Uplevel Dairy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#22 - Coming Back to the Family Business - Reese Burnett Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

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.

Find them here: https://www.dairyspecialists.com/

Head to ⁠⁠⁠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 ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn

#21 - Choosing the right RNG partner for your dairy farm Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

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

jay@bridgeforthllp.com

785-275-2772

Susan LaCrosse

susan@lacrosselawoffice.com

920-495-8522

Dr. Bob Nagel

drbob@westwyndllc.com

920-464-0970

Head to ⁠⁠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 ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠LinkedIn

#20 - 9 Years Without a No-Call, No-Show Employee - Brett Barlass Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

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

Head to ⁠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 ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠LinkedIn

#18 - The Team Meeting Format That Drives Employee Performance - Christine Bender Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

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.

Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#16 - Success Factors: Switching from sand bedding to dry manure solids and bringing in a non-family business partner - Jeremy Natzke Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

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
BONUS: Want to see Jeremy’s stall leveler in action? Check out the bonus video on the Uplevel Dairy YouTube channel
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.
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#15 - How to Uplevel Your Dairy’s Human Resources Department - Michelle Shambeau Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

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.

If you are looking to Uplevel your banking relationship with a lender who understands dairy and farming, Nicolet is here for you. With their team of 15 bankers serving Wisconsin, Minnesota and Upper Michigan, Nicolet specializes in sitting down at the table with dairy, crop and livestock farmers to position their businesses for a legacy of success. Real people, real conversations. That's what you can expect from the Nicolet ag lending team. www.NicoletBank.com
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#14 - Bringing Bankrupt Dairies Back in the Black - Pauly Paul Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

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 Paul
www.CompleteManagementConsulting.com
Pauly@completemanagementconsulting.com
920-418-3135
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#12 - Straight Talk on Dairy Sustainability - Tara Vander Dussen Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

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
Hear more from Tara on the Discover Ag Podcast and follow @taravanderdussen and @discoverag_
Are you a manager who is stressed out by employee turnover and disengagement, but don’t have time to step out of the day-to-day to go to conferences? We are developing the Uplevel Dairy Employee Management Master Class for you. Head to UplevelDairy.com and join our Uplevel Dairy Community email list.
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#11 - Olympic-level Business, Management & Mindset - Elle Purrier-St. Pierre and Jamie St. Pierre Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

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!

Nedap Power Play: Going shoulder deep in repro protocols to get the most out of activity monitors featuring Tara Bohnert, 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.
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

#10 - How Rolinda Dairy Leverages Robotic Technology to be More Productive, Profitable and Efficient - Pat Reisinger, Sam Schwartz and John Gerbitz Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

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
Head to 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 Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

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