CALF News Aug./Sept 2018

13 CALF News • August | September 2018 • www.calfnews.net Looking Ahead The Gap  CALF VOICES By Rachel Lewis Contributing Editor A generation gap is something that always tends to come up in conversation, particularly when the people in the conversation vary in age. Just the other day a friend of mine, who now manages his family’s dairy went on a big vacation, which he documented on Facebook, as everything is. While discussing it at dinner, my aunt, who grew up on my family’s hay and cattle operation, said,“Wow how times have changed. We couldn’t go on those types of trips. We had animals to tend and fields to oversee.” This comment reminded me of the age-old discussion about Millennials and how they are lacking work ethic or are unmotivated because they don’t want to show up to the office early or stay late. Generations that would work from sun up until sundown in the office think that is lazy, but we think it’s smart. We don’t have to be at the office and often aren’t when we are working. For instance, my phone has three email accounts set up on it: one that’s mine, one for work and one for the service group I volunteer with. I also manage four Facebook accounts, only one of which is for fun. Two are work accounts and one is for a volunteer group. All this is ALWAYS with me. Why do I need to hurry up and get to the office when I have been plugged in since I got up and checked my phone? Why would I stay late and wait for that e-mail when I could answer it from the lobby of the movie theater later? We are seeing this same trend in agri- cultural work. Perhaps the hours aren’t as flexible, but work that used to have to be done at the end of the day when the producer was back in his office can now be done in the field. Circles that had to be driven to and turned on can now be switched on with an app, and water tanks can be remotely monitored the same way. There’s a robot available that automatically pushes feed up to the locks at dairies. This particular chore used to require a guy and a shovel, then, a few generations ago, it took a guy a couple times a day in the skid steer. Now it just needs this giant “Roomba.” I’m not saying you don’t have to be on the farm. Somebody does anyway, but if Millennials can find a way to shorten the work day, or better yet the work week, Creative:Clients:Micronutrients:1500-25115 Micronutrients Beef Ads:1500-25115 Micronutrients Beef Ads_Calf News_v07.indd Jan 10, 2018 11:58 AM IntelliBond ® is a registered trademark of Micronutrients, a Nutreco company. © 2018 Micronutrients USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Don’t antagonize me. Antagonists are impossible to avoid in your operation— from water, to feed, to forages—and your trace mineral program could be making it worse. Sulfate trace minerals easily separate and bind to antagonists, reducing the amount of minerals available for absorption, interfering with digestion and even reacting with other feed ingredients. IntelliBond ® hydroxy trace minerals work differently, dissolving more slowly in the digestive process for minimal binding with antagonists and absorption at the optimal point in digestion. www.micro.net (317) 486-5880 Smart minerals, smart nutrition... smart decision Discover the benefits of switching your trace minerals to IntelliBond ® at www.micro.net SULFATE FREE N o C o p p e r S u l f a t e • N o Z i n c S u l f a t e • N o M a n g a n e s e S u l f a t e • TraceMineral MADE IN USA Continued on page 14 