This is a “no picture” entry. I haven’t written my blog for two weeks.
Sometimes being a pheasant farmer can become somewhat too much, or more accurately said – more than it used to be. Here we are collecting 20,000+ eggs a day, hatching is approaching full bore – and yet we have 2,000+ mature pheasants yet to deliver. We used to have a lull between the seasons – and I liked that. But in the era of efficiency, our farm probably is more profitable when our seasons overlap.
The downside of the constant push is burnout. My wife’s school was on spring break last week, so I took 6 days off – and I needed it. Just before the break, we had a few cancellations occur that I took really personally. Taking things personally is one of my weaknesses. It’s not that I blame the people who cancelled orders with us – it’s just that I think if I had just trained our staff better, or if I had fostered a system here where communication between employees was better we wouldn’t have lost the orders.
I think the biggest hurdle I have to make our farm successful is to figure out how to improve communication. Many of our competitors are smaller operations – and communication, though vital, isn’t as much of an issue – cause the guy who raises the chicks is the guy who loads the birds is the guy who drives the truck. In our operation those three functions are accomplished by three different people – and if there isn’t impeccable communication between those three people – breakdowns can (and will) occur.
Another hurdle I am seeing is that people think because our farm is larger than many of our competitors – we don’t care as much about our customers. First of all, in the big scheme of things – our farm is the size of a gnat (and a small gnat at that!!). Regardless though, a comment I’ve heard from just a few customers is that they have got lost – i.e. no return phone call, or follow-up. It really bothers me when I hear that, as I care so much. But again the hurdle is how to communicate and train to our employees.
Well I am back from my days off and in my absence things went well here. I am ready to dig in and get going. I’ll include a pic with my next post.