328 | Dairy Farm Leadership Starts Here: Valuing Every Role in the Barn with Dr. Amanda Onan
On location at Brooks Farms in Waupaca, Wisconsin, Peggy Coffeen interviews Dr. Amanda Onan of United Vet Services (Heritage Vet Partners) about how teamwork shapes her approach to dairy veterinary medicine nearly 10 years into practice. A second-generation veterinarian, Dr. Onan describes learning through ride-alongs with her father and hands-on work at Sugar Creek Farms, including projects to improve somatic cell count and mastitis understanding. She shares a formative lesson from a 70-year-old farm owner scraping stalls, reinforcing that no one is above any task and that every employee’s observations matter. Dr. Onan emphasizes building trust by engaging employees, recognizing positives, and using empathy to improve farm efficiency, while also discussing compassion fatigue in veterinary medicine and the support systems that help. She notes that Heritage’s national network enables collaboration, and she sees AI changing record analysis and on-farm implementation.
This episode is brought to you by Heritage Vet Partners
Heritage Vet Partners is the nation’s leading veterinary partnership, specializing in mixed and large animal practices. Heritage Vet Partners provides a unique partnership model that preserves local practice legacies, serving dairy and other livestock producers and companion animal owners through shared services, data, and strategic growth. Learn more at HeritageVetPartners.com.
00:43 Podcast Welcome and Sponsor
01:43 Why Amanda Became a Vet
04:09 Producer Perspective Lessons
05:51 Somatic Cell Count Project
08:06 Nobody Above Scraping Stalls
11:31 Building Trust With Employees
15:44 Positive Leadership Habits
16:39 Compassion Fatigue Explained
18:25 Support Systems and Grace
21:53 Business Side and Heritage Network
27:11 Future of Vet Med and AI
28:25 Final Thanks and Outro
