Change, Good or Bad - It's Coming

Change.

Is good?

Is bad?

For sure it has happened a lot this year.

Well, it’s happening again for us. Actually, more than one change.

Other than our son, our most valuable employee that has been with us for 14 years is taking another position in another state. Our herdsman not our son is leaving. I am happy for him and his family for this great opportunity.

While I am happy for him, I’m extremely sad they will be leaving. He was the calm, steadfast, knowledgeable dairy man that helped keep us afloat. His veterinary skills have saved us $1000s of dollars over the years.

A while back he let us know about an opportunity came to him that he was considering. I talked to him about it and told him my hope would be that he would be here long past my time. But more than that we wanted what God had planned. And, if it meant leaving then we would do whatever we could to help. I told him we loved him, and he said he loved us too. After much consideration he chose to stay.

This time it is different. And, like I said before we will do whatever we can to help him get to the next place God has lined up for him. It will be with tears in our eyes and sadness in our soul, but we know enough to realize God has a plan for both of us and we never want to miss God’s great choreography of our life.

If I could talk to his new employer, I’d tell him:

“You will be blessed to have him. Your farm will grow to a higher level of excellence. Those who he will supervise will be treated fairly and with respect. If you are providing housing it will be taken care of well. He will find ways to save you money and become more prosperous. Realize the blessing you have.”

With the continuing decline in dairy prices, we are looking at some options to see if we can ease the financial bleeding. One thing we are considering is to sell our heifers.

We see that it would ease our cash flow, yet our stock is of exceptional quality due to our herdsman’s careful attention to breeding over the years.

When it is time to buy back heifers, we may not get an animal genetically as good as what we have now. And right now, selling would be at a very low price.

Decisions, decisions.

While we are busy keeping the wheels spinning on the farm, we are also contemplating ways to cut costs, free up some cash flow, say goodbye to one of our best employees ever and look for someone to take his place.

Like I said – a whole lot of change.

The one saving grace is we are not doing it alone. We have dairy consultants and other people involved.

And, we have the One in charge involved. We ask for direction daily and know that even if we turn in the wrong direction, He will bring us back on track. We just want to have as few of those wrong turns as possible. We trust fully that God will take care of us, our herdsman who is leaving, our current employees and whoever he has planned for us.

Change – good or bad, it’s a happenin’.