Dr. Keith Lesmeister recently joined the Vita Plus staff as a dairy specialist. Based in western Iowa, Lesmeister will work closely with the western region dairy team and dairy producers in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas to provide high-quality custom diet formulations and forage analyses.
Lesmeister grew up on a dairy and row crop farm in Missouri and went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business at College of the Ozarks. During his undergraduate studies, Lesmeister worked for the college’s dairy as a herdsman and the feed mill as a student worker. He continued his education at the University of Arkansas, where he earned his master’s degree in genetics and dairy nutrition before receiving his doctorate in dairy nutrition at Penn State University. Lesmeister has more than 10 years of experience as a dairy nutritionist in the livestock industry providing technical support for sales staff, on-farm troubleshooting, ration balancing, and forage and grain analyses.
