Several different herds should be sampled so that the supervisor will get experience operating each of the different kinds of metering equipment that he or she will be expected to use. Herds enrolled in different DHI testing programs also should be included in the training period. Part of this training will be on the farm. Other sessions will be held in area offices, labs, homes or other convenient places. More indepth training should be done at a central location after the supervisor has been on the job.
States vary in the frequency of new supervisor development conferences.
In some areas, these conferences are held on a multistate basis. Although this involves more travel for participants, there are advantages to having more supervisors with more variety of experiences. The greater expertise available among staff members when several states participate. Many of the same topics that were covered briefly in field training are reviewed again at conferences. Conference planners must keep the information from being repetitious by building on the concepts and skills learned by supervisors earlier.