LANDING IN A DAIRY CAREER: COULDN'T HAVE PLANNED IT BETTER MYSELF

Kevin Fiske

I didn’t set out to work with dairies. I didn’t even grow up on one. I grew up in Alaska, about as far as you can get from a Colorado dairy farm. But most often, the best career moves aren’t the ones you plan from a young age. They’re the ones that just make sense when you get there.

When I moved to Colorado after graduating high school in Alaska, I didn’t have a big plan. I was just looking for what came next. That next step came through family. I started working for my uncle as an electrician, and it stuck. I liked the work: it was hands-on, steady, and challenging. I was working closely with my cousin, too, and he’s the one who introduced me to my future wife, the daughter of a dairy farmer.

I wasn’t involved on the farm, but it gave me my first real look at dairy life. My grandfather had been a dairy farmer, so you could say it was in my blood, but I hadn’t grown up in it. Over time, I started to understand just how much happens behind the scenes: how hard the work is, how much can go wrong if something as simple as a power glitch hits at the wrong time.

At the time, I was focused mostly on residential and commercial electrical work. But the more time I spent around dairies, the more I noticed a gap. Farms were getting electrical work done, but not always in ways that fit the demands of a working dairy. These aren’t 9-to-5 operations. Downtime isn’t an option. And when the health of your animals (not to mention your livelihood) depends on reliable systems, timing matters.

I saw a need. And as I gained experience at Fiske, I leaned into it. We took on more ag work, especially dairy. We became a dealership. We built out an entire division to support dairies, not just with electrical work, but with equipment sales, installations, and service. One of our first major projects was helping install one of the largest robotic milking dairies in the country.

I didn’t set out for a dairy career, but I’m glad it found me. It’s been meaningful to blend something with family roots into something that fits the business. I eventually became part owner of my wife’s family dairy, and now it’s staying in the family through my son and daughter-in-law.

At the end of the day, I care about the people doing this work. And I want our team to be the kind of partner they can count on, whether that’s wiring up a new system or making sure it doesn’t go down when it matters most.

June is Dairy Month, and for us, it’s more than just a shoutout to the industry. It’s a reminder of how far we’ve come by paying attention, stepping up, and saying yes when the right opportunities came along.