Are You Wasting Profit?

Have you ever measured how much product you produce that gets wasted?  If not, why not?  This could be milk produced that can’t be sold, combinable crops that get harvested but don’t leave the farm or cattle that are reared but don’t get sold.

These elements of farming can easily be brushed over as “the norm” and the waste accepted.  In fact, they could be the difference between an enterprise being profitable or not and will most certainly eat into overall business profits.

If you’re not measuring this element of waste on your farm you can’t take actions to reduce it.  Firstly, measure the waste and record it, e.g., litres of milk disposed due to withdrawal periods or tonnes of corn put into the store buy not fit to be sold.  Then ask yourself why at least five times is the waste occurring.

• Why was the milk having to be withdrawn?  Mastitis drug treatment.
• Why did the cow have mastitis?  Bug picked up in the cubicle shed.
• Why was there a bug in the cubicle shed?  The beds where not being kept clean.
• Why were the beds not cleaned?  Team not following correct protocol.
• Why were the team not following the protocol?  Not clearly explained by farmer.

In this simple example the cause of milk being thrown away is not due to the mastitis but simply down to staff not been trained correctly or having a protocol to refer back to.

This is a cheap and simple fix:

• Better training when new team members join.
• A clear Standard Operating Procedure, (SOP), for the team to refer back to including pictures demonstrating the desired result.

Very often the root cause of the problem is not as complex as you may think and following the simple steps of measuring, monitoring, and asking why can bring about simple, inexpensive solutions.

This process is part of Lean Farming.  To discuss how LEAN can help increase your business profitability contact Phil at pcooper@fcgagric.com