Make your farm better, smarter, and more productive The Lean method is revolutionising farming globally with its proven approach for reducing waste, improving productivity and sustaining profits.In The Lean Dairy Farm, dairy farmer and Lean consultant Jana Hocken explains why this approach is essential to every dairy farm and how to apply these tools, practices and principles to your dairy operation. The Lean Dairy Farm helps reduce the common problems and stressors faced by farmers every day: long work hours, high staff turnovers, repeat problems, breakdowns, wastage, safety and high costs. Using her own family’s dairy farm as a case study, Jana provides insight into how the Lean approach applies to farming, introduces practical tools to help you improve efficiency and reduce waste, and shows you how to create a farm culture that supports Lean thinking. Even if Lean is entirely new to you, this book offers a simple blueprint for applying its principles and practices to improve your farm. Quickly make use of basic Lean concepts on your farm Identify and eliminate waste in farm processes Organise your farm effectively to improve productivity Standardise your processes to do everything right the first time Develop an engaged, high performing team If you want a more efficient, profitable and robust dairy farm, The Lean Dairy Farm is for you.

Responding to a recent surge in interest and application, this book is the first to comprehensively address how Lean thinking and tools can be implemented in agriculture and agribusiness. This tactical guide breaks down barriers, clearly depicting how improvement techniques originally developed for factories can derive the same powerful results on farms. Expert Lean farming consultants, Susanne Pejstrup and Vibeke Fladkjaer Nielsen, present these methods in a clear, easy-to-read style, accessible to farmers all over the world. Case studies from multiple farm types – including crops, pigs and dairy cattle – demonstrate how respect for people, continuous improvement, and visual management techniques can improve resilience and profitability on the farm. Richly illustrated, Lean in Agriculture appeals not only to farmers, but to farm workers, food processing companies, veterinarians, consultants and other stakeholders in the agribusiness sector. Key Features: Translates Lean thinking into agricultural terms. Takes a people-centric approach to a Lean agricultural production system. Serves as an implementation guide , with clear writing and concise, easy-to-follow instructions tailored to the agricultural sector. Illustrates agriculture-specific Lean implementation with a wide range of case studies and memorable images.

A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words "factory" and "farm" in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family's one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman's prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.

He barely remembers his dad. She’s all about community. Can he let go of anger and harvest a passionate new life with a sweet country girl? Brisbane, Australia. Justin Wheeler wishes it was just another ordinary day. Living with his mum after her marriage fell apart, the listless software developer grew up without a phone call, a birthday card, or even a letter from his birth father. So when the man dies and bequeaths him his rural dairy farm on the Sunshine Coast, the bitter young man reluctantly attends the funeral, intending to liquidate the property. Freya Montgomery brought her college know-how back home. Intelligent and capable, the determined marketing pro hopes to nurture her agricultural township while keeping the handsome son of a deceased neighbor from selling out to a developer. And when their instant attraction leads to a meeting with her family to discuss a possible lease, the optimistic beauty can’t help but hope she can convince the smartly dressed stranger to stay. Stunned when he falls head-over-heels for the vibrant farmgirl, Justin fears he may break her heart after he receives the perfect offer for the land. And though Freya is sure their chemistry is real, the sunny young woman worries the dark clouds of his simmering resentment at his late dad will leave her out in the cold. Will the pair’s passion survive and flourish on the milk of human kindness? The Dairy Farmer's Daughter is the feel-good first book in the Heart of the Hinterland contemporary romance series. If you like fish-out-of-water heroes, opposites attract, and plenty of steam, you’ll adore Sarah Williams’s small-town tale. Buy The Dairy Farmer's Daughter to inherit happiness today!

Farming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. Until, one winter, after more than a decade away, he finds himself back on the farm.