Uplevel Dairy Podcast

Empowering middle managers to be leaders, employee cell phone protocols and bringing team building to the dairies. That's what we are hitting up today on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast.

Bridget Schilling from Schilling Farms in Darlington and Montfort, Wisconsin, is back on with us today. On Ep 53, she talked about getting a new team on board while taking on a second dairy, and today, we are tapping into the tips and tools she brings to the table from her professional management role in nursing, to now handling human resources and employee relations for the operation that includes 2,100 cows and 30 employees. 

Whether you manage a single site or multiple locations, I think you will find some great takeaways for developing leaders, building teams and some creative ways to get it all done.

Our featured Uplevel Dairy Young Leader is Taylor Zeltwanger. He joins us from Morris, Minnesota, where he resides with his wife. This 2020 South Dakota State University graduate started working for his uncle’s company, NutraDrip, while in college, and 5 years later, has channeled his massive energy and passion into a career helping farmers capture the value of precision ag and sustainable farming practices. 

You will hear how Taylor is:

• Finding big opportunities by working for a young company, 

• Learning how to work with different personality types

• And living on purpose every day to bring sustainability, service and stewardship to farmers

The Uplevel Dairy Young Leaders Podcast is the special podcast series for producers and professionals in the first 5 years of their dairy careers. Find it on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, as well as its own platform, Uplevel Dairy Young Leaders on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Texas dairyman Nathan Moroney talked about using technology to make managing 8,000 cows at Del Rio Dairy easier and more efficient on Ep. 58, and today you are going to hear more from Nathan. His background story may surprise you. 

Find out how this city boy from Pheonix found his way to the Texas Panhandle, where he dove in head first to learn the ropes of dairy management, and how he puts to work his business and finance background and eye for operational efficiencies every single day to manage the operation that has grown to now include more than 13,000 head of cattle and more than 70 employees.

So how is this business manager and dairy manager  planning to protect his price point and minimize risk in 2024? That’s what you will hear on this podcast, part of the High-Performance Mindset Series, powered  by Nedap. Nedap is future-proofing dairy farms by revolutionizing cow-side care through technologies in activity monitoring, cow locating, milk metering and identification. 

Additional resources:

Breaking the stronghold of alcohol, finding time for friends and getting honest with yourself… we’re going there today in the second part of this conversation with Tommy Oesch from Swiss Lane Farms.
We’ve been talking with Tommy about his 5 “buckets” of priorities, and you heard about 3 of them in Ep. 54:

• Family - his role as a father and husband
• Faith - why his weekly men’s discipleship group is a non-negotiable
• Farming Business - how he and his partners have committed to the vision of 7,000 cows in 7 years

Today, we’re dipping into his two other buckets:

If you’ve got big goals and a big vision for your dairy and your business, you know that it takes incredible focus and hard work, but what you may also know is that if you get too focused on one thing – “one bucket” - all of that success can come at a cost … and the price you pay can be your family, your relationships … even your health.

So if finding a balance for your big goals and these “buckets” of family, faith, the farm, your health and your friendships, is something you want in your life, this one’s for you.

Tommy Oesch from Swiss Lane Farms in Michigan talked about the big vision he and his partners share for “7,000 Cows in 7 Years” on the #1 most downloaded episode of season 1 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast. And Tommy jumped back on with for this very real conversation that goes deep into his 5 “buckets” of priorities behind that vision:

• Family
• Faith
• The dairy
• Health
• Friendships

In fact, there is so much good stuff here, I’m breaking it out into two parts for you.

On this episode, we are going to hear about 3 of his 5 buckets:

• Being a husband, a dad, a dairyman and a disciple.

• How his roles and priorities are different than his own Dad’s generation

• And Tommy gets real about the insecurities that come with stepping up to be a leader

I’ve got a special gift for you, Uplevel Dairy leaders! It is 10 minutes of straight talk on leadership and culture, directly from one of the greatest minds in the dairy business, Jim Ostrom, CEO, President and founding partner of Milk Source. 

What has been his mindset over the past nearly 30 years, from starting with 3 partners and a few cows, to now running multiple high-performing dairies, business ventures and a highly professionalized team?

Grab a pen and paper, because these are the power quotes from Episode #34, one of our top episodes from Season 1 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast.

Get inside this CEO’s mind on:

• Leading ourselves and others
• Developing a team of executive thinkers
• Creating winning culture

This episode is sponsored by Adisseo, global leader in animal nutrition and premium provider of rumen protected methionine for dairy producers who want to capture the power of components and maintain the health of their high-performing herds.

Want to listen to the full episode?

34 | Entrepreneurship, Visionary Leadership and Dairy Cares of Wisconsin with Jim Ostrom, Milk Source

If you are a dairy producer who has been thinking about taking your milk all the way to the dairy case yourself, this episode is for you. Vertical integration is on the minds of many forward-thinking dairy farmers. And that's why today you are going to hear from a dairyman who is doing it on the Uplevel Dairy podcast.
I recently sat down with TJ Tuls, a fourth-generation dairyman and founder of DARI LLC, the company that has created the milk beverage MOO’V. 
Find out how becoming a dad is what inspired him to want to transform the milk-drinking experience for his son and his wife. It gave him the vision for creating lifelong milk consumers by bringing to the marketplace a new milk beverage to a dairy case near you.
Through a new model of providing exceptional service, consultation, products, and supplies. Stick around to the end of this episode to hear straight from Dr. David Gnad, CEO of Heritage Vet Partners. 
What you’ll learn:

• The story of MOO’V
• The hurdles that TJ overcame including finding a milk processor
• Product formulation and development
• How to get shelf space in the dairy case

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOOVREALMILK
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moovrealmilk/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moovrealmilk

Welcome to another "Best of Uplevel Dairy" feature! This week I sat down with Scott Blevins to dive into what it takes to have the mindset of a high-performing dairy manager.

Dairy manager Scott Blevins shares the habits, routines, and principles that build his resilience and endurance to stay on top of his game while managing 6,500 cows, 6,600 youngstock, and a team of people at Wiese Bros. Farms in Greenleaf, Wisconsin.
What you’ll learn:

• Staying physically, mentally and spiritually strong
• Finding balance in a non-stop business
• What Scott wishes he would have known 17 years ago when he started a career as a dairy manager
• Scott’s core principles that create the culture at Wiese Bros. Farms

Welcome to the Best of Uplevel Dairy Season 1! In this episode, I am chatting with Jared Dueppengiesser, herd manager of Milk Source's Rosendale Dairy, about his experience in building a top-notch employee culture that resulted in zero turnover!

Jared Dueppengiesser has worked his way up through the Milk Source organization, from a herdsman to now manager of Rosendale Dairy. He leads a team of 52 employees on one of Wisconsin’s largest dairies. In this podcast, Jared shares how he took on the challenge of upleveling the culture of this dairy to be a place where people want to work and want to stay … with nearly zero employee turnover for the past half year. And he’s done all this at just 26 years old.
What you’ll learn:
- Jared’s vision for the culture he wanted to create at Rosendale Dairy
- What he does every day to create that culture
- Who is the most important employee?
- The tools that empowered him to take action
- The results of culture on employee turnover
- Jared’s best advice to others managing both cows and people

Today, we are talking about a 1,500-cow dairy that was on the verge of selling out - but not on their own terms.

The farm had not made money in 3 years.

Their banker told them their loan was not going to be up for renewal, and suggested the auction block was their action plan.

And a good dairy farmer who was having a hard time hanging onto hope that things would ever get better - for his farm and for his life.

5 years ago, the future was not looking good for this dairy or dairyman.

But fast-forward to now: That same dairy farm is still in business - in fact, they are still with that same lender - and they have been making money … even when $13 milk hit last summer, they were confident in their viability.

So what took them from the brink of bankruptcy to being profitable, to being able to not just pay their bills - but prepay some bills?

A call with Pauly from Complete Management Consulting. Listen to the full episode for all of the details!

This Episode is Sponsored by Complete Management Consulting.

Contact

Pauly Paul

www.CompleteManagementConsulting.com

Pauly@completemanagementconsulting.com

920-418-3135

Head to http://www.UplevelDairy.com to read the blog and join the Uplevel Dairy email list to receive new podcasts, blogs, and offers from Uplevel Dairy in your inbox. To listen to more episodes, head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Don’t forget to rate and review!

Connect with Peggy: peggy@upleveldairy.com

Follow Uplevel Dairy on:

What's happening halfway around the world in the global marketplace that can impact your milk check in this final quarter of 2023?

​​On today's episode, you are going to get the cliff notes on the trends in the export market along with domestic supply and consumption. So you can be informed and empowered to make the best decisions for your dairy. And here to share that with us is Mary Keough Ledman, Global Dairy Strategist with Rabobank, which has recently released its Global Dairy Quarterly Report. Mary has been studying market trends and dairy economics for her entire career, and she has the ability to look at the global picture and break it down into the snapshots that matter to you most.​

What you'll learn:

• The top two countries Mary can't take her eyes off of in Q4
• The cow-loving country that could be the export market wildcard
• What Mary believes gives US dairy farmers a long-term competitive advantage
• The strategic move that could make your milk more marketable

Culture. It’s how your employees feel in the pit of their stomach on Sunday night about coming in to work for you on Monday morning. On a recent visit to Shiloh Dairy in Brillion, Wisconsin, the winning culture was clear: There was a party in the parlor. Milkers were smiling and striking a pose for pictures. The employees were happy to be there, and having fun. So I just had to sit down with the owner and manager of this dairy, our friend Travis Speirs, to find out how he was making this happen, all while growing from 2,400 to 2,900 cows, and transitioning in his own role from being with the cows every day, to spending more time in the business and operations management chair, as his father Gordon steps back from the day-to-day operations and decisions. Now Travis will be the first to say, culture at Shiloh Dairy is constantly evolving, and not every day is a party in the parlor, but there are a few high-impact actions that are leading to results like low turnover and a waiting list to work at Shiloh Dairy. This episode is part of The High-Performance Mindset Series is powered by Nedap. Nedap is future-proofing dairy farms by revolutionizing cow-side care through technologies in activity monitoring, cow locating, milk metering and identification. Listen for more episodes in this series throughout 2023.

What you’ll learn:

BONUS CONTENT!

Nedap Power Play: How to Up the Accuracy of Dairy Farm Identification and Data, with Nedap Technical Support Manager Ron Dehli

As we close in on the last three months of the year, how are you positioning yourself and your dairy business to finish strong? What do you need to do today to be happy with where you are at by the end of 2023? It may be go time in the fields, but it’s game time for your business. Jay Joy from Bridgeforth LLP walks us through how to win in the fourth quarter with 3 strategic plays to win in the last 90 days of 2023.

What you’ll learn:

• Finish strong

• Take inventory

• Be grateful

Contact Jay Joy: www.Bridgeforthllp.com jay@bridgeforthllp.com

From co-founding a company that feeds more than 1.1 million cows all over the world with Progressive Dairy Solutions, to feeding people and providing a value-added marketing opportunity for dairy farm families through Valley Milk, and now leading efforts to help dairy farmers be beneficiaries of the methane market, Matt Budine has had a hand in seeing the vision for what it will take to be successful, profitable and sustainable in the dairy business. He’s driven by that same purpose in giving back, as a co-founder of the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge, which has impacted more than 4,000 students in its 20+ year history.

So how has Matt multiplied his impact to reach more than one million cows and thousands of young dairy leaders? Hear his story of unselfish leadership and the steps he takes to scale success in the dairy business.

What you’ll learn:

• Scaling a business that feeds 1.1 million cows

• Valley Milk: “Nutrition consulting gone awry”

• Co-founding the Dairy Challenge

• Unselfish leadership and the future of work

CONNECT with MATT BUDINE: President & CEO, Progressive Dairy Solutions; Dairy Nutritionist mbudine@pdscows.com http://www.progressivedairysolutions.com/ https://valleymilkca.com/ https://www.dairychallenge.org/

Maybe it’s to get healthier. Maybe it’s to start a business. But you are stuck. You have not taken action on it because you “don’t have time” or you “don’t know where to start.” Well consider this the nudge you needed to start turning that little spark into a 5-alarm fire today.

Dairy farmer Katy Schultz, Tri-Fecta Farms, Fox Lake, Wisconsin, tells the story of being the girl who faked “sick” on mile day in gym class, to pushing herself to run 100 miles in July.

Elizabeth DeVries, owner, 4D Ag World/4D Ag Fashion, talks about immigrating from the Netherlands to the U.S. to start a business, living in a fifth wheel for a year and now living the real-life American dream.

What you’ll learn:

• How to set goals and achieve them

• Determine the goal or idea that ignites you

• Get clear on your burn

• Burn the ships

• Fuel your fire: adversity, achievements

• Fan your flame: surround yourself with the right people - in your tribe and on your team

• Control the burn: focus discipline, habits and systems

• Stoke the fire: Celebrate and practice gratitude

**GIVEAWAY!** 

Join the Uplevel Dairy Community during September 2023 for a chance to win a pair of FREE 4D Ag Fashion waterproof bib overalls! 

To join: https://www.upleveldairy.com/subscribe

This episode is sponsored by our friends at 4D Ag World and 4D Ag Fashion - JP and Elizabeth de Vries - A first-generation American company that provides the highest quality dairy barn technology, from barn rubber to headlocks and fans to fashion. Find it all at 4DAgWorld.com and 4DAgFashion.com, and visit at World Dairy Expo!

CONNECT with ELIZABETH: 

Elizabeth at (806) 557-8406

What does it take to not only grow a dairy farm from 1,800 cows to 4,200 cows, and not just scale the operation, but scale the leadership team? To help current team members rise to new roles, and to retain all of those leaders in the process? That’s what you will be hearing about today from Steve Abel, of Abel Dairy Farms in Wisconsin, and along with one of his closest advisors who has walked along side his through this transition, GPS Dairy Consultant, Robb Bender. This is a special episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, because it is also the debut of the brand new GPS Dairy Cast - which you can find and follow on Apple, Spotify and Youtube. Walk away with the steps this dairy producer has taken to grow and scale his leadership team.

What you’ll learn:

• Growing from 1,800 cows to 4,200 cows
• Getting the team on board
• Developing team members into team leaders

How can a dairy rely less on skilled labor? Is it possible to even eliminate some positions? And to do so while actually improving cow care and milk quality, and not to mention your stress level as an owner or manager? We are going to one of the most notoriously challenging labor markets in the country to find out how one California dairyman is doing just that. Our guest today is Brandon Mendonsa, from Tipton, California, talking about FM Jerseys, the site he owns and manages that milks 3,200 cows. When this dairy was built 5 years ago, one of Brandon’s priorities was to set up a system that would allow him to milk more cows with less skilled labor.

What you’ll learn:

• The tasks that technology now takes care of that, in the past, required a person

• Trusting computers to call the shots on cow care

• How his role as a manager has changed for the better

Episode Sponsor: Afimilk is a global dairy technology company that designs herd management software and products that allow thousands of cows to be managed on an individual level. Afimilk can tell you what’s happening with your cows and your milk, alerts you if there’s a problem, and pinpoints the problem so it can be managed quicker and easier.

BONUS CONTENT!

Listen to the end for a few words from Afimilk herd management specialist Amit Golan about working with Brandon and other dairies to save on labor and empower cow management.

Learn more about Afimilk:

Have you been avoiding a conversation you know you need to have with an underperforming team member? Is their attitude impacting the rest of the team, yet you keep putting it off, hoping it will get better on its own? Kristy Pagel from Leading Edge Consulting LLC provides you with a take-home tool to tackle a tough conversation with confidence and a clear path to move forward.

Jay Joy from Bridgeforth LLP opens up about being part of a dairy partnership that failed. But more importantly, how that became the defining moment that positioned him to serve others in his role as a family business advisor and financial consultant. He shares five takeaways for how he cultivated mental toughness in the most trying of times and how you can do it too.

What you’ll learn:

• Embracing the “suck”

• Eating the cookies

• Process over results

• The 4 C’s: commitment, courage, capability and confidence

• Taking action

Contact Jay Joy:

www.Bridgeforthllp.com

jay@bridgeforthllp.com

“How good can we get?” If you are a high-performer who asks yourself that same question every single day, you will want to hear what Megan Schrupp, DVM, at NexGen Dairy in Eden Valley, Minnesota,  has to say about pushing the potential for cows, culture and herself, and how technology is getting them all there faster. 

Four years ago, dairy farmer Tom Oesch and his partners at Swiss Lane Farms in Michigan defined their vision: To grow to 7,000 cows in seven years. Find out how they are putting that vision into action, transitioning the business from one generation to the next and growing leaders within their team. And walk away with a renewed motivation from Tom to live life to its fullest NOW. What you’ll learn:

• The decision to double down on dairying and expand to multiple sites
• Determining core values and using them to make decisions 
• Transitioning the business from third to fourth generation
• Living his golden years now
• Growing leaders from within

This episode is sponsored in partnership by global dairy technology company AfiMilk and Michigan Dairy Tech and Western Dairy Tech, an Afimilk dealer. Michigan Dairy Tech and Western Dairy Tech helps dairy producers manage thousands of cows on an individual level with Afimilk technology, while also serving the needs of integrated automation, systems networking, dairy management camera systems and artificial intelligence.

BONUS CONTENT! 

Hear straight from Michigan Dairy Tech/Western Dairy Tech owner and founder Kyle O’Brien, along with Hilary Triick from their AI startup, Agricair, on solving labor problems with technology and automation.

Learn more about Afimilk:

https://www.afimilk.com/

Learn more about Michigan Dairy Tech/Western Dairy Tech:

Peggy Coffeen joins Jim Ostrom from Milk Source in his gardens for an exclusive interview with one of the most incredible visionary leaders in dairy farming, talking about business, leadership, culture and the cause so near to his heart, Dairy Cares of Wisconsin. What you’ll learn:

• The trip to Tulare that inspired it all

• Defining winning, leadership and executive thinking

• Company culture and the “Milk Source Way”

• Dairy Cares of Wisconsin - an opportunity for dairy to give back today by supporting Children’s Wisconsin

To give to Dairy Cares as a sponsor or donor:

When milk prices are painful, the best strategy for dairy farmers is to stay in position. Jay Joy from Bridgeforth LLP sits down with host Peggy Coffeen to talk about how to stop the bleeding and minimize the pain in a milk price valley. What you’ll learn:

• The numbers to watch right now
• The bright spots: beef price, land values, manure digester money
• What it will take for milk prices to get back to breakeven
• What profitable dairies are doing right now

Contact Jay Joy:

www.Bridgeforthllp.com

jay@bridgeforthllp.com

This episode is for the dairy farmer or dairy professional who owns a business or is just wired to work as if they owned their business. If you ever find yourself stressed out, overcommitted and lacking the freedom in life they truly desire, this is for you. I’ve invited my personal business coach Amy Throndsen to ask you five high-impact questions to define your own version of freedom.

What you’ll learn:

• Clarify your priorities with this one question

• Freedom for spending your time and money

• Freedom to grow 

• Create time freedom with pre-game meetings

• Start or end every single day with this practice

For the past 6 months, you’ve been listening to conversations with incredible dairy farm owners and managers who are finding ways to lower their turnover, empower their people and achieve their goals, and in this episode of the High-Performance Mindset Series powered by Nedap, you are going to walk away with the five habits high-performing dairy farm managers have in common.

What you’ll learn:

• Winning with communication

• Why appreciation matters

• How great managers build trust

• Cultivating culture

• How they show up each day

Featured guests:

• Scott Blevins, Wiese Bros Farms
• Omar Guerrero, Drake Dairy
• Jared Dueppengiesser, Rosendale Dairy
• Jared Yousey, Sunnyside Farms
• Sonya Koke, Blue Jay Dairy and Blue Bonnet Dairy
• Christine Bender, McFarlandale Dairy
• Brett Barlass, California Dairy Farms
• Michelle Shambeau, Ebert Enterprises
• Sandy Larson, Larson Acres
• Reese Burnett, Burnett Dairy Farm
• Jessica Pralle-Trimner, Miltrim Farms
• Jamie and Ellie St. Pierre, Pleasant Valley Farms

Bonus: Hear from Tera Baker at Nedap about the #FarmProof campaign and contest

Are you running your dairy farm, or is your dairy farm running you? Dairy farmer and mother of 6, Sonya Koke from Blue Jay Dairy and Blue Bonnet Dairy in Dublin, Texas, talks about doing the work to define their mission and develop great managers in order to find more time, more freedom and more enjoyment in dairy farming.

What you’ll learn:

• Defining their mission

• Empowering good employees to move into management positions

• Coaching and meeting with managers

• The best parenting advice you will ever hear

This episode is sponsored by our friends at 4D Ag World and 4D Ag Fashion - JP and Elizabeth de Vries - A first-generation American company that provides the highest quality dairy barn technology, from barn rubber to headlocks and fans to fashion. Find it all at 4DAgWorld.com and 4DAgFashion.com

Shop 4D:

Kansas farmers and cattle producers Troy Nelson and Kayla Burr of TDN Farms join us with their family business advisor, Jay Joy from Bridgeforth LLP, to talk about the most critical conversations and continued efforts to get on the same page and stay there, so they can move forward as a family farming business and have fun doing it.

What you’ll learn:

• What led them to seek outside help 

• Aligning individual and business goals

• Digging up the past and difficult conversations

• Diffusing the drama

• Moving forward with weekly, monthly and semi-annual meetings

Contact Jay Joy:

www.Bridgeforthllp.com

jay@bridgeforthllp.com

Providing housing options for employees at Larson Acres has taken the turnover rate from an already low 7% all the way down to less than 1 percent. General manager Sandy Larson shares what she has learned about finding and managing housing for nearly half of the dairy’s 75 employees … and how that has led to a line out the front door of the dairy with a waiting list of people who want to work there. What you’ll learn:

• How providing housing has improved culture and employee retention

• What the farm provides vs. what employees provide

• Finding options in a tight rural housing market

If you are thinking about adding technology to your dairy, you know you will get straight talk from TDF Honest Farming’s Derrick Josi, from Wilsonview Dairy in Tillamook, Oregon. This dairy farmer is more than doubling the herd from 500 to 1,100 Jersey cows. Hear about the new facility with a 50-stall rotary parlor, and find out how Derrick and his team are taking the data from their activity monitoring system to get more cows bred and catch sick cows sooner in this episode of the Nedap High-Performance Mindset Series. What you’ll learn:

• The biggest challenge he’s faced
• Managing people, cows and data
• From visual heat detection to breeding off of activity monitors
• Learning to trust the system

Borrowing money to pay the bills? This dairy farm was in the red before Pauly Paul and his team came into the picture. Six years later, they’ve got money in the bank and the financial stress is gone. Hear how Pauly increased income and milking frequency from 2x to 4x without additional labor costs, and the areas where he reduced expenses without compromising cow health. What you’ll learn:

• From 2x to 4x milking, without additional labor costs

• Getting employees to buy-in to changes

• Cutting costs in the feed center

• Healthier cows, lower somatic cell count and 20 more pounds of milk

Contact:

Pauly Paul

Having trouble grabbing a gear and getting ahead in your family business? The problem may not be inefficiency, but rather, misalignment. In this episode, Jay shares a real-life example of a farming family that went from fighting with each other and losing money, to now posting some of the best years in their business, while finding enjoyment in doing it together. What you’ll learn:

• What happens when your family or team is out of alignment

• An example of a family farm that went from barely talking and below breakeven, to making money and laughing together again.

• The reason so many family businesses struggle

• Three steps to effective communication in a family business

BONUS:

Jay’s Book Club: The Twin Thieves: How Great Leaders Build Great Teams by Steve Jones and Lucas Jadin

Contact Jay Joy:

www.Bridgeforthllp.com

jay@bridgeforthllp.com

You may know Annaliese Wagner as the Modern Day Farm Chick on Instagram, and perhaps you also know dairy consultant Liz Griffith, the OG ag-vocate who was telling dairy’s story long before social media existed. But what you may not know about this mother and daughter is that they each have a new story to share, and you will hear about it first right here. With Mother’s Day around the corner, what better time for some friendly banter about motherhood, picking yourself up by your bootstraps and discovering your own story to tell.

What you’ll learn:

• Motherhood, dairy farming and telling dairy’s story

• The unexpected detour that changed the course of both their lives 

• Turning a test into a testimony

• The Uplevel 5, with a Mother’s Day twist!

Follow Annaliese Wegner:

We are talking about biogas, from start to start up, and hearing the story of a farmers-first bioenergy company and the steps in the process for turning manure into renewable natural gas, straight from the co-founder and CEO himself, Brent Lilienthal from LF Bioenergy.

What you’ll learn:

• The detailed process of finding solutions for dairy farms

• Making sand bedding work with a digester

• Why the long-term vision for your dairy farm and family matters

• When the dairy farmer can expect to get paid for their credits

• What a conversation with a farmer-first RNG developer and operator should include

This episode is sponsored by LF Bioenergy, is a “farmers first” RNG developer and operator.

Two-thirds of the 9,000 dairy cows in Wyoming are milked on a 110-stall rotary at Burnett Dairy, located about an hour from Greeley, Colorado. Owned by the Burnett family, this dairy has scaled and added new technologies to gain a competitive edge, and that adds to the excitement for a young dairyman like Reese Burnett. Today, we’ll hear from Reese about what brought him back here and how he views the future of Burnett Dairy.

What you’ll learn:

• The challenges and opportunities of dairying in Wyoming
• Why he chose to come back to the dairy
• What makes Reese excited for the future
• The challenges he sees ahead

The episode is sponsored by Dairy Specialists.

Dairy Specialists is one of the leading and most innovative commercial dairy service and equipment dealerships in the country supplying commercial dairy farms with innovative parlor designs, new construction, remodels, robotic milkers, dairy waste management and 24/7 support and technical services. Their mission is to be the trusted and dependable advisors that dairy producers can count on to help bring their operational goals and visions to life.

If one of the most critical decisions on your mind right now is whether to sign onto an RNG project or take your carbon credits to the grave for your dairy, tune into this power panel with three experts to walk you through the legal, operational and financial considerations for choosing the best RNG partner for your dairy farm’s management, business and future.

What you’ll learn:

• What to ask before signing an RNG contract - Attorney Susan LaCrosse 

• Avoiding a digester disaster - Dairy Digester Consultant Dr. Bob Nagel

• Financial considerations for RNG and your dairy farm business - Jay Joy

Contact Jay:

www.Bridgeforthllp.com

As a dairy manager for 15 years at Yosemite Jerseys in Hilmar, California, Brett Barlass found ways to engage and motivate a team of employees to want to show up - in fact, he went 9 years without a no-call, no-show employee. And since the acquisition of Yosemite Jerseys by California Dairy Farms, Larry & Jenifer Matos & John Melo, in January, 2022, Brett has been charged with a new task: replicating that same culture and results from Yosemite across 6 dairy sites with 19,000 cows and 200 employees. Find out how he is doing it.

What you’ll learn:

• Feedback and annual reviews that boost employee buy in
• 5 a.m. team meetings with ice breakers and electronic dance music
• The 9 things employees need from a manager
• Getting employees to care

If you manage a dairy operation, you know how frustrating it can be to manage and motivate a team. But what if there was one powerful action you could take to create a culture that engages employees, so that they not only want to stick around in this tough labor market, but actually want to be a part of achieving your goals? Christine Bender, manager and partner in McFarlandale Dairy in Watertown, Wis., tells us about the meeting format that has upleveled her team’s performance.
What you’ll learn:
- The meeting format that works

- Classroom style + hands-on training

- How to keep communication open in between meetings

- Creating a culture of high performance

BONUS: Jeannie Bishop, territory manager for Merck Animal Health, talks about technology and teamwork at McFarlandale Dairy. The episode is sponsored by Merck.

Merck Animal Health is a leading animal health company dedicated to shaping the future of livestock management with a comprehensive cattle product portfolio combined with the innovative technologies of Allflex Livestock Intelligence.

How can a dairy operation uplevel their human resources department to go beyond payroll and compliance? Michelle Shambeau, human resources manager at Ebert Enterprises in Algoma, Wis., talks about culture, onboarding, implementing employee reviews and the foundational steps she took to formalize an HR department that serves 160 employees across the Ebert’s dairy and other diversified meat and food businesses.

What you’ll learn:

- 3 critical steps to formalizing HR functions
- How to get employee buy-in to change
- Onboarding, reviews and training
- What Michelle learned from spending 2 months in Guatemala

This episode is sponsored by Nicolet National Bank.

No feed. No money. And most would say, no hope. But Pauly Paul always finds a way to flip a dairy farm from foreclosure to a positive cash flow. In this episode, he shares his boots-on-the-ground approach to farm management and operational efficiency, and Pauly leaves you with three tips for increasing cash flow and reducing expenses on any dairy operation.

What you’ll learn:

- How he flipped a dairy in receivership into a profitable, saleable turn-key operation in 12 months

- The first areas to look to increase cash flow and reduce expenses

In this first episode of the High-Performance Mindset Series, powered by Nedap, we visit with U.S. Olympic runner Elle Purrier-St. Pierre and her husband Jamie St. Pierre. Here how this young, high-performing couple is working together to live out their dairy farming dreams with a winning mindset for managing cows, 90 employees and maple sugaring on Vermont’s largest dairy, Pleasant Valley Farms.

What you’ll learn:

- Elle’s dairy farm roots
- Pleasant Valley Farms and the St. Pierre Family: cows, maple syrup sugaring and methane
- Managing 90 employees across multiple generations
- Recruiting and retaining employees in a tight labor market
- How Elle applies the same principles of being a competitive athlete to taking care of cows
- Best business decision they’ve made in the past 12 months
- Carbon credits and coop limits

BONUS CONTENT!