“Surround yourself with good people.”

A quick Google search will turn up dozens of quotes and plenty of advice about the importance of surrounding yourself with people who are positive and who will challenge and support you. Unlike a lot of other information you can find online, those pieces of advice are completely true.

In today’s dairy industry, we are fortunate to have a wealth of technologies and instruction available to help improve our operations and how we care for our animals, land and team members. We know we need to stay on the cutting edge of technology and farming practices – and we’re always looking for ways to be safer, better and more efficient. But it can be overwhelming to decide which is the right investment for a single farm.

My sister, Jenna Nonemacher, and I are the fifth generation on our family farm near Greenleaf, Wisconsin, which dates back to our ancestors who arrived from Germany in 1863. We now own and operate Wayside Dairy with our father, Dan Natzke, and Jesse Dvorachek, our first non-family partner, who joined in 2023.

There have been a number of changes in that time. Starting with the eight to 10 cows that were on the farm more than 150 years ago, we were milking about 400 cows in 2001 when a fire destroyed our milking parlor and freestall barn. Cows were moved to another farm while we decided our next steps and whether we would stay in the dairy industry. Once we decided to rebuild, within seven weeks we were milking cows in a barn that had been quickly renovated into a milking parlor.

After extensive research, visiting other farms and talking with advisers, we built a double-20 herringbone parlor in 2002, then added a maternity barn and remodeled the parlor to a double-28 parallel in 2012. We’ve continued to add a few more cows at a time over the years to get to our current 2,300-cow milking herd. We have 50 full-time employees at the dairy farm, along with manure and trucking businesses.

Our ultimate goal is to be good stewards of our land, cows and everything else on our farm. To do that, we rely on our employees as well as a team of advisers and consultants. We surround ourselves with people who will challenge us and share our goal of doing things better every day.

It starts with always looking for new opportunities to build our skills – and that often involves attending conferences and workshops or bringing in experts for on-site training for feeders, milkers, maternity pen and others. Attending Professional Dairy Producers’ Business Conference is a great way to hear from industry experts and researchers while also networking with peers.

Scheduling regular meetings with consultant teams and bringing them to our farm also pays dividends. On one visit, our nutritionist was watching our milking parlor and noted that if we had one more person working in the parlor, we could add another 150 to 200 cows. At first, that sounded counterintuitive. We wanted the parlor to operate efficiently with as few people as possible. But he pointed out that some cows were waiting in the parlor more than five minutes after milking. By adding another person, we were able to speed up post-dipping. Turns out that moving cows through the parlor and incorporating those efficiencies did allow us to add another 150 to 200 cows.

Advisers can also conduct external audits across the dairy, from feed mixers and total mixed rations (TMRs) to financial numbers and animal health. Comparing ourselves against best-in-class and comparable-size dairies gives us valuable perspective, and we can develop plans to continue improving. We also brought on a financial consultant in January to benchmark our numbers against comparable-size dairies to see where we’re at, not just in dairy performance but also in regard to owner equity and other measures.

We make sure our advisers are connecting with each other, meeting quarterly with our financial consultant and lender, and ensuring our veterinarian and nutritionist are on the same page. As partners, we get together every Monday afternoon to compare notes and make sure we’re all on the same page for a busy week ahead.

Our employees are a critical part of continuous improvement as well. We focus on explaining the why in management practices or any changes on the farm. When everyone understands the reason we are doing something, they can be part of the solution and are also more likely to come up with their own ideas to improve practices and protocols.

We also understand the value of gathering outside perspectives. One of the best ways for dairy producers to do that is by opening their farm to the public. In June, we hosted the Brown County June Dairy Month Breakfast, which was attended by about 6,500 people for a farm tour, food and lots of activities hosted by agricultural groups. It was an honor to showcase our dairy and was also a good reason to tackle all the maintenance and other projects that have been on the to-do list for a long time. We cleaned every nook and cranny, pressure-washed every surface, replaced a roof, put down new blacktop and more. The Brown County Promotion Board put in countless hours to plan the event and make sure volunteers were ready to go.

Most importantly, our dairy team members prepared in advance to answer questions and share information about our farm and the dairy industry. Today’s dairy industry is more sustainable, efficient and technology-driven than just a few years ago, and it is critical to share our stories with consumers and community members. Having open conversations and answering their questions can build trust in how we care for the land and animals. It also goes a long way to securing their faith in the quality and safety of the milk, cheese and other dairy products they purchase.

Jeremy Natzke is co-owner of Wayside Dairy in Greenleaf, Wisconsin. He attended UW – Madison Farm and Industry Short Course and is active in his community and the dairy industry, serving as a head elder at church and coaching basketball, softball and soccer at a local school. He served on the PDP board of directors from 2015-17. Jeremy and his wife, Heather, have three daughters.

This column is contributed by Professional Dairy Producers (PDP), the nation’s largest dairy producer-led organization of its kind. PDP focuses on producer professionalism, stakeholder engagement and unified outreach to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.