Uplevel Dairy Podcast

Today on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen interviews Greg Shoemaker, Cargill’s Commercial Director for North America Dairy Nutrition, about leading teams that support dairy producers through nutrition strategy, technology, and on-farm partnership across the US and Canada. Shoemaker shares how his path from rural Pennsylvania roots to a career as a US Army Ranger shaped his leadership approach today ensuring dairy farmers' success.
Greg details the power of building trust, clarity and acting as a multiplier by removing barriers. He discusses learning from mistakes, investing in culture during normal times to withstand hard times, maintaining composure under stress, and adopting an “infinite game” mindset focused on long-term success in dairy.

This episode is brought to you by Cargill Dairy Nutrition.

No two dairies are alike, Cargill Dairy doesn’t expect them to be. When your dairy faces challenges, you need a partner with an original approach. Cargill has their own world-class research labs, developed their own proprietary nutrition software, and fostered an original team approach… all to deliver profitability on YOUR terms. Partner with a nutrition company as original as you are: cargillanimalnutrition.com/original

• 02:31 Greg's Role at Cargill
• 03:40 What Army Rangers Do
• 05:08 From Military to Cargill
• 07:16 Life in Dairy Consulting
• 08:59 Mission and Values Leadership
• 12:38 Building Culture and Trust
• 15:49 Leading Under Pressure
• 19:18 No Decision Is a Decision
• 21:35 Infinite Game Mindset
• 25:10 Better Questions Better Leadership
• 26:20 Execute Iterate Lesson
• 27:51 Vision for the Team
• 29:11 Rallying Through Tough Times
• 33:49 Morning Routine and Journals
• 35:43 Nonnegotiables and Balance
• 37:11 Hardest Leadership Lesson
• 39:16 Purpose in Dairy Industry
• 40:50 Rapid Fire Leadership Round
• 47:18 Problem Solving and OODA Loop

At Central Plains Dairy Expo, Peggy Coffeen caught up with Ever.Ag risk advisor, Brandon Weigel, a Wisconsin farm-raised entrepreneur who started raising show pigs at 12 and later entered risk management through a 4-H club connection. Weigel explains his role managing grain sell-side risk, dairy feed buying risk, and beef-on-dairy price risk, contrasting grain cashflow-driven sales with year-round dairy feed purchasing. He discusses major industry shifts he has observed in his career thus far, including rapid growth in beef-on-dairy breeding and increased market volatility.

Ever.Ag partners with dairy producers to build customized risk management plans that help protect margins in any market environment. With dedicated advisors, industry leading technology, and proven tools like Dairy Revenue Protection, we help farms reduce uncertainty and secure long‑term financial strength.  Learn more at https://ever.ag/.

01:40 Farm Roots and Show Pigs

03:44 Entrepreneurship at 12

04:08 4-H Connection to Ever.Ag

04:53 Job Shadow to Career

07:10 Day to Day Risk Advisor

08:39 Lessons and Mentors

10:51 Grain vs. Feed Strategy

11:41 Market Shifts and Volatility

14:07 Emotion vs. Fundamentals

15:50 2026 Outlook Beef and Feed

18:20 Rapid Fire and Wrap Up

On this episode of the UpLevel Dairy Podcast, Pauly Paul with Complete Management Consulting is back today to explain what separates thriving dairies from those in crisis. He says the biggest gap comes down to management, especially leaders who delegate but also work alongside employees rather than staying behind a desk.

Pauly identifies three core differentiators: understanding financials and avoiding over-borrowing by reviewing budgets and financials monthly or quarterly; leading by example with consistent schedules, walkthroughs, and daily employee interaction; and getting “in the trenches” to understand tasks and improve efficiency, which can quickly turn farms from red to black when his team takes over management.

He adds that profitable farms face hard truths and capitalize on opportunities like improving reproduction, semen handling, shot compliance, and breeding for higher-value “black calves,” which he estimates can add significant annual income.

This Episode is Brought to you by Complete Management Consulting

About Complete Management Consulting

• www.CompleteManagementConsulting.com⁠⁠
• [email protected]⁠
• 920-418-3135

00:00 Why Some Dairies Win

00:49 Two Types of Calls

02:29 Management Makes the Gap

03:01 Hands On Leadership

04:26 Three Profit Drivers

06:06 Know Your Financials

09:05 Lead by Example Daily

10:45 Work in the Barn

12:18 Turning Farms Around Fast

14:15 Black Calf Profit Lever

17:46 Staying Ahead Long Term

In this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen is on-site at Brooks Farms with Zoey Brooks, nearly 10 years after Zoey returned to the family dairy, to discuss growing from 200 to about 700 cows and from four employees to a 15-person team. 
Zoey shares hard-won lessons about stepping into management, overcoming challenges, building a strong team culture and leading from within, while balancing roles as a young mother raising her children on the farm. She shares how her guiding motto - “Do it scared" - drives her to dig deep and dive in to make her dreams reality.
She also highlights a business segment and creative outlet with Black & White Aged Cheddar, the premium aged cheese brand she and her sister Syndney launched during COVID by partnering with Union Star Creamery, made exclusively from Brooks Farms' milk. 

This Episode is brought to you by Adisseo
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. Learn more at https://www.adisseo.com/en/

01:38 Back Home at Brooks Farms

03:30 Scaling Up Fast

04:09 Failure Is Normal

05:06 Milk Drop Mystery

07:24 Hunting Stray Voltage

09:36 Managing Through Chaos

11:53 Building Team Culture

13:47 From Cow Work to People

15:21 Three Hats on Farm

16:08 Dairy Mom Office Life

17:36 Raising Kids on Farm

18:56 Leading by Example

19:27 Balancing Farm and Family

19:52 Tech That Makes It Work

22:04 Remote Sorting in Winter

22:47 Launching a Farm Cheese Brand

27:52 Black and White Story

28:34 Cheddar Focus and First Taste

30:05 Advice for New Brands

32:37 Growing Distribution Beyond Wisconsin

34:45 Next Decade on the Farm

36:18 Do It Scared

Today on the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy is joined by Mike Opperman from the National Dairy Shrine headquarters in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, to announce the official 2026 National Dairy Shrine award announcements and explain the committee-based nomination process.

Make sure to tune in to hear who the winners in each category are! The winners will be recognized at the National Dairy Shrine Awards Banquet at World Dairy Expo, with tickets starting July 1, and honored in the Hall of Fame; Opperman also notes upcoming scholarship announcements, a May 13 webinar on internships, and the Sept. 28 banquet date.

Learn more and register for events at https://dairyshrine.org/.

00:49 Dairy Shrine Origins

02:14 How Awards Are Chosen

04:16 Emerging Leader Award

10:47 Pioneer Award Honorees

15:52 Distinguished Breeder Winner

18:31 Guest of Honor Spotlight

21:37 Banquet and Hall of Fame

24:43 Scholarships and Webinar News

Today's conversation on the Uplevel Dairy podcast was captured at the Central Plains Dairy Expo in Sioux Falls, where Peggy Coffeen interviews dairy risk management advisor and economist, Katie Burgess of Ever.Ag, about making dairy risk management simpler and more accessible. Burgess shares her Wisconsin dairy farm upbringing, ag business education, and path from UW Extension into Ever.Ag, emphasizing that effective risk management doesn’t require predicting markets or mastering jargon. 
She explains the main dairy insurance tools, Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) and LGM Dairy, highlighting DRP’s daily availability, quarterly coverage, and fit for Class III and IV and high-component milk, versus LGM’s Thursday-only availability, Class III focus, and single- or two-month coverage, with a coming USDA change expected to allow using both in the same quarter. They discuss today’s volatility, export dependence, strong global supply, opportunities in milk and cattle values, and the farm lesson “make hay when the sun shines.”

This episode is brought to you by Ever.Ag

Ever.Ag partners with dairy producers to build customized risk management plans that help protect margins in any market environment. With dedicated advisors, industry leading technology, and proven tools like Dairy Revenue Protection, we help farms reduce uncertainty and secure long‑term financial strength.  Learn more at https://ever.ag/.

00:00 Risk Made Simple

02:09 Farm Roots in Wisconsin

03:10 Learning Risk Tools

04:21 Path to Ever Ag

06:36 Keep It Simple Strategy

07:42 DRP vs LGM Explained

10:25 Market Outlook and Action

11:27 Make Hay While the Sun Shines

12:35 Seeing the Whole Chain

14:41 Future of Dairy

On this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen sits down with Dr. Cole Anderson of United Vet Services (Heritage Vet Partners) in Northeast Wisconsin to talk about his unconventional path into dairy veterinary medicine and the mentors who shaped it along the way.
From early hands-on experiences to building long-term client relationships, Dr. Anderson shares his philosophy that great service and strong relationships matter more than being the lowest-cost provider. He also opens up about balancing family life with a demanding career, learning through challenges, and his next goal: helping dairy clients improve performance through deeper use of DairyComp and data-driven insights.

Heritage Vet Partners is the nation’s leading veterinary partnership, specializing in mixed and large animal practices. Heritage Vet Partners provides a unique partnership model that preserves local practice legacies, serving dairy and other livestock producers and companion animal owners through shared services, data, and strategic growth. Learn more at HeritageVetPartners.com

01:50 An Unlikely Vet Path

03:16 Mentors Open Doors

04:39 Ron Herb Relationship

08:43 Learning in the Truck

13:09 Service First Mindset

16:42 Teaching Students to Grow

18:55 Hard Lessons and Balance

22:10 More Mentors and Core Values

23:07 Driven Dairy Clients

24:52 Future Vet Service

25:27 Fundamentals Over Fixes

27:44 Cow First Principle

31:04 Family And Mentors

35:43 Practice Lessons Learned

38:06 Next Generation Growth

On the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen visits Del Rio Dairy in Friona, Texas, and interviews owner Nathan Moroney about how technology and expansion are reshaping modern dairying. Moroney describes a major expansion from a 3,500-cow double-45 parallel parlor to a 90-stall rotary with automated prep and post robots, sort gates, and collars, delivering significant labor savings and higher milking throughput. 
He recounts being one of the first herds to experience what became known as "bird flu" before the issue was identified through coordinated efforts with extension. He explains the Saudi-style barn system, manure handling that evolved into a digester started in 2021, water constraints driving efficiency and potential forage shifts, and the potential opportunities for integrating more AI in milking and feed management. 
Moroney also discusses regional processing growth, his new DFA corporate board role, and the need for workable labor policy reform.

This Episode is Brought to you by the Milc Group

Milc Group is a dairy software company that brings real-time, actionable data to dairy farms across the world. They are dedicated to revolutionizing the dairy industry with their user-friendly cloud-based software. ONE™ by Milc Group is our all-in-one app that brings together all the important aspects of your dairy together in one place. With products such as feed and animal management software, people training, dairy facility monitoring, and scale management, Milc Group is committed to providing producers with tools they need to succeed.

02:13 Rotary Expansion Automation

04:52 Bird Flu Ground Zero

11:34 Saudi Barn Workflow

14:09 Digester Renewables Economics

15:23 Next Efficiency AI Upgrades

19:58 One Feed Program Spotlight

20:28 Mobile App Workflow

21:04 Water Risk Planning

22:01 Reusing Water Efficiently

23:01 Alternative Forages Ahead

23:41 Texas Dairy Processing Boom

24:37 Milk Hauling Distance

24:46 Joining the DFA Board

26:15 National Dairy Outlook

28:55 Marketing and Data Shifts

29:57 From City to Dairyman

32:19 Traits Built by Dairy

35:52 Labor Reform Needs

How are your finances looking for Q2? In this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen interviews Steve Schweoer of Compeer Financial on what financially strong dairy farms are doing in 2026 amid tight first-half cash flow, lower milk prices, and higher costs of capital. Steve notes many producers prepaid 2026 expenses in 2025, easing near-term pressure, and expects improved markets in the second half while emphasizing preparing during good times by building working capital and paying down lines of credit.

He advises maintaining a three-to-five-year capital replacement plan using “needs vs. wants,” evaluating land purchases case by case, and not letting taxes drive decisions. Key profitability levers include beef-on-dairy and managing net herd replacement cost, feed efficiency and ration cost, strong components and herd health, disciplined capital spending, and low employee turnover. He urges producers to know their cost of production, keep a consistent operating model, and bring lenders and advisors a long-term plan including risk management and family goals.

This episode is sponsored by Compeer Financial. Compeer Financial is a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative serving and supporting agriculture and rural America. Their dairy team brings world-class expertise and tailored solutions to support dairy producers’ financial goals and lending needs.
Visit https://www.compeer.com/specialists/dairy

01:17 Cash Flow Cycles Ahead

03:02 Needs vs Wants Capital

05:11 Land Buying Decisions

06:36 Cost of Capital Squeeze

08:17 Beef on Dairy Boost

11:07 Feed Efficiency Levers

12:48 What Profitable Looks Like

15:04 Tech Investments Timing

17:36 Lender Talks and Planning

19:34 Disciplines for Stability

21:50 Know Your Cost Production

23:16 Stick to Your Model

On the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen visits Cooper Legacy Dairy near Clovis, New Mexico, a 2,000-cow operation run by fifth-generation dairyman Jered Cooper that also raises replacements and farms about 2,500 acres. Cooper shares how his family’s dairy roots span Michigan, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, and why he now lives about 80–100 miles away in the Lubbock, Texas area while still managing the dairy through internet-connected tools and support from his son on site.He explains adopting Nedap smart tags and sort gates, which proved pivotal during a bird flu outbreak by enabling early health alerts, treatment monitoring, and improved herd outcomes, and now streamline daily workflows for health and reproduction via reports, mobile entry, and cloud syncing. Cooper also discusses passing the business to the sixth generation and writing a book inspired by his father about family, football, faith, and farming.This episode is part of the High-Performance Mindset Series powered by Nedap.Nedap is future-proofing dairy farming with smart technologies in activity monitoring, cow locating, milk metering, sort gates, and AI-powered camera systems. Nedap is improving life on the farm by putting the right cow in the right place at the right time, every time.01:24 Meet Jered and the Dairy02:06 Five Generation Roots02:42 How Clovis Happened05:29 Living 100 Miles Away08:03 Tech That Makes It Work08:40 Smart Tags and Bird Flu12:32 New Workflow and Sort Gates15:27 Health Score and Cow Insights16:54 Next Gen and AI Future18:25 Redefining the Modern Dairyman20:24 Why It's Called Legacy21:20 Milkman Love Note22:35 Michigan Dairy Traditions23:19 Depression Era Detour23:59 One Cow to 200024:30 Family Farms and Pride26:20 Next Gen Takes Over30:42 Raising Kids on Dairy32:19 Writing the Dairy Book39:43 Legacy and Advice