Wisconsin cow named Supreme at WDE

A Wisconsin cow took top honors at World Dairy Expo 2009. Harvue Roy Frosty, a five-year-old Holstein cow from Rudolph, Wisconsin, was crowned Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo 2009. Sired by Roylane Jordan-ET, she was exhibited by Mike and Julie Duckett, Jim and Nancy Junemann and Scott Armbrust. Currently classified EX-95, Frosty was bred by Dave and Debra Hardesty of Berryville, Virginia.

Reserve Supreme Champion of the show was legendary Brown Swiss, Old Mill E Snickerdoodle OCS, bred and exhibited by Allen Bassler, Jr. of Upperville, Virginia. This is the second year in a row that Snickerdoodle was Reserve Supreme, the sixth time she has topped the Central National Brown Swiss show. She was Supreme Champion in 2003.

Attendance was down a little this year as expected due to the dairy economy, 64,796 visited the show this year compared to just over 68,000 last year. There were 2,551 international guests from 91 countries this year, fewer people but representing more countries than last year.

There were 2,607 head of cattle shown by 912 exhibitors from 35 states and 7 Canadian provinces. Holsteins made up the largest group, 760 head followed by 482 Jerseys, 382 Brown Swiss, 336 Red & White Holsteins, 235 Ayrshires, 213 Milking Shorthorn and 199 Guernseys.

For individual show results, click here:

For sale, youth judging and other results : Read more

Wisconsin will be at the table

One of the big news items at World Dairy Expo was actually something that happened in Washington. On Wednesday, it was announced that the $350 million Sanders Amendment to the Ag Appropriations bill will be included in the final bill. The plan allocates $60 million for the purchase of dairy products for federal food and nutrition programs and the remaining $290 million will be direct payments to producers. Wisconsin Ag Secretary Rod Nilsestuen says those payments will not be through the MILC program as some have predicted, but will instead be some sort of direct payment to producers.

While there is not a lot that a state government can do for dairy producers, the Agriculture Secretary in America’s Dairyland is doing whatever he can to push federal policy. Governor Jim Doyle has nominated Nilsestuen to be on that new dairy advisory committee being assembled by U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. “When we produce over a quarter of the cheese in the United States and almost half of the specialty cheese in a $26 billion industry here, we have to be at the table.”

AUDIO: Secretary Nilsestuen talks about dairy policy

World Dairy Expo’s Dairy Woman of the Year

Each year World Dairy Expo names a Dairy Woman of the Year. This year it is Daphne Holterman of Watertown, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Lloyd, run Rosy Lane Holsteins, an 800-cow purebred Holstein herd. The farm is very busy this week as a number of foreign visitors to World Dairy Expo are taking a side-trip to visit the Holterman farm.

Besides running one of the best dairy herds in the state, Daphne is extremely active in her community and beyond. She has been involved with the local chamber of commerce and the local hospital board. Both Daphne and Lloyd are members of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin, they are past national winners of the Jaycees Outstanding Young Farmer award and do their best to represent what today’s dairy farm family is all about.

AUDIO: Daphne Holterman talks about her involvement

International Dairy Person of the Year

The World Dairy Expo International Dairy Person of the Year is Dr. Jan Philipsson with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He has behind the establishment of an international system for evaluating bulls. The challenge came from the fact that while the semen from bulls is available anywhere in the world, how those genetics respond will vary from country to country. So participating countries do genetic evaluations of how bulls perform in their country and then rank the bulls. About 150,000 bulls from six breeds are evaluated three times a year for production, for calving ease, for confirmation, workability, fertility and a number of other characteristics.

AUDIO: Dr. Philipsson talks about his contribution to the dairy industry

World Dairy Expo’s Dairyman of the Year

The 2009 World Dairy Expo Dairyman of the Year is David Hileman of Pennsylvania. He started farming with his parents right out of high school and then purchased the operation in 1974. “At the time we were milking about a hundred cows and farming 162 acres, over the years I grew it to 420 cows and 700 acres.” He says the success of Hilecrest Dairy Farms has been due to maximizing the use of his facilities, keeping good records and the adoption of technology. “Those that receive the greatest benefit of new technology are those that are first to use it.”

He has served as director and president of GENEX-CRI Cooperative, was president of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, has been on the small business and ag advisory committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and a number of community boards as well.

He sold the operation to a neighbor a couple of years ago and “In my current life” he is working with Penn State University and the Dairy Alliance, organizing and facilitating dairy discussion groups. They get five-or-so dairy producers in an area together over lunch to discuss what is going on in their operations, “To get that network in a community that we used to have years ago.” He says many of the participants are younger producers who have never been through times like these so it is really working well.

AUDIO: David Hileman talks about his farm and his work

“Milk is a fabulous product”

If you want to talk about dairy products, obesity, heart health and nutrition…you want to talk to Patty Endres. She and her husband, Dave milk 700 Jersey cows just north of Madison at Lodi, Wisconsin. Patty serves on the Board of Directors of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin; she is a dietician and a heart transplant recipient. “The biggest thing that we deal with in agriculture is we all work very hard to produce a safe, healthy, nutritious product for people. We are all held to high standards that we meet.”

The challenge is getting the word out to consumers. “It means getting out there and talking about it,” she says, “milk is a fabulous product.”

AUDIO: Patty Endres talks about dairy, nutrition and getting the message out

A lot of research goes into that silage corn

With milk prices and feed costs what they are, dairy producers are looking for ways to grow better forages and then get the most out of those forages. Bill Seglar with Pioneer works with corn silage and finds people are finding “corn silage brings a lot to the table.” The company has been characterizing their corn silage hybrids for 15 years and then use that information to create the best dual-purpose hybrids.

AUDIO: Bill Seglar talks about Pioneer’s silage program

A good place to launch a name

If you are launching a new name in the diary industry, what better place to do it than at World Dairy Expo? Keith Klanderman is with Nutri-Ad. The company provides nutritional additives for all animals including some old, familiar names. He says the new name reflects the company’s new focus on innovation and the future, enhancing the health of the animal while utilizing homegrown feedstuffs.

AUDIO: Keith Klanderman talks about innovation

Choosing additives with the best payback

Most of the exhibitors at World Dairy Expo say the attitude of the producers attending the show has been good. Randy Greenfield with Vita Plus says they know what their customers are going through and they are doing their best to help them. “Producers have limited resources to spend on feed additives,” says Greenfield, “it’s determining which are the ones that are making them the most money.” He notes that it comes down to the best return on investment. Like many, he cautions against discontinuing any management practices which may influence reproductive health because that will come back to haunt a producer for years to come.

AUDIO: Randy Greenfield talks about the decision-making process

Can your dairy lender stay with you?

For years, Gary Sipiorski served as President of Citizens State Bank of Loyal and became well-known for his expertise in financing dairy operations. It was one year ago he accepted a position with Vita Plus and while he left the bank, he remains on its board of directors. He also serves on an agriculture and industry advisory board for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, that group meets this week and Sipiorski says he has three pages of recommendations for the board.

He notes that ag lenders want to work with producers, they do not want to own cows and farms but they are really caught between two federal groups. On one side they have the FDIC and other bank regulators telling them they have to tighten up their credit policy while on the other side, USDA and others are saying do what you can to help them get through. “That’s the dilemma that the bankers are in.” Sipiorski says the real challenge may be yet to come, while milk price futures indicate things are going to rebound, they are still below cost of production for many so the real test may come next February or March when producers need spring operating loans.

AUDIO: Gary Sipiorski talks about the dilemma facing ag lenders 7:57

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