Minimizing the risk of antibiotic resistant organisms and antibiotic residues in dairy and dairy beef products is a topic of nationwide interest. However, to design an effective outreach program on judicious use of antibiotics, it is imperative to describe the actual practices on dairies. Thus, as a first step in that outreach effort, our objective was to evaluate the involvement of owners and veterinarians on fresh cow (FC) evaluations and to identify who FC evaluators requested advice from. Herds (n = 15) ranged in size from 600 to 9,500 cows. Cow-side observation and responses from FC evaluators were collected by 2 bilingual veterinarians during FC evaluations. Dairy owner conducted FC evaluations (n = 2), supervised FC evaluations (n = 4) or delegated FC evaluations (n = 9). The dairy veterinarian identified and treated cows once a week (n = 2) or every other week (n = 2), provided occasional advice on treatments (n = 7) or they were not involved on FC evaluations (n = 4). Dairies with minimum veterinarian involvement relied on pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSR) and other consultants for advice on herd health. During FC evaluations a single individual identified sick cows and decided on treatments [dairy owner (n = 2), herdsman (n = 5), herdsman assistant (n = 8)]. Evaluators had < 1 yr (n = 2), 1–5 yr (n = 3), > 5 yr (n = 10) of experience. New knowledge was acquired based on formal training [<1 year (n = 4) or 1–5 yr (n = 1) ago], communication with other dairies workers (n = 7), working with more experienced employees at the dairy (n = 7) or through self-teaching (n = 3). Based on FC evaluators, treatments were decided by the owner (n = 8) or manager (n = 7). And, when advice on treatments was needed, the owner (n = 6), the veterinarian (n = 8), or the PSR (n = 1) were consulted. Information on new drugs and treatments came through veterinarians (n = 8), and/or PSR (n = 13). Veterinarians involvement on FC evaluations can be strengthen. Furthermore, many FC evaluators relied on their peers to learn and discuss work related issues. This information suggested that teaching tools that promote peers networking might be of relevance for fresh cow employees.