The Uplevel Dairy podcast recently featured Matt Budine, co-founder of Progressive Dairy Solutions, whose systematic approach to scaling success has impacted over 1.1 million cows worldwide and thousands of dairy industry professionals. Host Peggy Coffeen explores how Budine’s philosophy of “unselfish leadership” and his four-step process—identify the challenge, see the better solution, assemble the team, and activate the team—has driven exponential growth across multiple ventures in the dairy industry.
Budine’s journey began with a personal tragedy that shaped his entire approach to leadership. At age 15, his father passed away suddenly, leaving him to help run the family dairy operation in upstate New York. The dairy community’s overwhelming support during this crisis—from neighbors putting up their crops in a single day to the local Holstein club hiring help so he could return to school—instilled a lifelong commitment to giving back to the industry. “These are things that I’ll never forget,” Budine reflects, explaining how this experience taught him there are always better ways to approach dairy farming and the importance of community collaboration.
After building teams at Cargill Animal Nutrition, Budine co-founded Progressive Dairy Solutions in 2007 with Ryan Sundberg and Luciano Altman, starting with 90,000 cows and three team members. Today, the company employs 47 nutritionists and consultants worldwide. His leadership philosophy centers on what he calls a “galaxy” organizational structure rather than traditional hierarchies, where different team members become the “brightest star” based on the expertise needed. Beyond nutrition consulting, Budine has co-founded Valley Milk, which now processes 50 truckloads of milk daily, and the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge, which has provided real-world experience to over 4,000 students. Currently, he’s focused on helping California dairy producers monetize sustainability efforts through carbon credits and enteric methane reduction.