw for both the dairy and youngstock enterprises. Further straw is brought in from a local arable farm in a muck for straw agreement.

The farm is owned by Clem and Yvonne Bennett and is managed day to day by Kenton and Charlotte with Kenton’s brother, Simon, providing his services as an accountant as Kenton has an aversion to data! They have 1 apprentice, 1 livestock person, a relief who has been with them 20 years and a weekend person.

The dairy business scores well against the AHDB key performance indicators for autumn block calving.

Over the next 3 years as a Strategic Dairy Farm Kenton and Charlotte aims are to improve their profits without compromising their herd’s excellent health and welfare (currently 90% herd on SDCT and average age at culling is 6^th lactation). Always keen to learn and improve they are looking forwards to the challenge of being a Strategic Dairy Farm.

Follow their story and compare your performance by visiting www.ahdb.org.uk/farm-excellence/perry-farm or search for #SDFPerryFarm on Twitter

About Paul Harris of Real Success

Following a successful corporate career, Paul set up Real Success in 2008 and in 2013 began working with his first farming client in the South West of England.  Since 2015, his business has focussed solely on helping the agricultural sector to recruit, develop and retain their staff.  Amongst his clients are winners of FW Dairy Farmer of the Year in 2016 and the prestigious RABDF Gold Cup in 2018. 

As a sought after speaker at farming events across the UK and Europe, including the World Dairy Summit, Dairy Tech, Royal Bath and West Show, Total Dairy and at the EDF Conference in Denmark in 2019, Paul is rapidly growing his reputation as one of the most respected authorities on team performance, staff alignment and retention in the agricultural sector.

About Strategic Dairy Farms

Strategic dairy farms aim to help farmers learn from each other through regular on-farm meetings where we will share key performance data and showcase what the best farmers are doing.

They form part of the Optimal Dairy Systems programme which aims to help dairy farmers reduce costs and increase efficiency by focusing on either a tight block or all-year-round calving system.

The growing network of strategic dairy farms have calculated KPIs for their enterprises which are shared at meetings and published online. These are physical and financial performance measures that are critical to success. Farmers can benchmark their businesses against these KPIs to help identify areas for improvement.

Find other farms like yours, compare your performance and explore farm learning by visiting www.ahdb.org.uk/farm-excellence