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 supportin...
Jul 18, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 34
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 Fre...
Jul 04, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 32
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 ...
Jun 27, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 31
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 eve...
Jun 20, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 30
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 Movi...
Jun 13, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 29
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 far...
Jun 06, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 28
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-Per...
May 23, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 27
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 i...
May 16, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 26
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 di...
May 02, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 24
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...
Apr 25, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 23
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 Wyo...
Apr 18, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 22
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 Co...
Apr 11, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 21
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 20...
Apr 04, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 20
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 lear...
Mar 21, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 18
If you are looking for ways to better manage dried manure solids for bedding, or what it could look like to bring a non-family partner into your dairy farming business, you are in the right place, because our guest today is successfully doing both. We sit down with Jeremy Natzke, a fifth-generation dairyman and partner in Wayside Dairy near Greenleaf, Wis., to talk about the switch from sand to dried solids and the new business partnership for this dairy that includes 2,100 cows, 1,600 replaceme...
Mar 07, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 16
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...
Feb 28, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 15
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...
Feb 21, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Tara Vander Dussen is one of dairy’s strongest voices for environmental sustainability, but in today’s episode, we go bigger and broader to talk about the financial and social side, as well as it means to her as an entrepreneur, mother to two young girls and partner with her husband Daniel in his family’s dairy farm. What you’ll learn: - Why we should be watching what’s happening to dairy farmers in The Netherlands - Tara’s definition of sustainability - The one key message every dairy farmer sh...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 12
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...
Jan 31, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 11
How is robotic milking technology serving as a true business accelerator for Rolinda Dairy in Waterville, Iowa? Find out how this 900-cow dairy is capturing productivity, efficiency and profitability with automated milking as part of their business model. Hear from dairy owner Pat Reisinger and dairy manager Sam Schwartz and their DeLaval advisor, John Gerbitz. What you’ll learn: - Efficiency: Doubling pounds of milk per employee - Getting two-year-olds up to speed faster - Productivity: Sam’s “...
Jan 24, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 10
If you listened to Episode 1 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, you may recall our guest, Jared Dueppengiesser, the impressive young manager at Milk Source’s Rosendale Dairy who talked about lowering employee turnover. One of the tools he credited with this was a book called Give Your Employees C.R.A.P.: The Success Formula for Building Employee Loyalty , by author and employee retention expert Jeff Kortes. On this episode, Jeff joins us to talk about the success formula for building employee loyalty...
Jan 03, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 8
What if you could sum up your goals and dreams of who you want to be and what you want to accomplish in 2023 in just one word? Hear from a mix of dairy owners, managers and allied industry as host Peggy Coffeen sits down with six inspiring friends to share their “one word” for the coming year and be inspired to choose your own word to uplevel yourself. What you’ll learn: - Each guest’s “one word - What they envision that word looking like one year from now - The game plans for making it happen -...
Dec 27, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 7
A faith-filled message from Uplevel Dairy Podcast host and founder Peggy Coffeen on three very special gifts you get to unwrap during this Christmas season. Discover your own unique spiritual gifts and how to use them here: https://therealyou.org/
Dec 20, 2022•8 min
Daniel “Omar” Guerrero knows his next top manager may be milking cows in the parlor right now. After all, that’s where he got his start. Now, 25 years later, Omar is an owner in Drake Dairy in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Find out how the 3,000-cow dairy is hitting its best numbers yet and why his phone rarely rings with employee troubles. What you’ll learn: - Why Omar’s phone doesn’t ring at shift change - The top skills he looks for in high-potential employees - Empowering people by trusting and l...
Dec 06, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 5
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 th...
Nov 29, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 4
What if there was something simple you could do today that would build loyalty, get your employees to care about their work and make them want to stay actively engaged on your team for the long haul? There is. And it comes down to two simple words. The “Dairy Coach,” Tom Wall is here to share with us today the two simple words that have the power to transform your dairy’s team and a plan to take action TODAY. What you’ll learn: - What’s the cost of employee disengagement? - What dairies with the...
Nov 10, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 2
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...
Nov 03, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 1
What does it take to be a successful, profitable and competitive dairy farm business? This is the podcast for dairy owners, managers and advisors who are after their next level of success. Join Uplevel Dairy host Peggy Coffeen each week as she sits down with the industry’s leading dairy producers and thought leaders for real conversations about management, culture, leadership, family business, finance and human resources. Visit us at http://upleveldairy.com
Oct 13, 2022•3 min
