In dairy, the future begins with a calf – where early care, consistency and intention determine not just performance, but the legacy of the herd. Sarah Daugherty’s dairy story began the way many do – by being born into it.
Sarah grew up on a small Wisconsin dairy farm, one of seven children and the youngest of the girls. Her father milked about 100 cows in a four-stall parlor, and like many farm kids, Sarah learned responsibility early. Through her youth dairy farming was a way of life. While her friends spent weekends working off-farm jobs or enjoying their free time, Sarah was heading home to milk cows. What she saw then was hard work and sacrifice, but not a future career.
In high school, her passions laid elsewhere. Basketball and music were her focus, discipline and drive for excellence. The Cuba City High School girls’ basketball carried a legacy of championships, and Sarah learned firsthand what it meant to prepare relentlessly, work as a team and hold one another accountable. Music reinforced the same lesson: if something was worth doing, it was worth doing well. That mindset, shaped both on the court and in the band room, would quietly become the foundation of her professional life.
Earning a state championship medal in basketball taught Sarah early on about excellence.
“What I learned was, you have to first of all plan and prepare, and then work really hard,” Sarah said. “Then when you work really hard with a group of people that have the same vision, you just have a great chance to succeed. And that’s, I guess, partially what I learned, especially on the basketball team and in a big family, is if you want things to work well, and if you want to succeed, everybody has to come in with the same intention of excellence as best as you can.”
When Sarah entered UW–Platteville as an undecided student, she stayed close to home and continued helping on the farm. She enjoyed working with cows but a career in dairy was not on her mind. Then, one animal nutrition course changed everything. For the first time Sarah saw that dairy offered far more than the physical labor she had known growing up. Nutrition, management, data and people all played a role. The spark truly caught fire within her in Dr. Sue Price’s classroom. A demanding, dynamic professor, Dr. Price taught without notes, filling the board with ruminant physiology while challenging students to keep up. Her high expectations and infectious energy resonated deeply with Sarah. It was the same kind of tough, motivating leadership she had thrived under as an athlete.
“I would go in with a little tiny tape recorder – this was in 1994 or something – record her lectures, and play it back,” Sarah said. “You’d try and write as fast as you could, but you could never keep up because she was a genius. Then I would listen again and rewrite my notes. I kept my notes from those years. Those basic nutrition fundamentals just really got into my brain.”
Another defining moment came back on her parents’ farm. Standing in the pasture beside a fresh cow with milk fever, Sarah’s father asked her what she thought they should do. “I just felt so proud that he would think enough of me to ask me that question,” Sarah reflected. “At that point, I was kind of hooked.” Dairy farming had raised seven children in Sarah’s family. It had sustained them. In that moment, Sarah realized it could sustain her future, too.
Her path took her well beyond Wisconsin. She worked on a Jersey dairy in Texas, helping build an ag-education program that welcomed thousands of schoolchildren each year. That experience showed her that farming could be both professional and inviting – and that agriculture had a powerful story to tell. It also opened the door to graduate school at Texas A&M, where she earned her master’s degree in animal nutrition.
For generations, women in dairy have contributed their skill, grit and leadership without always being recognized for it. Today, their presence is unmistakable: shaping operations, guiding families, and helping define where the industry goes next.
As Sarah puts it, “I think what the world should know about dairywomen is that the knowledge, experience and capability are all there. It’s about how we work together to make family, professionalism, and longevity of a career highly sought after. I think the long-term “stick-to-it-ness” of women through ups and downs is important. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as balance; family life and work life is a mix you just have to work through. When I started college, 67% of ag students were men. Ten years ago, it was 50-50, and now there are more women than men.”
Sarah has seen the culture of dairy change firsthand. Early in her career, she encountered assumptions that questioned her place in the room. But over time, those moments gave way to earned respect and expectation.
“Women are here, educated and experienced,” she says. “I used to think I had to prove I knew what I was doing before anyone would listen. I don’t think that’s true anymore. Now it’s, ‘They’re here, they’ve got the degree and experience – what do you have for us?’”
Sarah’s approach to leadership is built on lessons learned the hard way about trust, consistency and showing up every day.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve learned: If you say you’re going to do something, you better do it. When I first started, I had to carry around a notebook because I was learning so much and I couldn’t remember it all. You cannot earn credibility with your team unless they can trust that you’re going to do what you say. I think the other part is just to continually show up and be consistent.”
Mentors like Jim Barmore, a founding partner of GPS Dairy Consulting, taught her to look beyond averages and understand variability, while Faith Frerix showed her how intention, presentation and purpose could shape both people and operations.
“I remember very clearly listening to Jim speak about averages and how you can’t just look at the average because the standard deviation might be huge,” She explained, “It was like an absolute breakthrough for me. I still do that; literally last week I was looking at calf body weights and our average was good, but our standard deviation was way too big.”
Sarah eventually returned to Wisconsin, building a career as an independent dairy consultant while raising six children with her husband, Justin. Those years were full: travel, consulting, parenting and constant recalibration. Over time, she recognized that being stretched too thin ran counter to her core value of excellence. She made the difficult decision to narrow her focus. But timing was right to focus on one client, Paramount Calves, full-time in 2018.
Today, Sarah’s role at Paramount reflects everything she has learned. She oversees nutrition strategy, supports people development and leads data analysis to ensure calves and heifers are returned to clients healthy, productive and ready for the future. She builds teams the way her basketball experiences were built – through shared goals, accountability and trust. Mistakes are addressed without shame, learning is constant and preparation matters more than the final score.
At home, Sarah leads the same way she works: intentionally. Her children are charting their own paths in agriculture, in healthcare and in the military service and she hopes most of all that they learn to pursue what matters to them with integrity. She knows the seasons are fast and the days are full, but she believes legacy is built quietly, through consistency, curiosity and care.
“I now have a saying… I say this to young moms that I work with at church, is you can do anything, but you can’t do everything, and I’m starting to realize that.” Sarah acknowledges. “It’s taken me a few years. So, I’m trying to be more intentional with those choices. Every day is not going to be great and we miss the mark, but we sure keep trying to do the best we can – to do right by the customers that we serve.”
At the heart of Sarah’s approach to work, family and leadership is a simple but disciplined belief. When Sarah looks back, she says it comes down to one guiding principle. “Intentionality – it’s important to choose what’s important to you, spend your energy there and let the other things go.”
Looking ahead, Sarah is energized by the future of dairy and beef integration, genomics, and data-driven decision-making. She is equally hopeful about the future of women in agriculture no longer needing to prove they belong but instead shaping the industry in their own way.
Sarah Daugherty no longer sees dairy as the thing that pulled her away from what she loved. She sees it as the thread that tied everything together: family, discipline, purpose, possibility and as the place where her life’s work continues to grow. This is Sarah Daugherty’s story.
This story is part of Taking Root and Growing Legacy, a Dairy Girl Network (DGN) storytelling project celebrating the International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Sarah Daugherty was interviewed by Laura Daniels.
This feature was written by Brenda Gilbertson.
You can find a PDF of this story here.