Episode #25
Description: 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
This episode is sponsored by Bridgeforth LLP.
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Episode #24
Description: 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!
This episode is sponsored by Adisseo
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Episode #23
Description: 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. Learn more at https://lfbioenergy.com/
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Episode #22
Description: 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
This episode is sponsored by Dairy Specialists
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Episode #21
Description: 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
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
This episode is sponsored by Bridgeforth LLP
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Episode #20
Description: 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
This episode is sponsored by Nedap.
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Episode #18
Description: 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 Animal Health. Merck 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.
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Episode #17
Description: It’s the rise before the fall. How will you maintain access to capital and keep credit lines open before commodity prices drop later this year? Jay Joy with Bridgeforth, LLP tells us what his forward-thinking dairy clients are doing right now to prepare, including the five key numbers your banker really wants you to know.
What you’ll learn:
- What cash reserves will look like in late 2023
- The five actions financially savvy dairies are taking right now
- What the banker wants from you to keep your credit lines open
- The five key numbers your banker really cares about
This episode is sponsored by Bridgeforth, LLP
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Episode #16
Description: 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 replacements and more than 30 employees.
What you’ll learn:
- The biggest challenges of converting from sand to dried solids
- Finding the sweet spot for removing sand and introducing solids
- The game-changing tool for leveling stalls and getting cows to lay down
- Keeping milk quality in line
- Bringing in a non-family business partner
This episode is sponsored by Uplevel Dairy Podcast Founding Partner Adisseo.
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Episode #15
Description: 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.
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Episode #14
Description: 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
- What dairies should do right now to prepare for the rest of 2023
Contact Pauly:
https://completemanagementconsulting.com/
Pauly@completemanagementconsulting.com
920-418-3155
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Description: Talking about family farm transition planning can be tough. It’s hard to know where to even start. Jay Joy from Bridgeforth LLP breaks it down with the one question you can ask yourself and your family today to start the conversation about the transition of assets as well as management responsibilities for family businesses.
What you’ll learn:
- The difference between ownership transition vs. management succession
- The one question to start the conversation
- Key points to consider for business ownership transition
- Key points to consider for the transition of management responsibilities
Contact Jay:
www.Bridgeforthllp.com
jay@bridgeforthllp.com
785-275-2772
Episode #13
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Episode #12
Description: 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 should memorize on dairy sustainability
- How Tara and Daniel are building a sustainable dairy farming business structure
- Tara’s new role on the dairy checkoff board
- Real talk about the human side of sustainability as a wife, mom and business owner
This episode is sponsored by Uplevel Dairy Podcast Founding Partner Adisseo.
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Episode #11
Description: In this first episode of the High-Performance Mindset Series, powered by Nedap Livestock Management, we visit with U.S. Olympic runner Elle Purrier-St. Pierre and her husband Jamie St. Pierre. Hear 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!
Nedap Power Play: Going shoulder deep in repro protocols to get the most out of activity monitors featuring Tara Bohnert Yoder, Nedap Business Development Manager.
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.
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Description: 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 “wins” as a herd manager
- Profitability: How Pat is measuring his ROI
- How technology is Rolinda Dairy’s competitive edge
The episode is sponsored by DeLaval. DeLaval provides integrated solutions designed to improve dairy producers’ production, animal welfare and overall quality of life.
Follow DeLaval on social media: FB - @DeLavalUS Twitter - @DeLavalUS Instagram - @delaval_na YouTube - DeLavalfilms
Episode #10
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Description: Get some “free” executive coaching services from Jay Joy with Bridgeforth LLP as he walks us through the eight essential questions for developing and communicating a strong vision for 2023.
What you’ll learn:
- Why developing a vision is hard for farmers
- Establishing core values and core focus
- Setting a 10-year target and marketing strategy
- The 1-year and 3-year picture
- The “big rocks”
- Identifying issues
- Jay answers the Uplevel 5 Book recommendation: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
Contact Jay: http://www.Bridgeforthllp.com
jay@bridgeforthllp.com
785-275-2772
Episode #9
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Episode #8
Description: 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. And you are in for a treat because Jared is jumping on with us again, along with his colleague Jessi Schoofs, manager of Milk Source’s La Clare Family Creamery’s retail store, who is also applying Jeff’s concepts to her team.
What you’ll learn:
- What is C.R.A.P. and why does it work?
- How Jared uses these principles at Rosendale Dairy
- The C.R.A.P. coin and how Jessi uses it to empower her team
- C.R.A.P. in action
Jeff Kortes is an employee retention and recruitment expert and author of Give Your Employees C.R.A.P. and 7 Other Secrets of Employee Retention.
Contact Jeff Kortes:
https://jeffkortes.com/
414-421-9626
jeff@jeffkortes.com
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Episode #7
Description: 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 up level yourself.
Guests: Katie DiGangi, Zoetis/Darlington Ridge Dairy; Jared Yousey, Sunnyside Farms; Travis Speirs, Shiloh Dairy; Eliza Ruzic, Zinpro; Tera Baker, Nedap; Jessica Pralle-Trimner, Miltrim Farms
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
How to choose your own “one word”
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BONUS EPISODE!
Description: 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/
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Episode #6
Description: It’s the most wonderful time of the year – the Christmas season. But, if the thought of family gatherings over the holidays makes you a little less than cheerful, you are not alone. In fact, it’s actually a season of high anxiety for many families, especially those that work together and do businesses together.
If that’s you, you are in the right place. Our guest today is Jay Joy with Bridgeforth LLP, and by the end of this episode, you will have some take-home tips to survive the holidays as a business family.
Episode sponsor: Bridgeforth LLP
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Episode #5
Description: 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.
Episode sponsor: Adisseo
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Description: 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
This episode is sponsored by Armor Animal Health, your trusted vet, sales and laboratory partner, supplying you with core livestock products and solutions that will help you reach your farm goals.
Receive $25 off a $150 order through Armor’s online store. Use code “Armor Support.”
Coupon valid through Dec. 16th, 2022. One time use per customer.
Episode #4
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Description: Feed. Fuel. Fertilizer. You name it, the cost of the major inputs that keep your dairy operation running have doubled – including the cost of money itself. Jay Joy shares what the most forward-thinking dairy operations are doing right now to take control of their finances and their future heading into 2023.
What you’ll learn:
- What do you see going on right now in the dairy sector with interest rates and inflation
- Why has the cost of money doubled?
- What are the most profitable dairies doing right now to minimize their risk and position themselves for profitability?
- What are the action steps to recession-proofing your dairy farming business?
BONUS:
Jay’s Book Club: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
Contact Jay:
jay@bridgeforthllp.com
Episode #3
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Description: 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” and creator of PeopleCor, Tom Wall, is here to share with us the two simple words that have the power to transform your dairy’s team and a plan to take action TODAY.
Episode #2
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Description: 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.
Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Uplevel Dairy Podcast Founding Partner Adisseo, a global leader in nutritional solutions and premier provider of rumen-protected methionine for dairy producers who want to optimize milk production, capture more value from components and maintain the health of their high-performing herds.
Episode #1
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