Cargill’s consulting approach is anything but linear. Jody Whitmore has worked with Cargill customers for more than 20 years in Michigan, and he describes the process as a “circle” that gets refined with every revolution. The circle revolves around three pillars: Cargill’s on-farm consulting approach, the Global Animal Nutrition Innovation Center in Elk River, Minnesota, and the dairy MAX nutrition software. Together, these pillars create a continuous loop of data, insights, and action that drives ongoing improvement for farms. 

The Circle Analogy

“Every revolution around the circle, we are working towards tightening it down further,” Jody explains. “We start with the big opportunities and then work on more finite things each cycle.”  

Each cycle involves a round of data collection, analysis, adjustment, and then review. Every time we can complete a cycle it brings the producer and their business closer to their goals. But the circle isn’t just about fixing problems as they arise. It’s about getting to a point where producers are comfortable with their basic operations and can move their focus to future-planning.

“As we tighten the circle down, now we’re also being proactive. Instead of just reacting to issues or opportunities as they are happening, now we’re planning,” Jody says. “We continually show improvement year after year with our producers. We are tightening their circles down and we are now planning and predicting into the future.”

Tightening the circle creates room for higher-level planning scenarios like farm financials, feed quality, and long-term herd health: 

Plan for Ingredient Sourcing  

Monitor market trends and lock in feed ingredients like soybean meal when prices are favorable. Adjust the use of haylage and corn silage based on both cost and quality projections for the coming year.  

Make Agronomic Changes  

Collaborate with agronomists and nutritionists to plan crop rotations and forage production that align with the herd’s future nutritional needs, ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality feed.  

Routinely Test Forages and Ingredients 

Regularly sample and analyze all feed ingredients—not just forages, but also byproducts and additives—to reduce variability and improve the accuracy of rations.  

Monitor and Respond to Results 

Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as milk components, dry matter intake, manure consistency, and health metrics. Use this information to fine-tune diets and management practices.

Cargill’s On-Farm Consulting Approach: Driving the Revolutions

Our approach relies on collaboration and customization.  

Jody shares, “When I’m out riding with consultants and we’re having conversations with producers, we talk about their results: What’s your butterfat and protein production, dry matter intake by group, milk urea nitrogen levels, and fatty acid profiles of the milk? We take those into account, and we adjust rations based on those factors that are being predicted by dairy MAX.”  

This means that individual farms get an original solution tailored to their unique challenges and goals. Our team doesn’t just hand over a plan and walk away. We are constantly gathering feedback, analyzing results, and adjusting strategies along the way.

Here’s what Cargill’s consulting approach looks like:

Multidisciplinary Collaboration  

Cargill’s team includes field consultants (Dairy Focus Consultants; Calf & Heifer Specialists), sales managers, and technical experts who hold master’s and doctorate degrees. 

Complementary Roles  

Our Dairy Focus Consultants and Calf & Heifer Specialists keep close relationships with producers, while technical experts support them. Technical experts are available to help with complex issues, data analysis, and troubleshooting. Having these complementary roles ensures that producers always have access to the right expertise.  

Producer-Centric Focus  

The primary goal is to help your farm succeed. Cargill’s team works together to understand each producer’s unique needs and goals and then pool their resources and knowledge to deliver tailored solutions.  

Global Network and Resources  

Cargill’s consulting approach extends beyond the complementary roles and even borders of the U.S. Your consultants will draw on the broader Cargill network, including lab specialists at our Elk River Research Facility and long-tenured industry experts.  

People-First Culture  

Cargill emphasizes relationships, trust, and treating producers as partners rather than just business transactions. This people-first mindset is seen as a key differentiator and a foundation for long-term success.

Elk River Research Facility: The Engine for Data & Research

The Elk River Research Facility is the cornerstone of Cargill’s approach to dairy nutrition. Its capabilities go far beyond basic feed analysis.  

Jody explains, “When we send your feed sample to Elk River for analysis, we’re automatically getting digestibility numbers, along with the forage nutrients. The fermentation profiles from your samples are directly uploaded into the dairy MAX system, where Cargill team members can generate specific nutrients based on those forage samples.”  

Validating the science behind Cargill’s nutrition models.  

Jody points out that Cargill doesn’t simply rely on industry standards or university research. “We have created cow models, and we confirm our cow models with our own cows at the Elk River Research Facility. We don’t settle for industry standard values on ingredients or even additives. We do our own research on what we see happening in the cow and make predictions in our model based on that information.” 

Routine ingredient testing and reducing variability is one of the lab’s greatest strengths.  

Routinely testing not just forages, but also commodities and additives from our Cargill feed plants gives us a better chance at predicting cow performance. By having up-to-date, farm-specific data on all ration components, we minimize the guesswork and reduce the risk of unexpected performance issues. 

Dairy MAX Software: Coming Around the Bend and Turning Data into Actions 

If the Elk River Research Facility is the engine, dairy MAX is the dashboard. It’s where all the data comes together to drive decision-making. The dairy MAX software organizes everything we know into one place and gives us an output that we can use to generate economical results. 

“Dairy MAX is the overall Cargill dairy model,” Jody says. “It takes all of the information we have—on-farm inputs, lab analyses, and research cow models—and brings it together in a way that we can execute and manage performance.”  

At the end of the day, Cargill is the original and only comprehensive dairy nutrition company that supports high performance from start to finish. We’ve built our own world-class research labs, designed our own proprietary software, and fostered an original team approach that delivers profitability on your terms. We start with your needs and build solutions from there, meticulously tightening the circle to ensure that every solution is as original as the producer using it.

About Jody 

Jody Whitmore is the Central Dairy Sales Leader at Cargill. He works closely with Cargill customers, consultants, and research teams, using insights from the Elk River Lab and the dairy MAX nutrition software to help drive improvement and measure results for producers. His experiences from growing up on his family’s Michigan dairy farm helps him bridge practical on-farm realities with innovative research and technology.