I am a dairy consultant, and just last Monday I was having a discussion with the dairy owner about employees having their cellphones with them when the Hoard's Dairyman Intel "Does your dairy prohibit cellphones?" landed in my inbox.

Our concerns in our conversation about cellphones centered around:

• Interrupted work, especially in the parlor where timing is everything and not moving groups on time.
  
  
• Lack of observation of animals while feeding or handling. This could include not detecting health issues, forgetting to close gates, getting themselves in harms way by not paying attention to what the cows are actually doing, or feed mixing errors just to name a few.
  
  
• Missing an important step in the milk room such as sanitation, cooling, or loading into the correct tank.

In general, I think the manager from each crew should have a cellphone. We do need to communicate to keep all things going smoothly.

All other employees can check their personal cellphones at break times.

-Dave Harnish

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(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2015
March 16, 2015