K. R. Averhoff

Experience

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  Growing Up

  Jan 1990 - Jan 2002

  "Learning"

  I grew up on a dairy farm in central Texas and was involved in working on the dairy from a young age with my two older brothers. We were very involved with showing, judging, and other Junior Holstein association activities. After high school, I attended Tarleton State University majoring in Animal Science and worked for a neighboring dairy for the first three years – feeding, scraping, AI, feeding calves, etc. During the summer between my junior and senior year at Tarleton, I had the opportunity to do an internship with Pharmacia Animal Health in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota. It was a great experience as I was able to get to learn more about the dairy industry and visit with dairymen in the region. Show less

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  ABS Global

  Sept 2002 - Dec 2004

  Technical Service Specialist

  My college schedule allowed me to take on a position with ABS Global as a relief AI technician for the breeders in the central Texas market and provide some GMS mating services along with other projects for the district. My best friend was working for ABS at the time in a similar role and helped me get started with them. That was a turning point in my desire to work with larger herds and a team of people focused on supporting the dairies that they worked with. It was with ABS that I truly learned DC305 and reproductive programs. As the year progressed, I decided to pursue my MBA from Texas Tech University, and was still able to work with ABS in a similar fashion, although my role had changed to split time between the District & Technical Services as a Technical Service Specialist. Surrounded by quality people with a passion for the dairy industry was very energizing as I looked to enter the industry out of college. Show less

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  Monsanto Company

  Jan 2005 - Feb 2007

  Area Market Manager

  As I completed my MBA from Texas Tech University, I had the opportunity to take on a role with Monsanto Dairy Business in the Texas Panhandle in 2005 as an Area Market Manager. Again, it was about working with a great team and a coach that led with experience and passion for the industry. Monsanto had so many resources available for training, continued education, and technical service for the industry; ranging from cow cooling to DC305 analysis to people management. It was all there, available to learn while working for the company. During my time with Monsanto, I was able to meet and work with a great group of dairymen in the area. I had the opportunity of organizing a peer group with six of them in 2006 and we were able to get together and compare numbers every few months and have topics of discussion for the group. Over the years, the group has evolved, but it is still going and has four of the original dairies. Other activities with Monsanto included producer fly-ins to St Louis, LIFT (Leadership Investment for Tomorrow) program, Customer Challenge award for organizing Habitat for Humanity with local producers, and so on. Many of my connections on here are from my days with Monsanto. Show less

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  Dairy Services Inc

  Mar 2007 - Jun 2013

  Dairy Performance Manager

  As I worked in the dairy industry, it became more and more evident that my true passion was on the production side of the dairy business. I enjoyed spending time on the dairies and interacting with the employees, managers, and owners of the business. I liked that you could identify small opportunities and could see large paybacks just because of the size of the dairies. You could monitor things – day to day, or month to month, and see trends. It was fun. As I had gotten to know several of the dairymen in the area, and I was looking to make a change that would get me to the production side, I reached out to a few of the dairymen (High Plains Dairy, Caprock Dairy, and Spandet Dairy) in the area and expressed my interest in how I thought I could help their businesses. Timing was great as they had just organized a business six months earlier called Dairy Services. We were able to sit down together and come up with a role that was a great fit under Dairy Services that allowed me to split my time among their three businesses. Over the six years that I worked for them, I worked on a lot of projects, metrics, group purchases, and other things that they had for me as their businesses had grown (knew they wanted, but didn’t have time to get them done). It was a great experience and I learned a lot about dairying and the business as a whole. Show less

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  Blue Sky Farms

  Jul 2013 - now

  In 2013, Harry (High Plains Dairy) reorganized his business and some of his partnerships into what is now Blue Sky Farms. One of my long term goals was to have ownership in the dairy business and Blue Sky Farms allowed for that to happen. At the same time, I was able to take on the role of Business Development with the company, work closely with our managers at several of the locations, and be involved in the overall management of the business. We have a great group of people that work in Blue Sky Farms and look forward to what the future holds for us. Show less

  • Chief Operating Officer

    Jul 2021 - now

  • Business Development

    Jul 2013 - Jun 2021