This week, we bring you a 3-part series, as we celebrate the month of March: the month of women’s history, international women’s day, as well as National Agriculture Day. What better way to do this than in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy, with three very special guests from Pagel Family Businesses … three women who have risen to the challenge to be leaders … here at the dairy, in their community and far beyond. This family has overcome hardship, in particular, the tragic loss of ...
Mar 19, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 95
In this episode of the UpLevel Dairy Podcast, host Peggy Coffeen welcomes back guest Leland Kootstra, an accountant well-versed in the dairy farming business sector and founding partner of Frazer, LLP. The dialogue offers a trove of wisdom for generational dairy farmers, focusing on the skills needed to take over the helm and steer their family businesses to new horizons. Leland emphasizes the importance of meticulousness in business operations, where an in-depth understanding of costs, schedule...
Mar 14, 2024•9 min•Season 2Ep. 94
In this episode of the UpLevel Dairy podcast, host Peggy Coffeen interviews Leland Kootstra, an accountant with Frazer, LLP, about the importance of succession planning in multi-generational dairy businesses. Kootstra shares three critical questions he asks both the senior and incoming generations to help them define their goals, timelines, and long-term outlook. He emphasizes the need for open and ongoing communication to ensure a smooth transition and alignment of expectations. This episode pr...
Mar 12, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 93
Hans Nederend isn’t only committed to producing high-quality milk on his dairies. He’s also committed to living a high-quality life. Whether it’s leading his family or leading his team, hear how Hans keeps his faith at the center of his roles as both a dad and a dairyman. In his responses to the “Uplevel 5,” Hans talks about: The book that changed his life and his leadership The Calvin Coolidge quote on his business card Honoring God by living out your purpose Hear more from Hans in Part 1: http...
Mar 07, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 92
What does it take to maintain milk quality at a level of less than 75,000 SCC on 9,000 cows for 15 consecutive years? You might be surprised. We are catching up with Hans Nederend III from Nederend Dairies in Marsing, Idaho, who shared his secrets to milk quality success at the 2024 National Mastitis Council Annual Meeting. A past National Dairy Quality Award winner, Hans talks about: ✅ Consistency, persistency and his daily tracking spread sheet ✅ His performance-based pay system ✅ How he motiv...
Mar 05, 2024•51 min•Season 2Ep. 92
In this episode, Peggy sits down with a seventh-generation dairy family, Rob and Erica Diepersloot, from Madera, California, as they share their story of co-founding bovine colostrum company, WonderCow, including: The heartbreak they experienced as parents of a daughter with chronic ear infections, and how that led them to look in their own backyard to create a dairy-derived solution. How inconsistency and mislabeling in the market place led Rob and Erica to create their own trusted and transpar...
Feb 29, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 91
She manages 15 employees, 1,200 baby calves and 700 maternity cows … and she’s just 24 years old. Our Uplevel Dairy Young Leader today is Madison Busse, Calf and Maternity Manager for Minnesota-based United Dairies. The Ohio native didn’t grow up on a dairy but learned to love it, and while her path was originally to become a large animal veterinarian, an internship with a calf raiser prompted a change of heart and change of direction that led her to Alexandria, Minnesota, to a position where sh...
Feb 27, 2024•29 min•Season 2Ep. 90
Today’s big question: With heifer inventories at historic lows and global milk production trending lower in 2024, we seem to be poised for better milk prices compared to 2023, so what's your action plan to capitalize on this opportunity? If this question has you thinking, you’ve come to the right place, because Curtis Bosma is joining us for the HighGround Dairy Monthly Market Update. In this episode, hear more about: The supply update for heifer inventory & global milk production The demand...
Feb 22, 2024•19 min•Season 2Ep. 89
On this episode, Peggy sits down with Clint Al-Ag, president of the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (DCHA) Board of Directors, and manager with Blue Sky Farms. Clint gives a sneak-peak of what to expect at the upcoming DCHA Conference, as well as how the organization has helped him develop leadership skills as he has transitioned from heifer yard manager to now overseeing 150 employees across three sites in the Texas panhandle. Clint covers three key steps he has taken to set up middle manager...
Feb 20, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 88
And our featured Young Leader today is Emily Shaw Schaapmann, also known as the Dairy Girl Fitness, shares the career journey that led her to starting her own business. Describing her initial struggles finding her place in the dairy industry and experiencing career frustration, Emily discusses how she channeled her passions for health, fitness, and dairy promotion into establishing Dairy Girl Fitness. Five years later, this business has helped more than 500 women reach their health goals and inc...
Feb 15, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 87
What's been keeping you up at night? Is your mind turning about how to create alternative revenue streams, monetizing more than milk from your dairy or cash in on carbon? Or are you wishing there was a training available for your middle managers, one day where they could sharpen their communication and leadership skills? Well, guess what ... you can find it all and more in one place: The High Plains Dairy Conference. I’ll be emceeing this biennial event, and I’m inviting you to join me in Amaril...
Feb 14, 2024•16 min•Season 2Ep. 86
Any dairy producer will tell you, a good employee is worth every dollar. But every two weeks, when pay day comes around, do you ever wonder if you are getting the most out of your investment? What if it didn't have to cost you a penny more to maximize the efforts and outcomes of every hour you are paying that employee to be at your dairy? Our guest today spends a lot of his time improving training, safety and development of the dairy workforce. Dr. Robert Hagevoort, with New Mexico State Univers...
Feb 13, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 85
Peggy Coffeen sits down to chat with Dr. Mike Van Amburgh, Cornell University, at the Adisseo VIP Dairy Seminar about the benefits of precision dairy cattle nutrition going beyond methionine and lysine. He introduces the latest version of the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS), their nutrition model that offers the potential to formulate for all 10 essential amino acids. Find out: How the model, made user-friendly for dairy nutritionists, aims to increase productivity without as...
Feb 08, 2024•7 min•Season 2Ep. 84
A big question we ask ourselves as dairy producers and professionals is, how can we effectively communicate with consumers about the food we produce and our built-in sustainability stories? Who better to tap into this topic than Dr. Marissa Hake. I sat down with Dr. Hake at the Adisseo VIP Dairy Seminar to get her insights. Hear what she has to say about consumer purchasing decisions, dairy versus the alternatives, sustainability and building trust on this UPlevel Dairy Podcast. In this episode ...
Feb 07, 2024•11 min•Season 2Ep. 83
Peggy sits down with Dr. Chuck Schwab, a distinguished Professor Emeritus from New Hampshire University, at the Adisseo VIP Dairy Seminar, where he recapped highlights of his career and research on the important role of amino acids in dairy cattle nutrition. Find out: Why Schwab so fervently pursued amino acid research The impacts on the way dairy cattle rations are formulated today And why he believes his work is not yet done. This episode is sponsored by Adisseo, global leader in animal nutrit...
Feb 06, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 82
If you are passionate about sharing dairy’s story with consumers and want to know how to turn that into a career, keep listening to hear how Allison Ryan has done just that. As the marketing and communications director for MVP Dairy and McCarty Family Farms, she has brought the vision to life for an on-farm dairy learning center in Salina, Ohio, and will soon be cutting the ribbon on a second, interactive learning center near Rexford, Kansas. And she’s joining us today to talk about the opportun...
Feb 01, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 81
Is a $15 breakeven possible for a dairy farming business in 2024, given increases in input costs and inflation, and the current milk market conditions? If anyone would tell you “yes,” it would be Pauly Paul with Complete Management Consulting. Pauly has helped hundreds of farms reduce their expenses and increase their income, so that they can be profitable and sustainable businesses. I’ve asked Pauly, if he was running his own dairy farm, how would he do it? Find out on this episode: Which expen...
Jan 30, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 80
Today’s big question: What if you knew, with 100% certainty, that the milk price would plummet $5 per hundred weight in the next few months … what would you do? If this question has you thinking, you’ve come to the right place, because Curtis Bosma is joining us for the HighGround Dairy Monthly Market Update. Find out: Price Action Update The Big 3 factors are influencing your milk check right now Strategic actions you can take to protect your business Curtis Bosma is vice president of producer ...
Jan 25, 2024•13 min•Season 2Ep. 79
We’ve got an exciting new addition to the Uplevel Dairy Podcast … a monthly market update to empower you to make informed decisions for your dairy farming business, brought to you by HighGround Dairy. On this episode, we sit down to get to know Curtis Bosma, vice president of producer services for HighGround Dairy, to learn more about his mission to take the stress out of understanding markets and provide you with the tools to protect your dairy business’s profitability. Find out: How Curtis got...
Jan 23, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 78
And our featured Young Leader today is as dedicated to dairy as they come, Alex Gambonini. Raised on an organic California dairy farm, Alex not only grew up showing cattle and competing in dairy quiz bowl, but she also loved digging into numbers and economics. Today, her passions combined, she is the senior manager of advisory services for HighGround Dairy. Hear how Alex: Dives into the complexities of dairy economics and milk pricing Her very powerful and personal “why” for helping dairy farmer...
Jan 18, 2024•26 min•Season 2Ep. 77
Before you take on that second dairy site, there are four key areas to consider that can make or break the long-term viability and profitability of this decision. Curtis Gerrits, Senior Dairy Lending Specialist from Compeer Financial, is having these conversations on the regular, and he is going to walk us through these four critical areas and leave you with greater insights for your own decision-making on whether to purchase, lease, or pass up an opportunity to take on a satellite dairy site. T...
Jan 16, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 76
La presentadora invitada Elsie González Leach de Motiva Dairy Consulting se sienta con Juan Quezada de Milk Source para hablar sobre su trayectoria profesional, desde sus inicios como ordeñador hasta 25 años después, liderando a 650 personas como director de capacitación y desarrollo de la operación láctea. Descubra cómo comparte sus conocimientos para ayudar a otros a alcanzar su propio éxito y creer en lo que es posible para usted. Suscríbase a Motiva Dairy Consulting en YouTube para ver esta ...
Jan 11, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 75
We have some exciting things coming your way on the next episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast … an episode in Spanish is coming soon! But first, on today’s episode, Peggy sits down with Juan Quezada, director of training and development at Milk Source, to uncover his 5 principles of leadership. Then, on our next episode, you will get to hear the in-depth interview in Spanish, with Juan and Elsie Gonzalez Leach, from Motiva Dairy Consulting. You will want to hit “subscribe” on Elsie’s new Motiva ...
Jan 09, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 74
Welcome back, friends, for more in this special series we are dropping each day this week on Uplevel Dairy - catching up with our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023 12 months ago. In this last episode in this series, you get to hear from Katie DiGangi about her word “presence” and what that meant for her family and relationships, and I share about my word “truth” and the unexpected shifts it provoked. And find out what Katie and have chosen for our “one word” for 2024! In...
Jan 08, 2024•47 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Welcome back, friends, for more in this special series we are dropping each day this week on Uplevel Dairy - catching up with our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023 12 months ago, and finding out who stuck to their word, who has been transformed by it and who can’t wait to dig into their new word for 2024! And if you recall our conversation with Tera Baker from Nedap one year ago, you may recall that she was in the mode to “build” in 2023. As a young farmer along side her...
Jan 05, 2024•15 min•Season 2Ep. 72
We are kicking off 2024 with a series each day this week, revisiting our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023. We are finding out who stuck to their word, who has been transformed by it and who can’t wait to dig into their new word for 2024. I'm joined today by Jared Yousey from Sunnyside Farms in Scipio Center, New York. Let’s hear what Jared has picked for his word for 2024, and take some time to reflect on the two powerful words he combined last year, gratitude and oppor...
Jan 04, 2024•29 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Here on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, we are continuing to kick off 2024 with a series each day this week, revisiting our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023. And we are joined today by Jessica Pralle Trimner in Athens, Wis. What strides has Miltrim Farms taken to move “forward” in the past year? Find out the high-impact actions that have lead to some successes worth celebrating.
Jan 03, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Here on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, we are kicking off 2024 with a series each day this week, revisiting our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023. Get ready to get into the minds and the hearts of these dairy leaders whom I also call friends, to hear how their one word transformed 2023, and the word they have chosen to live by in 2024! And our guest today pushed her mindset to new levels - with big changes in her worklife, personal life and community service. How did Eliza R...
Jan 02, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Here on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, we are kicking off 2024 with a series each day this week, revisiting our guests from last year who shared their "one word" for 2023. Get ready to get into the minds and the hearts of these dairy leaders whom I also call friends, to hear how their one word transformed 2023, and the word they have chosen to live by in 2024! And speaking of top performers, I'm joined today by Travis Speirs from Shiloh Dairy in Brillion, Wis. Hear his reflection from the past year ...
Jan 01, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 68
One year ago, I sat down with six dairy leaders who all chose one word to live by for 2023. Some were dairy owners, others managers, and a couple of friends who work on the industry side too. What did they say one year ago, about their word and how they wanted to bring it to life in 2023? Who stuck with it? Who was transformed by it? Well, I’ve been catching up with these friends to find out, and you’ll get to all about it in our upcoming episodes next week, but first, I’m bringing back their or...
Dec 31, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 67
