Dr. Johnson, "The Udder Doctor", resides in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Although semi-retired, He currently is operating his own consulting service. He was employed by Grande Cheese Company as their Herd Health and Wellness veterinarian and now does private consulting worldwide on milk quality issues. For over 40 years he operated his consulting business called, Total Herd Management Services, Inc. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Minnesota in 1976.
Dr. Johnson is a dairy consultant who has consulted in 30 countries and 47 states. He has consulted on dairies ranging from 20 to over 20,000 dairy cows. His specialties are quality milk production, new parlor design and performance, and cow comfort. He chaired the NMC sub-committee on milking machine evaluation and developed the new airflow protocols that have become the US standards.
Dr. Johnson is very active in many organizations in the dairy profession. Dr. Johnson served as a Board of Director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), was President and board of directors of the National Mastitis Council (NMC) and was President and board of directors of the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA). He lectures at many State, National, and International meetings. Dr. Johnson organizes and for 30 years taught the popular Seminar 1 at AABP on Milk Quality. His articles are frequently seen in most of the dairy publications as well as scientific journals.
Dr. Johnson received the American Association of Bovine Practitioners highest award of Practitioner of the Year in 1998. In 1989, he also received the AABP award for Excellence in Preventative Medicine. In 1994, he was awarded Wisconsin Veterinarian of the Year. He was named "Quality Veterinarian of the Year" in 2003 at the AABP meeting. In September 2013, he was named one of the 20 most influential veterinarians in North America by Bovine Veterinarian Magazine at AABP annual meeting. In January 2019 Dr. Johnson received the NMC Award of Excellence for Contributions in Mastitis Prevention and Control at the annual meeting in Savannah Georgia. This is their highest award given to an individual internationally for improving milk quality. In September 2019 he was inducted into the Dairy Veterinarian Hall of Fame. He is the 9th person to receive this honor and only the 3rd living person to be inducted. In 2024 was honored with bronze life-size bust from Japanese dairy industry for positive contribution to their dairy industry for past 30 plus years.
Dr. Johnson loves spending time with his wife Monica, his three children Nathan, Megan and Zachary and most importantly his 6 grandchildren, Carter, Isa, Ella, Parker, Sawyer, and Winnifred.
My joy in life other than my family is helping dairy farmers. I love working with dairy farmers and evaluating their farms, lecturing to farmers on milk quality and teaching fellow veterinarians and other dairy specialists in the field of milk quality. I enjoy mentoring students and anyone that is willing to listen to my story.