Speaking the same language

When Katie Dotterer saw a need for better communication between English speakers and Spanish speakers on dairy farms, she created AgvoKate. Through online instruction, Dotterer teaches Spanish specifically applicable to agriculture and dairy.

Dotterer’s classes are designed for anyone communicating with a Spanish speaker frequently on the dairy such as farm owners, managers, employees, veterinarians, nutritionists and hoof trimmers.

“You don’t have to be fluent, but if you at least try, it goes a long way,” Dotterer said. “The first point of contact on a farm now is not usually the farm owner; it’s a Hispanic. Veterinarians and other people coming to the farm want to be able to communicate.”

Having grown up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and later co-owning a 400-cow dairy in Maryland, Dotterer understands industry lingo.

“Because I have that boots-on-the-ground experience, I know what needs to be communicated — whether that’s in the fresh-pen, the calf barn or the milking parlor,” Dotterer said. “I write all the curriculum myself, and everything is tailored to the industry.”

Dotterer has taught Spanish in middle and high schools, served as an adjunct professor of agricultural Spanish, and has done study abroad experiences in Panama, Mexico, Cuba and Honduras.

“I have loved Spanish from a young age,” she said.

The niche vocabulary taught in Dotterer’s class sets it apart from other Spanish-speaking courses.

Her students learn how to say things like, “Bring the cows in.” (Trae las vacas.) “We are going to vaccinate on Tuesday.” (Vamos a vacunar el martes.) “Can you work this weekend?” (¿Puedes trabajar este fin de semana?)

From the first vocabulary list, Dotterer said students are learning how to say heifer, bull, gate, halter, milk and milk tank, and are putting simple sentences together by week three.

“I always tell my students when I give them a new vocabulary list each week to highlight the words they use,” Dotterer said. “You don’t have to memorize all of them. Maybe you’re the calf manager or in charge of the milking parlor, so focus on those first. As we get through the course, the homework has opportunities for them to write sentences that they use frequently.”

Cow anatomy is covered in the class as well, with students learning how to instruct someone to tube feed a calf, give pills or provide instructions on what to do after a cow has a C-section.

“I just added a brand-new calving vocabulary sheet, and students loved it,” Dotterer said.

Students also learn numbers from zero to one million, which Dotterer has them practice as ear tag numbers. She weaves in cultural aspects throughout her lessons as well.

At the end of the course, students walk away knowing how to translate a list of 20 sentences and key words that will be helpful to them on the dairy, Dotterer said. For example, “Today we are going to sort cows with bad feet,” is one of the sentences they are tested on.

Dotterer offers beginner and intermediate courses in a flexible format. Classes are conducted live through Zoom for nine weeks and offered in the fall and winter, two nights per week for an hour each night. Classes are held as late in the evening as possible to accommodate farmers’ schedules while still trying to tailor to all time zones.

If students cannot attend the live class, every lesson is recorded and posted for 24/7 access, so students can progress at their own pace.

Dotterer also teaches English as a second language to the Hispanic community. In addition, she offers Spanish courses for the poultry, swine and produce industries.

Through her online dairy classes, Dotterer has taught students from 47 states as well as Canada and the United Kingdom.

“My students have had some pretty great wins with Hispanic employees, learning right alongside them,” Dotterer said.

She said one of her students was sorting heifers with one of his Spanish-speaking employees and decided to try rattling off numbers of the heifers they needed in Spanish.

“He said, ‘Juan looked at me incredulously with a grin on his face and was so excited I was doing this in Spanish,’” Dotterer said. “(Juan), in turn, wanted to learn how to say numbers in English.’”

The student told Dotterer, that the time together sorting heifers completely changed he and his employee’s relationship. Now, Juan is more apt to ask him questions, joke around, and teach him things from his culture.

Another student who is a milk tester was at a large dairy she had been going to for years and decided to start the day by saying, “Buenos dias,” which means “Good morning.”

“They were so excited she said these two words and started talking to her in Spanish,” Dotterer said. “She told me, ‘That entire shift, I never had so much fun; it flew by. They were teaching me Spanish, and I was teaching them English.’”

Greetings are important, Dotterer said.

“Whether you’re an employee on a farm or you’re going to a farm, you want to first be able to say, ‘Hi, how are you. What is your name?’” she said. “If you do that with a Spanish speaker, their guard immediately drops. It makes an impact.”

Dotterer said miscommunication can lead to safety risks, productivity losses and high turnover. Conversely, the ability to effectively communicate with Spanish-speaking employees improves the workplace culture and even the profitability of the operation.

“How much does it cost you to have a down cow that you can’t communicate about?” she said. “How much is it costing you not being able to communicate about your somatic cell count and the need to change something in the milking parlor? There’s a cost to those things.”

As she works to solve communication barriers in the dairy industry, Dotterer said students of any age can learn a foreign language, especially since she breaks down the content in a way that is easy to understand.

“I teach this course the way I wish I would have been taught, breaking it down into bite- sized pieces,” she said. “The goal is not to be perfect; the goal is to be able to communicate better. If that means half of your sentence is in Spanish and half is in English, that’s totally fine. It’s better than nothing at all.”