Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting

12/11/2023

New article: Feeding efficiently to feed economically by Evan Barton and Sarah Stocks on .com.
Ag Proud - Idaho Progressive Dairy

While genetics and management components can also factor into improving feed efficiency, there are numerous nutrition and diet strategies that can be readily incorporated into your feed program to make dramatic changes in feed efficiency.

03/10/2022

Flavio Bitencourt joined the Barton Kiefer team in April 2020. A veterinarian by trade, he gained his education in Brazil and has carried his skill throughout a career in dairy. From veterinary work to managing a dairy operation, Flavio brings a rich background of experience to the Barton Kiefer team.

From Florida to Wisconsin, and all the way to Kansas, Flavio fulfills a support role to Barton Kiefer clients and their staff. Being multi-lingual, he is able to train a diverse range of employees on the farms that he works with.

“At Barton Kiefer, it is a matter of trying to help the customer and give them solutions,” Flavio shares. “A lot of people can come in and point out a problem, but the challenge is how to provide a solution so they can fix it. Farmers already know their problems, they want to find the solutions that will help them improve.”

Finding those solutions is made more possible by the expertise and diverse specialties represented on the Barton Kiefer team. The ability to exchange ideas and tap into the rich range of experiences Barton Kiefer consultants attain is priceless, and allows their team to offer a service marked by expertise and knowledge.

“I like doing different things everyday: Meeting different customers, going to new places, seeing new challenges and helping people,” Flavio shares regarding his role at Barton Kiefer. “It is very rewarding to see a situation, work through, give new ideas, and then to see positive results. That is very rewarding.”

05/26/2021

Julia Stammen, Dairy Consultant at Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting

After completing her degree, in 2012 Julia Stammen combined her background in economics with her love for the farm, bringing a unique perspective to the Barton Kiefer team. She currently serves farms throughout Northwest Ohio and into Indiana, regularly analyzing forages, assessing feed nutrients, establishing goals and plans with farmers, and walking the cows.

“With Barton Kiefer, it’s about the farmers and their operations,” Julia explains. “In addition to doing the nutrition work, we take an interest in them and their operation, and we try to help them in whatever way we can.”

The Barton Kiefer team brings their expertise to many different states, and their varied experiences are a great asset in providing good nutrition to the animals. “Nutrition is an ever-changing industry. You can’t find a particular way to feed cows and expect it to work for the next 20 years. You have to always be researching and experimenting,” says Julia. In addition to pulling information from professors and researchers, the Barton Kiefer team looks to the experiences of each other to make the best decisions for their farmers. “Having so many contacts to lean on helps us always find a solution.”

The Barton Kiefer team is not one to say it works on paper, but utilizes dedication and passion when approaching a problem, often testing new ideas on their personal farms before rolling a new solution out to their farmers.

“It is extremely satisfying to step onto a farm, analyze the operation, work with the dairymen to come up with a plan, see that plan executed and then witness the positives and great results that come,” says Julia. “Several of my clients go back to the fourth generation, so it is inspiring and gratifying to be able to consult and lead that next generation into the future.”

04/06/2021

Zach Stammen, Dairy Consultant at Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting

Growing up on a small dairy farm in Western Ohio, Zach Stammen says he has always been a cow guy. With most of his family engaged in the dairy industry, Zach followed suit and gained a degree from Ohio State University in Animal Science with a Dairy Science focus.

After a brief stint at a feed mill, Zach felt confirmed in his desire to become a dairy consultant. “I have always liked working with both the animals and management decisions, so this is a way that I get to do that with a lot of farms,” Zach explains.

Working as a part of the Barton Kiefer Dairy Consultant team since 2006, he currently assists dairy farms throughout Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana with every aspect of dairy farming, from replacement animals to milk markets. “We provide help with every aspect of a farm, above and beyond nutrition,” Zach says. “That is what really sets us apart.”

Barton Kiefer Dairy Consultants work hard to stay on the cutting edge of all that they do. “We are aggressive in trying to find the best deals for our clients, and always try to stay one step ahead of everybody else,” Zach says.

Zach enjoys taking farms to the next level. “From financials to production to what-ever it might be, I shoot for growth in every aspect,” he explains. “Some farms want to get bigger, so I like to help them grow. Some don’t want to grow in size, so we try to increase profitability as much as we can. Whether growth comes through production or different ways of feeding, nothing is out of reach.”

Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a group of 18 Independent Dairy Consultants, who work directly with dairy producers in 16 states. Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a practicality-based consulting group that is solely focused on increasing the profitability of our clients.

01/04/2021

“I love making a change on farms that yields results"
Andy Dietz, Dairy Consultant at Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting

After graduating from Michigan State with a degree in Animal Science, Andy Dietz spent 9 years with another dairy consultant company before going on his own. Now, with 13 years under his belt as an independent consultant for the Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting team, Andy works directly with dairy farms all over Michigan.

What makes Barton and Kiefer such a force in the industry isn’t just the hands-on work the company does with farms, either. “It’s the level of freedom that we have as independent consultants coupled with the collaboration between a group of guys that have a common goal,” Andy says. For Andy, a lot of that freedom comes from the workday routines he’s created himself. “I’m up in the morning doing ration work on the computer, and then I get out and see customers for the bulk of the days,” Andy adds. “I go out to the farms five days a week, typically. Office days are fit in as needed and I often end up doing rations at night.” The amount of customers Andy works with daily can fluctuate from anywhere from two to eight, a typical range for any Barton Kiefer Dairy consultant.

The dairy nutritionist industry’s evolution is just like any other industry, and Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting has been adapting by hiring more and more specialized workers over the last half-decade—showcasing a slow and steady growth of diverse employees, as the geography of the company’s covered farms continues expanding West and South. “I think it’s going to change even faster in the next decade,” Andy adds. “I think the group at Barton Kiefer, as a whole, will also naturally become more of a group of teammates rather than a group of individuals like it has been in the past.”

Despite the rapid changes in dairy nutrition and each consultant’s adaption to that growth, Andy still finds pride in the personal successes that couple with a client’s success. “I love making a change on farms that yields results,” Andy says. “Especially once you make a rations adjustment and the cows respond either in health, production, and/or profitability for the dairyman.”

Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a group of 18 Independent Dairy Consultants, who work directly with dairy producers in 16 states. Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a practicality-based consulting group that is solely focused on increasing the profitability of our clients.

11/23/2020

Charlie Rawlings, Dairy Consultant at Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting

After graduating from Michigan State, Charlie Rawlings was hired by the same feed mill that Evan Barton and Nathan Kiefer were working. “Evan was actually my trainer when I first started,” Charlie says. After three and a half years with his old company, Charlie noticed a lack of customer focus and decided to leave for a position at his former co-workers’ company. “I didn’t like working at the feed mill, because I wanted to work directly with farms and not have any hidden agendas,” Charlie adds.

Now, at Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting, covering Michigan dairy farms, Charlie gets to work from his own agenda, which is putting the clientele first, always, and having a dialogue with the farm staff. When Charlie goes out to farms, it’s not just surveying the livestock and discussing numbers with owners. “I get to the farm and I try to meet with the herdsmen and feeders, as many people as I can,” Charlie says. While Charlie enjoys working with farms and helping them meet their goals, he emphasizes the companywide continuous stride towards being great. “I tell [clients] average is easy. I don’t want to be average. I want to be the best,’” Charlie adds.

And for Charlie, the independence Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting provides him, as a consultant, is something that makes the job great. “They don’t care about how many tons of feed I ship, because it’s not about that,” Charlie says. “It’s about figuring out ways for our customers to be profitable and helping them be that.” He also acknowledges the mantra Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting instills into its consultants. “It’s almost encouraged to think outside of the box,” Charlies says. “Everybody understands that there is more than one way to accomplish something. We’ll sit in meetings with each other and argue over different things, but at the end of day, from Michigan down to Florida, we know there are different ways to get to the same goal, and we all help each other do it.”

That mission wonderfully embodies the group Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is continuing to build, and it is constantly falling back on the long, qualified list of consultants the company has put together. “You’re going to these farms by yourself,” Charlie adds, “but you have a great support group behind you. That’s going to continue, and it’s just going to keep getting better.”

Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a group of 18 Independent Dairy Consultants, who work directly with dairy producers in 16 states. Barton Kiefer Dairy Consulting is a practicality-based consulting group that is solely focused on increasing the profitability of our clients.