Announcing On-the-Mark Support (or what to do when the show cow eats your homework…)
COVID-19 has affected many of you and changed how you must manage your work and day-to-day activities. We have been aware of the massive impact this has had for some time. We first experienced it through our co-worker, Vivian, as we discussed the initial outbreak in China and her concerns for her family there. It hit closer to our homes much more recently as the outbreak spread to other countries resulting in travel bans, cancelled meetings, quarantined team members, and many working from home. It is easy to obsess and react anxiously. Lynn relates this story:
One of my favorite things when I was growing up was the excitement of showing cows (which meant spending the night in the barn) and all the fun that comes with county fair. It made fall one of the most memorable times growing up in south central Pennsylvania. We ate fair food, drank soda, and could always count on one of the moms having a crockpot full of chili to share. Everyone got to share stories about clipping, feeds, showing tips, and tricks to halter breaking. Questions floated around the barn day and night,–whose cow had a heifer calf, how the year was going for crops, what classes they would be competing in this year, and, of course, the high cost of feeds and low price of milk. Us kids were free of worries and cares of the outside world for that one week every year. What a wonderful time and what great times of fellowship!
One day I was doing my algebra sitting beside my most favorite show cow when she reached over and ATE half of my paper. I was devastated. How would I ever tell my teacher my COW ate my homework? He’d never believe it…I could hardly believe it. I had to start the whole assignment over again. As much as I wanted to not do the work again, I knew I had to, even though I miss out on the comradery of the show barn. After an hour or so of redoing all the equations and formulas, I finally finished and got to go back to mucking stalls (which I admit wasn’t my favorite, but we all had to do it). The second time around I learned more about that chapter of algebra than I did the first time. And I ended up with high marks for the year.
Fast forward to now, 2020. There are lots of unprecedented things happening around us; businesses closing, schools closing, sports and events cancelled. What we really need to keep in perspective is that it’s all temporary. Just like having to redo all the algebra. We have so much to be thankful for; and still have so many opportunities with bright futures. We just need to slow down a bit, take a deep breath, and remember we may all just come out a little better than before. Mr Rogers said find the helpers. There are so many helpers to get us all through the times of the unknown we just need to find them.
We are here to be your helpers! Later today we will be launching our On-the-Mark Support Initiative. In the coming weeks we will be increasing the on-line resources and focusing on continuing our high standard of responsiveness to customers questions. Our plan will feature more short videos demonstrating basic program functionality and features. We will have guest posts from nutritionists and industry experts. We have a new season of The Nutritionist webinar every 2nd Thursday of the month (these are a great chance to ask questions of those speakers you thought you would hear at the conferences that are now cancelled). We have hours of archived webinars. We have a special webinar by Daniel Scothorn, of Scothorn Nutrition in Nova Scotia, on March 31 on Ration formulation with Canola—more information here. If you have questions about AMTS.Farm or any AMTS product and would like to set up an educational remote support session, we’d love to help. Contact us at support or your distributor.