Nathan Pokowski, PAS, is owner of KowFit Dairy Innovations, LLC serving dairies as an independent dairy nutrition and management consultant in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. He began his career on his grandfather’s farm where he spent most of his summers growing up working for a small beef operation. Outside of farming, Nathan was involved in sports and boy scouts and in 2006 he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He attended Michigan State University where he received his Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management.
After college, Nathan relocated to pursue a career as a dairy nutritionist in British Columbia, Canada. While in Canada, he helped producers manage quota and produce milk economically by focusing extensively on income over feed cost without sacrificing animal health. As his family grew, he decided to move back to Michigan where he continued his career as a dairy nutritionist for a regional feed company. In 2016, Nathan completed his ARPAS certification, and he currently serves an ARPAS board member.
Over the past 4 years Nathan has worked in allied industry where he has helped manage and budget various commercial research projects that consist of ration analysis, dry cow management, feed and forage management, gut health, and immunity. He has served as account manager and leader for teams across North America. Nathan is passionate about helping producers maximize the potential of the rumen. He believes that high quality forages and dry/transition cow health are the backbones for sustainable production. He focuses extensively on helping producers harvest and store high quality forages to maximize the amount of forage in the diet.
Nathan currently resides in Michigan with his wife Ashley and two boys, Landon and Easton.
Cow Chow to Avoid the Sick CowClick to open Cow Chow to Avoid the Sick Cow
In this GPS Dairy Vlog, Nathan discusses his top three gold standards of first cutting and how you can do your best to put up clean haylage and avoid sick cows.
Creating Team SynergyClick to open Creating Team Synergy
In this week’s GPS Dairy vlog, GPS Dairy consultant Nathan Pokowski talks about three important pieces of team building: communication, addressing problems promptly and putting the right person in the right place. Tune in to hear more about these topics.
Forage Quality and Harvesting HaylageClick to open Forage Quality and Harvesting Haylage
In this vlog, Nathan is in the field to discuss forage quality and the top 3 things for taking off haylage. Forage quality can mean different things. Get Nathan’s take on what that means, how you can use evaluations as a guidelines and how your farm can prepare to have a successful first cut.
Keeping it Clean and CoolClick to open Keeping it Clean and Cool
In our first vlog (video blog) of 2023, Nathan talks about the upcoming Spring and Summer seasons and what you can do to prepare for the changing seasons. He will have you thinking about minimizing mud being added to the TMR, tire scrapers and minimizing barn traffic in the Spring, and fans, waters and sprinklers in the Summer.
Reviewing the Good, Bad, and the Ugly in 2022Click to open Reviewing the Good, Bad, and the Ugly in 2022
Throughout the year I talked about innovation, technology and data. I thought I would wrap up my blog series by reflecting on previous blogs as there were some important points that should be considered for year-end discussions when reviewing the good, bad and the ugly. What major bottlenecks were present that led to lost profits? What were those that led to profits?
Turning Good Data into GREAT DataClick to open Turning Good Data into GREAT Data
Data can be powerful, but it can also lead you down paths that can eat up a lot of time and leave you confused and/or frustrated. We have all seen those mislabeled health events in herd management software or inaccurate pen counts in feeding software. There is nothing worse than spending a bunch of time on something that is not an issue. On the other hand, it may lead to a discovery…
This is Absolutely InsaneClick to open This is Absolutely Insane
I find myself sometimes saying that when thinking about some of the wild ideas I have. However, that’s what it’s all about… DREAMING. At GPS, we often talk about dreaming big as we go along our journeys. How do we dream? How do dreams become big? A reality?
The Technology Time CommitmentClick to open The Technology Time Commitment
As we think about innovation, technology often comes to mind. As an industry, we have a lot of great technologies that can help us improve anything from management, labor, feed, etc. It seems like every day there is something new that can be implemented on a dairy. It seems like there is always something that this new technology is going to fix.
Driving Innovation from WithinClick to open Driving Innovation from Within
Innovation is all about being creative and looking at things differently. To me, it is key to being progressive. My strategy is to first identify bottlenecks that are likely hidden and then think of creative ways to fix them. There will always be an easy way, but does that really solve the problem? Will that make your client different than his neighbor down the road? Is it the most cost effective? How will it change the work environment?