In this episode of our “Meet the Team” series, you’ll meet the newest member to Agrarian Solutions, Caroline Knoblock, Director of Nutrition. Listen in as Caroline shares her journey in the dairy industry, from her roots helping on a farm to her academic achievements at Michigan State University and the University of Alberta and into her professional career.
Learn how her experiences, including her time with the Young Dairy Leaders Institute, have shaped her career and her passion for mentoring others in agriculture. Caroline shares insights on the importance of building connections in the industry, overcoming challenges, and fostering a collaborative environment where everyone can succeed.
Tune in for an enjoyable conversation that highlights the people behind the success in the dairy business!
🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!
Scott Zehr
Welcome to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions, a special series here we’re doing called meet the team at Agrarian. And today I’m going to be joined by our Director of Nutrition, one Caroline Knoblock. Did I get that right? Knoblock.
Caroline Knoblock
Yes.
Scott Zehr
Okay. So the first time I met Caroline was actually at YDLI. And I don’t think I ever addressed you by your last name, but I just assumed it was like Knoblok. Like Chuck Knobloch from the Yankees. But, not at all that way. Right?
Caroline Knoblock
I tell people I answer to anything as long as it’s nice.
Scott Zehr
I like that. I like that. So Caroline like I said, is our Director of Nutrition here at Agrarian Solutions. And I want to say our newest or second newest team member, which, how long have you been with us? Was it you or Cody came first?
Caroline Knoblock
Cody came first. I’ve been with Agrarian since December, just last year, 2023.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
Right. That’s over six months.
Scott Zehr
Just over six months. Caroline still has that new employee smell. Which is kind of dumb to say, cause I live in New York. She’s in Ohio. Everybody else is spread out all over the country. Either way, Caroline, I thought of this meet the team at Agrarian series because I find it really, really annoying when people say business to business sales.
And, you know, if you, if you’re a connoisseur of our program, I know you’re, you’re probably sick of hearing me say it, but I’m going to say it till either a, the day I die, I retire or people finally accept it and move on. And hopefully the dying thing comes long after everything else.
But the idea of business to business sales, which is essentially what we’re in, right leaves out the people and I, I don’t find it to be coincidental that relational is the first word of the acronym we use for our core values, RISE, right?
And so I’ve kind of been on a mission the last few years to, I guess, bring to light the people to people aspect of it. Because as I’ve, as I’ve shared before, you know, you show me two businesses that are working together and I’ll show you the amazing men and women behind the scenes that actually make it happen.
And so today, Caroline, I’d like to get to know you a little bit better. I’ll give a brief kind of introduction of our history. Caroline and I both had the opportunity to attend Young Dairy Leader Institute, which is put on by the Holstein Foundation. And I’ll make a little plug that, I am going to actually be bringing in Deidre Harkenreiter into the Ruminate This podcast to interview her about YDLI.
So that’s pretty cool. So yeah, we first met a couple of years ago down in Fort Worth for phase one of YDLI. And Caroline, I’m not going to get into too much of what I thought of YDLI, but I am curious of what you thought of that experience overall and what kind of impact it’s, it’s had on your career or life.
Caroline Knoblock
For me, YDLI was, came at an inflection point in my career. So I was kind of switching jobs, trying to decide, you know, what I wanted to do. And to be honest, I kind of felt lost, especially that phase one at YDLI. It’s like, man, I don’t know what I want to do. I’m surrounded by rock stars. Do I even belong here?
But YDLI really just helped me dig into, you know, why am I here? Why did I apply and choose to come to this program. And kind of helped me dig into what I’m good at, what I need to improve on. And that really helped launch me into, you know, my next step in my career. Got me into sales, which I never really thought I’d be able to do and more into the people side of the business and kind of now here.
And I love YDLI so much. I’m now on the advisory committee. So I get to go back again for the next six years and just help mentor along the other young people that are coming to YDLI.
Scott Zehr
Well, I think when you say you were surrounded by a group of rock stars, I take exception to that because I was in the room. So not, we weren’t, we all weren’t rock stars. But I think it was interesting the dynamic of individuals that were there. I mean, we had people from all over the states, different countries, Puerto Rico. And I think phase three, when we all got together again for the week, so the way the program is run, y’all get together for, let’s call it a short week, what, four days.
And then, you kind of have some homework assignments to do, which are meant to build you as a person, and help you grow. And then you get back together a year later with the same group of individuals and how did everybody do. After phase one, I got to say, I didn’t really feel like I had made any connections there.
Cause I think like any time you get a group of individuals together like that, there’s always like the competition, you know? Oh, you’re doing this, you’re doing that. Well, I do this, I do that. And when I went at a point in my life where I was pretty well grounded, I just didn’t have time for that. I don’t really, sorry, but I don’t need to sit here and listen to how you’re going to one up everybody else in the conversation, like.
But in phase two, after we’d all been through it together and we have these small groups that you attend throughout the year where you kind of get to know people, phase two is where I felt like the real connections started to happen. And where now I can call up classmates, shoot them a text, shoot them an email and be like, Hey, what’s up? How you doing? Checking in. You know, that kind of thing.
So to me, I think that was something that was really interesting dynamic about that program. So who is that program for, Caroline? You mentioned you’re an advisor. So like who, if people are listening, who can attend YDLI?
Caroline Knoblock
YDLI is for young people in the dairy industry. And specifically people who want to form connections with other young folks and, or who, you know, want to better themselves and be, you know, a productive part of the industry.
You don’t have to go in having done super cool, crazy things. You just go in wanting to learn more and wanting to be a part of the industry. And a big, Oh, one thing that YDLI does really well is just help you understand your skills so that you can use your skills to better yourself personally and professionally.
And that’s really important. What, and that’s what I really loved about YDLI and just the people that we met there and I get to keep meeting is, you know, everyone’s an individual and everyone is really cool. You don’t have to be like everyone else to be successful. You can figure out what you’re good at.
That’s what really helped me with YDLI and with my career. Just gaining a lot of confidence that, you know, it’s okay that I’m not great at some things because there’s other things that I enjoy and I’m good at.
Scott Zehr
So I’m not going to spend the whole time talking about YDLI, but you mentioned that and it reminded me, I believe it was phase one. Which phase did Galen speak at? Galen Emanuel. That might’ve been phase two, where we lined the, we, we all got in a line along the outside of the building and we did the improv exercise?
Caroline Knoblock
That was phase one.
Scott Zehr
That was phase one.
Caroline Knoblock
Everyone was terrified and doesn’t know anyone and doesn’t know anything. And then, yeah, you got to do the improv, which is really putting yourself out there being vulnerable with people and… yeah.
Scott Zehr
and, but part of that improv lesson is to, you know, so, I mean, the rules of improv, right? So you can’t say no. And when somebody tosses you a scenario, it’s yes and, or. And, people inevitably are going to kind of flub it up, right. Or stumble over their words or say the wrong thing to build on to whatever’s happening.
But the whole idea of improv is to just roll with it. The next person rolls with it. And I remember Galen talking about like the great thing about improv that what it teaches you is to extend a little grace. Because we don’t all have the same skillsets, like you said. Some people are going to get the baton handed to them with the, you know, with the situation and they’re just going to hit the ground running and they’re going to say something witty and something funny.
And the next person’s not going to know what to do with it. And they’re going to stumble through it. And that’s okay because the team is going to pick you up. But then in a different type of environment, that person that might’ve struggled there are going to be the ones that are going to be picking you up elsewhere.
And I thought that was the cool lesson that came out of that. Yeah, great, great point you made on that. So, Caroline I’ll ask you this, you know, as we try to dive into, Caroline Knobloch today. So who is Caroline Knoblock?
Caroline Knoblock
I am a young professional in the dairy industry. I come from a dairy background, but we haven’t owned cows since I was a toddler. So I was always the herdsman’s daughter that was running around the farm helping with things. And thankfully we worked, my dad worked for families that loved having us around because then we played with their kids and we all showed calves together and fed calves together, you know, did things together.
And then my mom has worked in the industry, primarily in sales, just for varying companies. And I always got to go on farm calls with her and see different farms that were, you know, not what I was used to going on every day. So I got exposed to a lot of different things and I saw kind of every side of the industry or almost. And then I’ve seen a lot more throughout my career, but it just set me up to know there’s a lot of opportunities for me, and that helped a lot, just forging, you know, figuring out what I wanted to do and forging my own path.
Scott Zehr
So you went to Michigan state, right?
Caroline Knoblock
Yep. So my undergrad was at Michigan state in Animal Science, then focused on ruminant nutrition. While there, I worked in Dr. Mike Allen’s lab as an undergrad led me to my master’s degree at University of Alberta. My supervisor there, Dr. Masahiro Oba had done his PhD at Michigan State with Mike Allen years before I was there, but we had that connection.
So he had a cool project and he needed a master’s student, and I was looking for a position, focusing on transition cows. And it matched up really well, and so I lived in Canada in the great white north for two years. And yeah, learned a lot, had a great time, and that helped a lot with my career, especially with Massey, you know?
He’s very good at teaching his students how to use data and then how do we tell a true and correct story from our data to help it make sense, right? Stories aren’t fake stories. They’re just using data to get information across well, so that people can understand it. He does an excellent job at teaching students that.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, because I did a training call for our distributors one time and I, it was something like, I think the title of it was like, data doesn’t lie just to people talking about it.
Caroline Knoblock
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
You know, and then there’s so many ways sometimes to slice and dice the numbers up to make it fit a narrative. And I think that’s something important that, for all of us to keep in mind is probably as a, your professor kind of drilled into a student’s heads. And if you just shoot it straight, let the numbers speak for themselves and, do it the right way it’ll work. Right.
Caroline Knoblock
Yeah. A big thing that was emphasized is presenting all of the data.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
And explaining, you know, how did we come to this data? Why did we choose to do it that way? And presenting it to, to where, you know, just because something didn’t show a difference between your treatments, it’s still data and it’s important and it helps you understand what’s going on and the cow is experiencing.
Scott Zehr
Exactly. So speaking of explaining things the right way, I’ve gotten a chance to work with you on farms here in, in New York and, I’m not gonna really tease you too much about it, but, I just wanted to touch on the YDLI a little bit, because I remember you from, YDLI.
And it was, you know, going back to that, like initial group of people, right that are, what, 80, 90 people together, immediately just as natural human being behavior, you know, by the second or third day, there’s like groups of individuals that have broke out, you know? And it was the other side of that is when we got back together the second time.
Yeah, those groups would of individuals would hang out, but they’ve added to the group, right? We’ve expanded that group. But that that first week of YDLI, there was, myself, you, guy named Don, Brittany, two, three other gals and Curtis. There was about seven of us that had kind of, I don’t want to say paired up if you would, or kind of grouped up and, kind of got to know each other a little better.
During the program, there’s times where inevitably we’re probably going to have to speak in front of a group of people. And if there was one thing that I would cherry pick out of when I first met you at YDLI, you haven’t gone through YDLI. And then seeing you the second phase of YDLI, or technically phase three, and then working with you on a dairy farm, that, for me, that was a visual transformation that you made, and I give you a lot of credit for that.
And the fact that you’re on the call today. I mean this platform isn’t something that you love, right?
Caroline Knoblock
I love watching other people do it.
Scott Zehr
So a good lesson for us is when you get out of your comfort zone that’s where the fun starts. And so I am going to challenge the listeners right now. This is not something that Caroline truly loves doing, but she’s doing it and she’s smiling and she’s having fun. And she’s waiting for me to tell a bad joke. So there we go.
Caroline Knoblock
Well, I love those, like the small groups of 10 and less. So when we’re on farms, just with..
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
…some management staff and nutritionists, that I really enjoy. It’s because I can speak to my crowd much easier. Because I like people as individuals a lot. I really enjoy picking out, you know, how they like to think. And you can’t do that when I’m talking to a camera. So I think that’s where I get nervous. I don’t know who I’m talking to. So what am I supposed to say?
Scott Zehr
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Caroline, you’ve shared a little bit of of kind of your upbringing and on the dairy farm and your time at Michigan State and up in Alberta. And you’ve had some interesting life experiences. This is what, your second stop in your professional career?
Caroline Knoblock
Fourth, technically.
Scott Zehr
Fourth. Okay.
Caroline Knoblock
Yes.
Scott Zehr
I’m glad we’re doing this call. I’m getting to know Caroline better. I know, but actually I think I knew that cause you had went to your previous company during YDLI, right?
Caroline Knoblock
Yeah. That was my big career change was, going from, you know, being on farm nutritionist, junior nutritionist at a lot of farms and, you know, figuring out where do I want to live and what kind of jobs can I do if I live there.
That’s when I switched to sales role and it was very scary and frightening. Cause I love being on farm so much. I love being around the cows. I love being around the farm staff. And, you know, talking to them and getting to know them. And so I was terrified to switch to sales.
But, actually I didn’t mind, once I did it, it was fine because it’s just talking to people one on one and in small groups and understanding what do they need to help their business and how do I fit in and help that. So it was the same thing, just different content that I was discussing.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
The thought of switching to sales can really, I see young people a lot, especially young women that are slightly or kind of think they can’t do it. And it’s just not true. I mean, if you like talking to people and helping people solve problems, you’d be excellent at sales.
Scott Zehr
Well, and I think the, the big thing to remember, again, it’s, it’s not business to business sales, right? So to use that sports analogy, they talk about in, in basketball. That the name on the front of the jersey is bigger than the name on the back, right?
The team is bigger than the individual. And I would, probably, I mean, I agree with that in any kind of team setting no one person is bigger than the team, but I would also say it works the other way to an extent too, right? It doesn’t matter what company is on the front of my shirt. What matters is the person that I’m, I’m talking with, right?
And it doesn’t matter what company they work for. We’re both human beings. Inevitably, we’re going to have something in common with them. Thinking of your career so far up to this point, those experiences you’ve had, what do you find to be so unique about the livestock or agriculture industry in particular?
Caroline Knoblock
One thing is just how small of a world it is.
Scott Zehr
Oh yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
So my husband’s not involved in agriculture. He’s in some type of engineering and he doesn’t know people in other aspects of his industry. And for me, I know or I’ve at least seen or know of, or know personally, most people I see around at trade shows and events.
It’s that’s what I really enjoy that. You know? Everyone knows everyone and have a reputation and that’s not a bad thing because I enjoy most people I’m with. So that’s, I love just going everywhere and knowing people.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. I think, I mean, that that’s actually been brought up on, I think every one of these episodes we’ve done is the size or lack thereof of the ag industry, you know? Especially in the U.S. And man, brings to light the overarching theme of this series, which is person to person. I think it brings that to light how important that aspect is, right? Because Caroline, you get to a conference in front of a group of individuals that you’re trying to develop rapport with, or, you know, we’re work on sales with. There’s no place to hide.
Caroline Knoblock
Well, what’s nice about it for me is if I don’t know an answer to something, I almost certainly know someone that knows it. And even…
Scott Zehr
Exactly.
Caroline Knoblock
Even now, I will be texting or calling friends and other companies all the time. Because, I mean, I get questions for things that we don’t sell or really work with.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
So I’m happy, you know, to call up a friend who I know does a good job and really knows stuff and get some answers for folks. That part of this industry is really nice. Just knowing who to call and you can help people out together.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah, totally. So I’m sure some of those people are probably in that category of folks you would consider mentors. And you can name drop if you want, you don’t have to. But thinking of maybe one or two or three mentors that you’ve had. I guess part of the question is like, how did they become a mentor to you? And then why would you put them in that category of a mentor? Like, what did they do for you? Either personally, professionally?
Caroline Knoblock
My always easy answer to that question is definitely my mom, Vanessa Knoblock. So, cause I’ve just seen her in these industry roles my entire life and in these sales roles. And for a lot of her career, she’s been the only woman at her level in her company. So it’s, I’ve learned a lot kind of seeing what she’s done and you know, what’s possible for me too.
And just, she’s been successful and happy. I’ve always wanted that for me and for my career and for my family life.
And then I, when I worked with at a sale previously doing my first sales job, my boss there was Heather Hunt and she’s also, I would classify her as a great boss and, you know, one of my mentors too. You know, my mom taught me what was possible and Heather showed me how to do it and helped me through that and recognize, you know, what I’m good at and what I’m not good at. Always very good at helping me get very gently, helping me learn how to with my weaknesses, figure out what are my weaknesses with sales and how do I make that better? But in a way that didn’t make me feel like, Oh, I’m, I’m just not a good employee. Never like that. So both of them just, I’m very much awed by them and yeah, both very much mentors for me and people who I enjoy asking for help from.
Scott Zehr
So guess we’re going to shift gears a little bit here. What does Caroline like to do for fun?
Caroline Knoblock
I guess right now, it’s fun for me, but not for most people. I’m training for a half marathon, so I’m running four or five days a week, at least an hour at a time. So I’ve been doing a lot of that. I listened to a lot of history podcasts. So…
Scott Zehr
W hat kind of history?
Caroline Knoblock
Like, World War II, Cold War history, like, you know, the typical middle aged dads, stuff middle aged dads get into. I really love that stuff. But it’s been great because me and my dad talk about it all the time. Yeah, I read a lot, I crochet, we go for walks.
Scott Zehr
So is this like the textbook documentaries that we were taught or textbook, uh, podcasts or history lessons we were taught in school? Or like the, the outer fringe, like Hitler’s still alive and…
Caroline Knoblock
No, I don’t get into those too much. There’s not tons of those around. And if they are, they’re not produced very well. The details are sketchy.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Caroline Knoblock
No, I, I like the long form ones. So I’ll listen to like six hour ones. Not in one sitting, but you know, I drive for work. It’s nice on three hour drives to have something to listen to. Same with the books. They don’t read like textbooks. They’re more of a narrative. And it’s, it’s a lot of fun cause then I visit a lot of places in the U.S., and I always try to look up the history of the city before I go and kind of who founded it, what was the trade it was founded on.
And if I can, I’ll go a day early to a conference, like the Georgia dairy conference in Savannah. Last time I went and probably next time I go, I go a day early just so I can spend time in Savannah and kind of nerd out.
Scott Zehr
You mentioned some of the people that had an impact on your career to this point. What’s it been like coming on board at Agrarian? And how has that experience been maybe in compared to expectations or compared to what you’re used to?
Caroline Knoblock
I think I’ve usually had good experiences starting jobs. This was not an exception at all. It was fun to come on and, you know, everyone was excited to have a new team member. Very welcoming. And then coming on with Dr. Larry or with Dr. Roth, that was great just because we knew each other from past jobs we’ve both had.
And, I was thrilled to work with him. And just still for a great one, we were so small, so we don’t have the training videos that bigger companies will have, which is fine by me because then I got to spend a lot of time doing a lot of reading and then taking that reading and just discussing it with Larry on, you know, how, this is how I think this applies to, you know, our products and our company.
You know, you having been here for longer, how do you see it? Having those discussions and that was welcome. Like everyone wanted me to come in and figure it out and figure out how I fit in.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. I remember when Rob called me and said you were coming on board. It was like hey, we’re moving in the right direction here. This is pretty cool. Before we wrap up, I would maybe ask kind of from your perspective thinking of those experiences you’ve had, what do you think some key things are to keep in mind if you’re a young professional in the ag industry? What are some of those keys to staying in this industry for a number of years?
Caroline Knoblock
I think a lot of people are going to be afraid of failing. That’s why they might not pursue certain jobs. And I mean, honestly, your company’s incentivized for you to not fail. So they’re going to do what they need to do to help you be successful.
They usually have a lot of resources and opportunities to help you out. And companies hire people cause you know, they like who you are as a person typically. So you get somewhere and you’re like, “Oh, I’m pretty good at this and not at this.” You can typically figure out how to be successful and do what you’re good at.
It always breaks my heart whenever I see some of the dairy women’s pages on Facebook, young women are like, “Oh, I think I want to do sales, but I just would be terrible at it.” I’m like, no, you want it. You’d be great. Trust me. If you just try and are curious and you’ll want to do well and want to, you know, have an impact, you probably will.
Which people get afraid, but I really don’t think they need to. There’s a lot of folks around here that really want everyone to succeed.
Scott Zehr
There are, and there really, really are.
Caroline Knoblock
I mean, they have competitors. Like with past jobs I’ve had, I obviously, but like they, people are people. My competitors would still wanna make sure I, as Caroline, am doing well and I’m happy. And it doesn’t matter that we’re competing against other products. We’re not going to worry about that for the next 30 minutes when we’re just chatting person to person.
Scott Zehr
I think that’s important to point out because, I kind of feel like we’re conditioned almost from a young age to think that like people are out to get us in a way.
I certainly thought about it. Thought it like, “Oh, people aren’t going to give me a chance because of X, Y, Z,” right? And I guess the older I get, the more I realize that there are way more good people in this world than people realize. And it’s not the narrative we see like in contemporary culture, right?
I mean, news people, they cover all the bad stuff. There’s so much money talking about the bad stuff that they forget about the good stuff. And part of the good stuff is people that are wanting you to be successful well outnumber the people that get jealous and talk crap about you.
So thanks for bringing that up. Well, Caroline, I appreciate you taking time to join us today for the meet the Agrarian team series here on Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. All right. Appreciate it, Caroline. You have a great day.
Caroline Knoblock
Thanks.
Scott Zehr
All right. We’ll be talking to everybody in another week or so on Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. Thank you.
