Michelle Lautner Michelle Lautner: The Women

Behind The Success Michelle Lautner… you may not see her a lot on social media. But, she is working to make sure everything is together, everyone gets their packages, and everyone gets their semen. Michelle has run everything in the office. Every text, every email, and every call has been Michelle. She is the woman behind the scenes.

“I’m Michelle Lautner. I’m originally from Jefferson, Iowa, and I’m 38 years old. I now live in Alien, Iowa with my husband, Matt Lautner, and have three kids, Maitlyn, Micheal, and Max.”

Growing up in Jefferson, Iowa, Michelle spent her childhood on her family’s cow-calf operation. Alongside the cattle operation, her father owned a tree business and a dirt work company. Michelle grew up alongside her brother and was raised in a family atmosphere. Michelle’s brother now runs the family tree business, while Michelle manages MLC, Fluffy Cows, and the Lautner house.Michelle has shown all of her life. She showed horses and cattle for most of her life, but eventually found that her true passion was for cattle.

“I never competed at a super high level, but I fell in love with taking care of the calves. I loved spending time with them.”

After graduating from high school, she attended Drake University before eventually transferring to Grand View University. At the time, her plan was to study accounting and she expected to land what she calls a “real job” in Des Moines. But, she realized she was going to do something different.Michelle married Matt in 2009. Michelle initially brushed off Matt’s courtship.

“He is a persistent little fella and eventually she gave in.”-Matt

Matt and his staff initially did accounting via paper receipts only but, in 2012 Michelle took the bull by the horns and started shipping tanks and running Quickbooks software. Since then, Michelle has been running and managing the office efficiently.

“They were handwriting mailings and invoices, and I remember thinking there had to be a much easier way to do this. I had always helped with my dad’s invoicing and being on job sites, so it wasn’t any different. Shortly after I took over and started handling shipping.”

At 24, Matt found a bull with a red ear tag named Hot Shot, which later would be called Monopoly. Monopoly boomed MLC. Michelle found that with the chaos of the success of MLC came a ton of semen orders.

“When we started, I think there were around 20 semen tanks. Now we have over 120! If you buy semen I will handle all the shipping, invoicing, and office work. If somebody calls or texts, it usually comes to me.”

A Note From Matt:

“I wanted to mention how appreciative I am of my talented wife’s skill set and don’t know how the business would run efficiently if she ever took a better paying job.”

For a time Michelle mainly helped Matt with his blog. “Matt would send updates from the road, and we’d post them online. The process looked a lot different than it does now.”

Michelle would sit at livestock shows with an old laptop gathering information and posting updates from ringside. She would ask people about their calves and post updates from the shows.

“It may seem simple today, but at the time it was one of the earliest forms of livestock event coverage online.”

Michelle gradually shifted away from the blog and focused her attention on the office side of things at MLC.

“The handwritten invoices had to go, it wasn’t going to work anymore.”

By 6:30 every morning, Michelle’s phone is already buzzing. From Fluffy Cows orders to MLC shipments, text messages and emails start rolling in almost immediately. Michelle tries to stay on top of everything. She wants to be ahead for when someone texts, so she can try to ship it out that day.

“I go get a coffee first thing in the morning before my phone starts going off. Then I usually start with all the TikTok orders, getting them packaged and sent. Then I move on to whatever projects need to be done that day.”

Michelle has learned to use helpful systems to make her day to day easier. Michelle uses programs like QuickBooks, Excel, UPS shipping software, and Speedy to keep everything organized.

“Everything works together. I can see information, orders, and communication all in one place.”

Michelle does enjoy talking to customers, but it can be very time-consuming throughout the day. That’s one reason she’s excited about the launch of the company’s new website. Online ordering will allow customers to place orders directly, while helping free up some of Michelle’s time.

After leaving home, Michelle found herself wanting a few cows of her own. What started as a small group, quickly grew into something much bigger. Michelle and Matt started with around 10 cows, then it became 30, then 80.

“We’re back down to a smaller herd, which is fine because I don’t have as much time to focus on them as I used to.”

Years ago, Michelle spent nearly every day checking cows, synchronizing females, transferring embryos, and managing breeding decisions. As Fluffy Cow and the office side of the business continued to grow, some of that time naturally shifted elsewhere. However, she is still involved in everything.

“Matt might request that certain cows get flushed a certain way, but honestly, when we go to put embryos in, sometimes I just choose what I want to put in.”

Michelle recalls a donor cow named Marissa that produced a group of females that exceeded expectations. Those cattle went on to find success in multiple states, win banners, generate revenue, and eventually become productive females themselves.

“If I had my pick I would probably put embryos in everyone. When it comes to embryos you know the cow’s background. You know the mating. You know what to expect.”

Michelle enjoys calving the cows out. With cameras in the barn and the help of Kelly, Michelle has a system when calving that has helped her out.

“Good nutrition, strong mineral programs, clean facilities, and vaccinations are all important. Pens and vaccines are probably the top two things people overlook.”

Fluffy Cows has been a well known product across the entire industry. A goal that started 10 years ago, has exceeded all of the expectations. “We started last year and had a goal in mind. By March 15, we’d already surpassed it.”

The business has continued to scale into what it is today. Now people all across the country use Fluffy Cows in their barn. Today, packages are shipped five days a week, and the operation has become a big part of Michelle’s daily tasks with the help of the kids.The success of Fluffy Cows has surprised Michelle in more ways than one. Michelle thought Fluffy Cows would be a hit in the cattle industry. She quickly realized the product was finding success across multiple species.

“The goats and lambs have probably surprised me the most.”

That growth has also opened doors for Michelle’s own family. Through the connections they’ve made, the Lautners have expanded into additional species, giving their children opportunities they may not have otherwise experienced.

“Now we’ve got all four species for the kids this year.”

“You have to be able to multitask. You have to be very task-oriented and very driven.”

Through the chaos, Michelle has had help from the kids- they have become a major part of making it all work.

“I try to involve my kids as much as possible.I remember a morning when the kids were late for school because a cow needed attention.They had to help me with the cow before they could leave.”

As the businesses continue to grow, Michelle knows she can’t do everything forever. For someone who likes things done a certain way, that’s easier said than done.

“I eventually want to get to the point where I have somebody who can come in and take things off my plate. It’s hard for me because I’m picky. Sometimes my brain is already two steps ahead, and I’m thinking I could have already had that done.”

“Kelly packs all the semen tanks. I do the orders, hand them to him, and he handles the packing and labeling. I don’t have to worry about it, which is awesome.”

Every now and then Matt helps in the office,but Michelle admits most of the day-to-day communication still finds its way back to her.Over the years, customers have become comfortable reaching out directly to Michelle.

“People don’t even tell me who they are anymore. They’ll just text me and say, ‘I need two packs of Fluffy shipped.’”

Customer service has always been important to Michelle. She knows that great customer service has been a reason so many people order again. But, Michelle sees someone maybe taking more of the office work so she can do more work with the cows.

“Eventually I’d like to do more cow work and be able to go check cows every day. For now, Kevin’s on cow duty.”

Michelle and her family have been busy from Fluffy Cows and MLC to daily show work. For Michelle, the last vacation she took was to Phoenix which wasn’t an actual vacation.

“I’d love to get to the point where I could hand somebody my phone and take a vacation.”

But over the last year, Michelle has realized how important it actually is to take that trip. In November of this past year Michelle lost her dad. She has learned that you never really know what’s next and things can change very fast. Michelle was very close with her dad as he shaped her life.

“He was the type of person to help anyone.’

“Don’t put off the things you really want to do. Just do them now because you might not get the opportunity later.”

In a world often focused on banners, championships, and competition, Michelle believes the bigger picture sometimes gets lost.

“I think some families get so consumed with being better than everyone else. It’s not about what banner you’ve won. It’s about how your kids are going to grow up, how they treat people, and how they help others. Remember hard work will outwork talent any day.”

“Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”

To all the young people trying to find their way in the business here is Michelle’s advice:

“Find someone close to you to look up to and learn from. If you want to be a vet, find a vet to look up. If you put in the hard days, they are willing to help you. There are a lot of industry leaders that are willing to teach kids and give them insights. It never hurts to ask questions. You will meet some people that keep secrets, but many people will tell you. There is no reason to keep secrets. You don’t have to use everything but ask for advice and ask your breeder. If your breeder tells you to do something, you should probably do it and don’t ask ten different people about something. Everyone will say something different.”