Livestock Business Consulting Built on Real Operational Experience
Livestock enterprises face a type of financial complexity that generic business consultants aren’t equipped to navigate. Production risk, commodity cycles, labor, genetics, and capital don’t operate independently. They interact in ways that require someone who has been inside the business, not just advising it from the outside.
NutriQuest Business Solutions combines CFO-level financial expertise with genuine operational experience in swine and dairy production. The team has advised livestock enterprises on consulting CFO services, business advisory, M&A transactions, distressed business restructuring, and expert witness engagements. That breadth — from the day-to-day financial management of a growing operation to the high-stakes complexity of a distressed enterprise — is what makes NutriQuest a different kind of financial partner for the livestock industry.
For those who can’t afford a full-time CFO
but also can’t afford to run business without one.
Consulting CFO Services
Most small to mid-sized livestock enterprises need executive financial leadership. Most can’t justify a full-time CFO. NutriQuest builds tailored CFO solutions that deliver full-fledged financial leadership at a fraction of the cost — matched to the scale and complexity of the operation.
In practice, that means cash flow management and forecasting, financial reporting and analysis, budgeting and benchmarking, and board or lender reporting. The goal is a financial management function that gives ownership and leadership the visibility they need to make decisions — without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.
Business Advisory Services
NutriQuest’s business advisory work serves two distinct audiences who come to the same engagement with different needs. NutriQuest’s advice to both is shaped by one thing: what’s right for the enterprise. No lender relationships, no equity stakes, no commercial interests that point in any other direction.
For Producers: For livestock producers, business advisory services address the full range of financial and operational challenges that fall outside a nutritionist’s scope: risk management, capital planning, benchmarking against industry peers, business focus and growth strategy, and access to modeling and analytics tools that make the financial picture visible. NutriQuest builds these programs around the producer’s specific situation — not a generic advisory template.
For Lender: For lenders and financial institutions with livestock clients, NutriQuest provides the stability, transparency, and forward-looking financial management that banks need to monitor and support those relationships. An advisor who understands the operational reality of a dairy or swine enterprise — and can represent it credibly to the institution — is a different kind of resource than a generic business consultant.
M&A and Business Restructuring
NutriQuest has navigated some of the most complex livestock situations in the industry — and helped enterprises survive, recover, and sell on their own terms. That track record is not a general claim. It comes from years of hands-on engagement with distressed dairy and swine businesses: providing interim executive leadership, working alongside lenders, and managing the operational and financial dimensions of recovery simultaneously.
On the M&A side, NutriQuest represents buyers and sellers in livestock transactions, with particular depth in the swine sector. Steve Weiss co-founded Iowa Select Farms and served as its CFO — one of the largest pork production companies in the United States. That experience shapes how NutriQuest approaches every livestock M&A engagement: with an understanding of what these businesses are actually worth, how they operate under pressure, and what a successful transaction requires from both sides of the table.
For enterprises facing distress, NutriQuest provides interim leadership, financial stabilization, and a clear-eyed assessment of the path forward — whether that path leads to recovery, restructuring, or a managed exit.
Expert Witness Services
Attorneys, courts, and parties to livestock enterprise disputes call on NutriQuest when they need expert testimony that holds up. The firm provides expert witness services in livestock valuation, contract disputes, assessment of damages, and lost profits — the specific engagement types where the combination of livestock operational depth and CPA-level financial rigor makes the testimony credible to both sides.
What distinguishes NutriQuest’s expert witness work is the ability to speak to both the financial and the operational dimensions of a livestock enterprise. Valuation in the livestock sector requires understanding what drives performance, what drives risk, and how the two interact — not just what the balance sheet shows. That dual expertise is what makes NutriQuest’s testimony effective in complex disputes.
Meet The Business Solutions Team
Steve Weiss, CPA
Co-Founder & CEO
Steve co-founded Iowa Select Farms and served as its CFO — one of the largest pork production companies in the United States. His background at Deloitte and as founder of a regional CPA firm, combined with decades of hands-on livestock enterprise leadership, gives NutriQuest’s Business Solutions team a depth of operational and financial credibility that no generalist firm can match. Steve leads M&A advisory, restructuring, and complex consulting engagements.
Anne Adam, MBA
Managing Director, Business Solutions
Anne brings 20+ years of financial and operational leadership to complex livestock enterprise situations. Her background combines CFO and Head of Human Resources experience — an unusual pairing that reflects the reality of distressed livestock businesses, where financial and workforce challenges rarely arrive separately. Her MBA in Finance and Leadership, combined with deep experience in M&A and operational efficiency, makes her a particularly effective advisor when enterprises are under pressure.
Jennifer Brown, CPA
Director, Business Solutions
Jennifer brings nearly 20 years of livestock production finance experience — CFO and Controller roles that span financial reporting, budgeting, cash flow management, and benchmarking for production enterprises. Her CPA credentials come from Ernst & Young. What distinguishes Jennifer is the livestock specialization: she understands the financial dynamics specific to dairy and swine operations in a way that separates her from any generalist CPA.
Chad Vogelbacker
Consulting CFO
NutriQuest’s CFO services are built around Chad’s practical, hands-on experience. Chad brings 28 years of livestock production, financial reporting, and management experience to every client engagement. In a consulting CFO role, he steps into the executive financial leadership position for enterprises that need that capability without the full-time cost — providing the cash flow management, financial reporting, and strategic planning that growing or transitioning operations require.
Jessica Rickels, CPA
Consulting CFO
More than 12 years in accounting and financial reporting across public accounting at PwC, corporate, and consulting roles have shaped Jessica’s specialty. That depth includes 8+ years supporting agricultural and manufacturing operations, with particular focus on standard costing, inventory valuation, and multi-entity environments — bringing the structured financial reporting discipline that livestock enterprises need to make confident, timely decisions.
Ryan Swanson, CPA
Consulting CFO
Public accounting roots at the Iowa State Auditor’s office and a regional CPA firm give Ryan a perspective that spans both government-grade audit rigor and private-sector practical experience. His 12+ years across public accounting, manufacturing, and livestock production make him a versatile financial resource for the agricultural and livestock clients NutriQuest Business Solutions serves.
Crystal Capplel
Consulting Controller
Crystal has spent 8 years with NutriQuest Business Solutions supporting agricultural and livestock clients, with particular depth in grow-finish swine operations. She brings a background that spans public-sector finance leadership and hands-on accounting roles in livestock production — an unusual combination that makes her equally effective supporting financial reporting, budgeting, and accounting systems for agricultural and government clients.