Progressive Dairy Podcast

In this podcast, Progressive Dairy Editor Peggy Coffeen sits down with Kristy Pagel from GPS Dairy Consulting LLC to talk about one of the most powerful, yet simple, tools dairy teams can use to boost morale, empower people and take things to the next level in 2021.

Get to know Michigan Milk Producers through one of the organization's award-winning dairies. In this issue, Editor Walt Cooley talks with Tony Jandernoa and Brent Simon. Jandernoa is the District 6 representative for Michigan Milk. As a board member, he works with the show's second guest, Brent Simon. Earlier this year, Simon and his wife, Emily, were named Michigan Milk's young cooperators of the year. The Simons operate a farm with 930 cows and 2,300 acres. Brent is a graduate of the dairy...

In this episode, Editor Peggy Coffeen sits down with dairyman Lloyd Holterman to discuss all things genomics, from the early adoption of genetic technology to developing the cows in the Rosy-Lane Holsteins herd today. Holterman discusses how laser-focused, data-driven genetic selection has enabled him to create a more sustainable cow that that lives longer with fewer health incidents and greater feed efficiency. Learn about his strategy, and hear this dairyman’s thoughts on inbreeding,...

Our guest on today’s podcast is Pauly Paul, dairy management consultant and owner of Complete Management Consulting LLC., a hands-on dairy consulting company that specializes in assisting farms with improving their efficiency and income while decreasing operational expenses.

Aidan Connolly, president of AgriTech Capital, joins Editor Walt Cooley in this episode. This is an exclusive interview and a follow-up to the Global Dairy Tech Startup Spotlight which was held in the first part of October 2020. Connolly played a critical role in pulling the event together. Rewatch the event by going to www.dairystartupspotlight.com. Connolly talks more about dairy tech startups and their role in the industry in the next five years.

Editors and Progressive Dairy podcast co-hosts Walt Cooley and Peggy Coffeen treat this anniversary episode a bit differently. The Progressive Dairy podcast launched one year ago. In this episode, learn more about Walt and Peggy, the interview hosts you hear most often in our podcast episodes.

I’m here today at the Milk Source headquarters in Freedom, Wisconsin, with Jim Ostrom. Jim and his partners John Vosters and Todd Willer co-founded Milk Source in 1994, as the three men united their multi-generational farming heritages to grow what started out as a 30-cow dairy owned by John’s parents in 1965 to what is now multi-site, diversified farming operation. Milk Source operates dairies in Wisconsin, Michigan and Missouri, producing milk that is used to make cheese, butter and other...

Editor-in-chief Walt Cooley and Wisconsin dairyman Derek Orth discuss The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle and how the principles in the book could be applied to dairy farm and employee management. Derek has written before for Progressive Dairy about his voracious “reading,” or rather, listening to books. He says The Culture Code is one of those books he’s re-read or listened to several times.

Valene Lickley and Katharine Lotspeich are the co-hosts of the Millennial Ag podcast. Editor Walt Cooley interviews them as they approach their one-year anniversary of the launch of their podcast. The mantra of their podcast is that no topic is off-limits. This episode lives up to it.

In this episode, we hear from 22-year-old dairy farmer Anna Hinchley. Her desire to return to her family’s dairy in Cambridge, Wisconsin, after graduating prompted her parents to move forward with expanding the herd and upgrading to automated milking. Anna has involved in every step of the barn design process. Hear about the key features of her robot barn here.

In this episode, we talk with dairywoman Melissa Traiser. She is the owner-operator of THF Jerseys, a 45-cow dairy in Somerset, Wisconsin. We talk about how COVID-19 has affected her and her farm. She tells us about an act of kindness from her milk hauler that was specifically meaningful to her and her local dairy community. This episode's sponsor is Cargill Animal Nutrition. Cargill is helping dairy farmers say “thank you” to anyone who has shown them an act of kindness, big or small,...

This episode is with regular Progressive Dairy columnist Tim Moffett. Tim is a dairy-farmer comedian. You can find his humor in every issue of the magazine on the inside back cover. Tim has had some time on his hands due to COVID-19 and its prohibition on large gatherings. Thus, many of his scheduled performances have been canceled. He’s itching to get back on stage. During this episode, Tim talks about his upbringing on the farm and brought a few humorous clips from his live performances....

Canadian dairyman Ben Loewith milks 450 cows in Ontario, Canada. He’s about 2 two hours west of Buffalo, New York, or just a bit southwest of Toronto between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Loewith’s cows are 100-plus-pound producers. Average isn’t something he’s interested in; the highest achievable results are more fascinating to him. Loewith likes to learn about protocols and processes that produce high performance in dairy cows more so than specific cow pedigrees. He uses a “Good Book,” as...

Dairy Management Inc. CEO Tom Gallagher joins Editor Walt Cooley for a discussion about how the dairy check-off has navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. Gallagher talks about where dairy promotion may go in the future, as well as the changing landscape for fluid milk processing and promotion.

This episode’s guest is Dr. Tom Earleywine. He is the Milk Replacer Director of Nutritional Services at Land O'Lakes. He joins Progressive Dairy Editor Walt Cooley to talk about weaning and how it’s changed over the last several years.

Vir-Clar Farms near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin has elevated the accuracy of feed storage, mixing and delivery with an innovative feed center featuring an automated kitchen and on-site grain storage that saves them time and money. The 2,000-cow dairy is owned by Gary and Rose Boyke, along with their son J.R. Boyke and daughter and son-in-law, Katie and Grant Grinstead. We’re here at Vir-Clar today, sitting down in the feed center office with Grant. It was actually Grant’s experience in the pork...

When prepartum cows are fed a negative DCAD diet, inducing a mild compensated metabolic acidosis, calcium status is improved, resulting in healthier, more productive cows. Recently, some nutritionist have been feeding even lower-DCAD diets (more anions) to acidify cows more deeply than the majority of published research. At these higher, more extreme levels of acidification, cows may walk a fine line between being OK and being overwhelmed by uncompensated metabolic acidosis. Progressive...

Today’s episode provides summaries of three different articles we’ve published this past year on manure management. Listen in to find out how to improve nitrogen efficiency from farm to field, what can be done to get the most value from manure and which manure system will make a good addition to your farm.

Ray Bohacz of the Idle Chatter podcast and farmmachinerydigest.com joins Editor Walt Cooley to introduce himself to readers and share three tips for preventative maintenance that will help avoid machinery breakdowns. Bohacz has published more than 3,000 technical articles about machinery in his career. His columns recently began appearing regularly in Progressive Dairy magazine.

Hannah Vander Poel is a female dairy farmer using social media to advocate for the dairy industry. Under the Instagram name @IDdairygirl, she shares the joys and challenges of dairy farm life from Northern Sky Dairy in Castleford, Idaho. Vander Poel can be found elbow-deep in daily work on the 1,000-cow dairy, a sister-site to her home farm where her parents reside, Sky View Dairy, in Bakersfield, California. In between breeding cows and herd data entry, she balances taking classes toward...