Uplevel Dairy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#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

#08 - Give your employees C.R.A.P: the success formula for building employee loyalty - Jeff Kortes, Jared Dueppengiesser and Jessi Schoofs Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

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
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 take classes and courses? We are developing the Uplevel Dairy Employee Management Master Class for you. Head to UplevelDairy.com to join the waitlist.
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, LinkedIn

#07 - The one word that will change your life in 2023 Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

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
- How to choose your own “one word”
Recommended books:
- My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
- The Power of a Positive No by William Ury
- Unleashed: A Been-There, Rocked-That Guide to Radical Authenticity in Life and Business by Amber Swenor
- The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success by Ed Mylett
- The Circadian Code: Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Transform Your Health from Morning to Midnight by Satchin Panda PhD
- High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard

It’s time to unwrap your gifts Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

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/

#05 - From milker to manager: How to identify and empower high-potential - Daniel “Omar” Guerrero Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

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 listening
- From milking parlor to business partner: A real-life American dream
- How Omar is helping other dairies with employee struggles by matching them with animal science students from Mexico
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.
To learn more about Omar’s dairy employee placement program, he can be reached here: omar1277@msn.com; (920) 207-1301

#04 - The Mindset of a High-Performing Manager - Scott Blevins Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

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, armoranimalhealth.com. Use code “Armor Support.”
Coupon valid through Dec. 16th, 2022. One time use per customer.

#02 - The Two Words that Will Get Employees to Care Today - Tom Wall Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

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 best employee retention do differently
- Quiet quitting
- The two words that will transform your team
- How to take action today

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