Showbox Stories: How Mentorship and Lifetime Monitoring Are Shaping the Future of Dairy

The future of dairy depends on two things working together: learning from the people who came before us and finding better ways to care for the animals in our herds. Experience helps producers and industry professionals make better decisions, while technology creates new opportunities to identify problems earlier and improve animal health over time.

In this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast’s Showbox Stories series, recorded live at World Dairy Expo, Peggy Coffeen and Tim Abbott explore both sides of that progress. Chris Hill shares lessons from decades in the dairy cattle business, including the mentors and relationships that helped shape his career. Dr. Lori Nagel of CowManager explains how continuous monitoring from calfhood through adulthood can help producers better understand animal behavior and make more informed management decisions.

Together, their conversations highlight how relationships, experience, and innovation continue to move the dairy industry forward.

Mentorship Can Shape an Entire Dairy Career

For Chris Hill, a career in the dairy industry began with a high school dairy judging team and a growing interest in fitting cattle for shows. After graduating in 1984, he went straight to work, learning the trade from experienced cowmen who helped him develop his skills and deepen his understanding of cattle.

Those early opportunities mattered because the people around him were willing to share what they knew. From learning how to prepare cattle for the show ring to recognizing sick animals and understanding breeding decisions, Hill gained practical knowledge by working alongside people who had spent years developing their own expertise.

His experience is a reminder that mentorship doesn't always happen in a formal training program. Sometimes it comes from working beside someone who takes the time to explain what they're doing, answer questions, and let a younger person learn through experience. Those relationships can influence not only how someone approaches their work, but also how they treat others throughout their career.

Success in Dairy Starts With People

As Hill built his reputation as a fitter, breeder, and auctioneer, one lesson continued to guide him: relationships matter. He credits his father and uncle with teaching him to treat people with respect, ask questions, and spend more time listening than talking.

That approach has helped him build lasting relationships throughout the dairy cattle industry. World Dairy Expo, for example, has brought together breeders, exhibitors, and industry professionals who may compete in the show ring but remain friends outside of it. The competition is important, but the community surrounding it is what makes the experience meaningful.

Hill's career also demonstrates the value of being willing to take calculated risks and try new ideas. His work with Tim Abbott on innovative cattle sales, including the Bright Futures sale series developed during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflects how experience and collaboration can create new opportunities. Their partnership shows that progress often comes from trusting the right people and being willing to test an idea.

For dairy professionals at any stage of their careers, the lesson is straightforward: technical skills matter, but so do the relationships that help people learn, adapt, and move forward.

Why Monitoring Should Start With Young Animals

While mentorship helps develop people, technology is creating new opportunities to understand cattle throughout their lives. Dr. Lori Nagel of CowManager discusses the value of continuous monitoring that begins when animals are young rather than waiting until they enter the milking herd.

Eating, rumination, and activity patterns can provide useful information about how calves are developing and responding to changes in their environment. When producers establish a monitoring history early, they can begin connecting events across different stages of an animal's life instead of treating calfhood, weaning, and adulthood as unrelated periods.

This longer view matters because early health challenges and management decisions may have effects that continue as animals mature. Monitoring can help producers identify changes in behavior, investigate potential concerns, and evaluate whether management practices are supporting healthy development.

The goal isn't simply to collect more data. It's to use that information to understand animals better and make decisions that support their health and long-term performance.

Technology Helps Teams Prioritize Calf Care

Experienced calf caregivers often develop an instinct for recognizing when something isn't right. They notice subtle changes in behavior, appetite, or activity that may signal a calf needs attention. But that skill can be difficult to teach, especially as farms grow and teams need to manage more animals.

Dr. Nagel explains how monitoring technology can help teams identify calves whose behavior has changed and prioritize which animals need to be checked first. By providing alerts based on activity and other behavioral patterns, the system can help caregivers direct their time toward animals that may need additional attention.

An alert doesn't automatically mean a calf is sick. Changes may also be connected to vaccination protocols, movement between groups, weaning, housing, or other management practices. The information gives producers a starting point for investigating what's happening and determining whether an adjustment is needed.

Nagel describes examples of producers changing dehorning timing and vaccination schedules after reviewing their monitoring information. These insights show how data can support practical management decisions, helping teams evaluate their protocols and improve the way they care for young animals.

Technology doesn't replace experienced caregivers. It gives them another tool to make better use of their time and attention.

Connecting Early-Life Data to Long-Term Herd Health

One of the most promising opportunities in lifetime monitoring is the ability to connect information across an animal's development. Instead of looking at an isolated alert or health event, producers can build a more complete picture of how an animal responds to different stages of management.

Nagel points to research examining the lasting effects of early-life health challenges, including gastrointestinal disease and pneumonia. Understanding those connections can help producers pay closer attention to calf health and consider how early management decisions may influence future outcomes.

Continuous monitoring can also help farms evaluate their own care practices. By reviewing alerts alongside treatments and recovery periods, teams can learn more about how quickly concerns are addressed and how animals respond to interventions.

Over time, this information may help producers refine their management strategies, reduce unnecessary stress, and make more informed decisions about raising healthy replacement animals. The opportunity is to move beyond reacting to individual problems and develop a clearer understanding of what supports animals throughout their lives.

Building the Future Through Experience and Innovation

The conversations with Hill and Nagel approach dairy improvement from different directions, but both emphasize the importance of paying attention. Hill's career reflects the value of listening to experienced people, building relationships, and remaining open to new opportunities. Nagel's work demonstrates how monitoring technology can help producers recognize changes in animals and use those insights to guide management.

Neither approach works in isolation. Technology is most useful when people know how to interpret the information and act on it. Experience becomes even more valuable when producers are willing to learn from new tools and question whether their current practices can improve.

For dairy operations, that combination creates opportunities to strengthen both the people and the systems behind the herd. Whether it's mentoring a young professional, adjusting a calf management protocol, or evaluating a new technology, progress often begins with a willingness to learn.

The future of dairy isn't built by choosing between tradition and innovation. It's built by carrying forward the knowledge that matters, staying curious about what can improve, and giving people the tools and support they need to put those lessons into practice.

Follow the Uplevel Dairy Podcast for more conversations with the people shaping the future of dairy. Subscribe at UplevelDairy.com and follow along on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for more stories, insights, and lessons from leaders across the industry.

To hear the complete discussion, stream now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or watch the full conversation on YouTube.