In the modern dairy industry, the line between a farmer and a corporate executive has all but vanished. For top-performing producers like Greg Bethard of High Plains Ponderosa Dairy, Plains, Kan.; TJ Tuls of Tuls Dairy in Rising City, Neb.; and Hank Hafliger of Cedar Ridge Dairy in Filer, Idaho, success is no longer defined solely by the bulk tank. Instead, it is built on a foundation of sophisticated leadership, intentional culture and a relentless focus on specific business metrics.
Leadership Through Culture
For these three producers, the most critical input on the dairy isn’t feed or fuel — it’s people. In an era of labor volatility, they have shifted their focus from merely hiring hands to cultivating a professional culture.
Greg Bethard, who transitioned from a career in consulting to becoming a dairy producer later in life, views culture as the ultimate stabilizer.
“It’s about creating an environment where we treat people well and offer stability,” Bethard says. He notes for many employees, a consistent paycheck and a respectful workplace are more valuable than a high-stress environment with slightly higher pay.
TJ Tuls, a fourth-generation dairyman, takes this a step further by focusing on the power of moments. He emphasizes the first day, week and month of an employee’s tenure are critical. Tuls uses a two-person interview process to ensure every new hire fits the core values of the team.
“People want to be seen, heard and know that someone cares,” Tuls explains. This focus on retention directly impacts the bottom line. Lower turnover leads to better animal welfare and higher production.
KPIs: Beyond the Milk Check
While every dairy tracks production, these leaders have identified specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that serve as early warning systems for their businesses.
- Break-Even Milk Price: For Bethard, this is the ultimate metric. “From an overall business standpoint, we are just trying to lower our break-even. If we achieve that, nothing else matters much,” he notes.
- Static Variable Margin: Bethard also tracks a daily margin — income over feed cost minus variable costs — to ensure the barn is generating enough cash to cover fixed costs like depreciation and interest.
- Employee Turnover & Feed Efficiency: Tuls monitors these two metrics above all else. By tracking a 26-metric scorecard every week with site managers, he can identify a six-week trend and make adjustments before a small issue becomes a crisis.
- Collaborative Management: Hank Hafliger, who manages a multi-partner family operation in Idaho, credits their success to a unified management structure. By running three dairies as a single unit with specialized partners (nutrition, farming and banking), they eliminate the internal competition that often plagues family businesses.
The Cost of Tuition
Leadership also means owning mistakes. Each producer speaks of hard-knock lessons that shaped their current success. Tuls recalled a $600,000 repair bill on a separator building he had neglected to monitor closely as a young manager — a mistake his father famously called “tuition.” Bethard spoke of the “tail-kicking” he received during his first expansion in 2018. The takeaway for all three was the same: In dairy, education is never free, and the most valuable lessons usually come from the most expensive mistakes.
Ultimately, the CEO mindset demonstrated by Bethard, Tuls and Hafliger is more than a management style; it is a survival strategy for a volatile global market. By shifting the focus from the barn to the boardroom, these producers are proving the future of dairy belongs to those who prioritize cultural stability, rigorous data analysis and the humility to learn from costly tuition. As the industry moves forward, their success serves as a blueprint for the next generation of dairy executives — proving that while the cows provide the milk, it is the systems, the people and the leadership that truly sustain the operation.
