Some say it's impossible to start a dairy farm from scratch these days, but 9 years ago, Michigan dairyman Paul Windemuller did it ... with just $20,000 in cash. Get ready to tap into the business mindset of this entrepreneurial dairy farmer today. You're going to hear about the business practices Paul brought back to the U.S. from New Zealand to start his dairy with 30 leased cows in an old turkey coop and a homemade milking parlor, and how he got to where he is 9 years later: with a 250-cow he...
Dec 26, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Our featured Uplevel Dairy Young Leader today is Michael Neves. He joins us from California, though he has a network in the dairy community that reaches around the world. The first few years of Michael’s career included working with startups in technology and animal health, before finding a great fit for his skillset as business development manager for Progressive Dairy Solutions. Hear about: How his entrepreneurial spirit almost led him to owning a McDonald's franchise at age 19 His passion for...
Dec 21, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Looking for a quick list of great business and leadership books, videos and podcasts? Uplevel Dairy Podcast owner and host Peggy Coffeen shares her “Top 5” business and leadership resources that she has been tapping into for the past 12 months. From millionaire entrepreneurs to church pastors, Peggy tells you how these resources apply to your dairy business, why they are worth your time and provides the links for quick access to reaching your own next level in business and leadership. Looking fo...
Dec 19, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 64
What if there was just one question you could ask in the interview process to identify your next best, long-term employee? What if asking that one question not only helped you to fill an open spot today, but opened the door for that right person to stay with you for a decade, and who is bought into your vision and motivated to help achieve your goals and benchmarks for your business? Elsie Gonzalez Leach, founder of Motiva Consulting works with some of the best dairies in the country to improve ...
Dec 14, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 63
If you are pulling your hair out because your milking parlor is constantly running behind schedule ... the 7-hour shift is stretching out to 9 hours, and the flow of feeding, cleaning stalls and everything else in the back of the barn is thrown off because you just can't seem to get all the groups milked on time? If that's you, you are not alone - this is one of the biggest frustrations on a lot of dairies, and it's costing you time and money. And did you know there may be another - even bigger ...
Dec 12, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 62
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 n...
Dec 07, 2023•14 min•Season 1Ep. 61
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, L...
Dec 05, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 60
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...
Nov 30, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 59
One of the big challenges that comes up for dairy farm owners and managers as they grow and scale is this: Should you invest more heavily in highly-skilled, really good cow people, or invest in technology to do the things a good cow person could do? What if there was a way to streamline your cow flow and work flow, that allowed those really good cow people to focus their time and attention only on the cows that really need it, and what if that could cut the number of cows in your hospital pen by...
Nov 28, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 58
What do gratitude and thanksgiving have to do with you and your drive to reach your next level of performance as a dairy producer or professional? Perhaps more than you think. Today I’m sharing how gratitude has become not just a habit for me, but a true performance hack. If you want to be more clear, calm and focused both at work and at home, you are going to learn 3 easy steps to get started. And Uplevel Dairy leaders - I’m so very grateful for you for coming along with me on the journey to up...
Nov 23, 2023•8 min
The Uplevel Dairy Podcast is expanding to include a second bi-weekly podcast, the Uplevel Dairy Young Leaders Podcast! This is for producers and professionals in the first 5 years of their dairy careers. You can find new episodes dropping every other Thursday on Uplevel Dairy, or follow the Uplevel Dairy Young Leaders Podcast on your favorite platform. We're kicking off this very first episode with Young Leader Kiley Pagel. Kiley is just wrapping up her degree in business management with an econ...
Nov 21, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 56
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 co...
Nov 16, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 55
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,...
Nov 15, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 54
If buying or leasing a turn-key dairy at another location is part of your business strategy, this episode is for you. The real question is this: How do you walk into an existing dairy and its culture, and recreate it to be what YOU need it to be, so that the new site and the new team are engaged and motivated to hit your benchmarks and goals? Schilling Farms was a high-performing herd, milking 600 cows in Darlington, Wis., when the opportunity came up two years ago to buy a 1,500-cow site, 40 mi...
Nov 07, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 53
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 ...
Nov 02, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 52
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 in...
Nov 02, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 51
You may already be doing annual employee reviews … but are you actually using them to drive employee engagement? And maybe you hold monthly employee meetings … but are they actually helping you to get buy-in and build team camaraderie to move toward your goals? Or are you just checking the boxes with more meetings that take up your time and space on your calendar? We’re revisiting highlights from Ep. 20 - one of the top episodes from season 1 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, where dairy manager Bre...
Oct 26, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 50
If you want to be successful and confident in the decisions you are making in the dairy business, there is one tool I want to share with you today that will help you move forward. It’s helped me in my business to gain more focus and clarity, it’s helped make decisions easier, it’s saved me time and money, and it can do that for you too. Join host, Peggy Coffeen, as she leads a panel discussion at the World Dairy Expo with Three NMPF Young Cooperator Members. What you’ll learn: How core values pl...
Oct 24, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 49
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 Fin...
Oct 19, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 48
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 ch...
Oct 17, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 47
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-forw...
Oct 10, 2023•17 min•Season 1Ep. 46
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 Rep...
Oct 03, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 45
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,...
Sep 26, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 44
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 ba...
Sep 12, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 42
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 W...
Sep 05, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 41
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 ...
Aug 29, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 40
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 co...
Aug 22, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 39
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. Download your FREE “How to Have Hard Conversations” take-home tool at UplevelDairy.com What you’ll learn: Why you owe it...
Aug 15, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 38
“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. 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 activ...
Aug 01, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 36
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 u...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 35
