By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor MADISON, Wis. — With the milk price hovering around $10-12, one would expect the world’s largest dairy exposition and trade show, the World Dairy Expo (WDE) to be suffering in attendance and interest from producers. Surprisingly, just the opposite is the case.
According to Lisa Behnke, marketing manager of the Expo, “producers gathered from around the world, united from a common circumstance, to find solutions and to connect with friends in the positive bright light that is the World Dairy Expo.”
In fact, attendance remained strong with nearly 70,000 producers and industry representatives, including several thousand international guests visiting the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. But according to seasoned Brown Swiss exhibitor from Green Bay, Wis., Gregg Christianson, he believes there are reduced entries in the dairy show this year, due to a continued weak dairy economy.
“I think numbers have been down moderately from year to year,” said Christianson, who exhibited the intermediate champion of the Central National Brown Swiss show in 2007. “We estimate it takes around $600 per head to show here and that is probably on the low side when you take into account feed, transportation, fitting and hotel accommodations.”
But for many dairy exhibitors and producers, the extra cash out of pocket is worth the additional expense, for many reasons including the thrill of the exposition itself, the opportunity to learn from university and professor agribusiness speakers. In many cases the Expo serves as the dutiful family vacation, according to Behnke.
The Expo featured five full days of world-class competition among North America’s top dairy breeders with more than 2,600 animals exhibited, including a considerable number of Canadian cattle. A total of seven national and international breed shows, the Kingsmill Farm II International Futurity and breed sales returned this year.
“Getting to the ring for the first time, seeing how your animal stands up to some of the best in the world, is a feeling like no other and it keeps us coming back for more every year,” Christianson said.
A Holstein and Jersey junior exhibitor from Garretson, S.D., Stephanie Nussbaum, 20, said the quality of cattle exhibited at WDE is unmatched.
“We drive eight hours to get here and it is completely worth it,” she added. “It’s the people you show with that you can learn the most from, it’s a great experience, a show like no other.”
Walking away with the title of supreme champion for the 2009 show was the five-year-old Holstein cow from Rudolph, Wis., Harvue Roy Frosty, exhibited by Mike and Julie Duckett, Jim and Nancy Junemann and Scott Armbrust.
Not a stranger to the winner’s circle, Frosty was the 2007 All-American senior three-year-old, intermediate and reserve grand champion and first senior three-year-old of the 2007 International Holstein Show.
She was also nominated All-American senior two-year-old in 2006.
Crowned as the reserve supreme champion of the 2009 WDE was the legendary Brown Swiss cow, Old Mill E Snickerdoodle OCS, bred and exhibited by Allen Bassler, Jr. of Upperville, Va. Quite well known in the Brown Swiss show circle, the 11-year-old veteran is an eight-time class winner, six-time World Dairy Expo champion, and was named supreme champion in 2003 and reserve supreme champion in 2008. At six years and nine months of age, she produced an impressive 33,426 pounds of milk, 1,405 pounds of fat and 1,176 pounds of protein. In addition to her accolades, Snickerdoodle has produced 315 good embryos in her lifetime.
Hailing from the state of Ohio, the Central National Jersey grand champion was presented to Stephan Sparkler Vera-ET, the winning entry in the six-year-old and older class, owned by Joel and Greg Bourne of Ansonia. Representing the juniors, Ben Sauder, of Tremont, Ill. exhibited both the grand champion and reserve grand champion of the Central National Junior Jersey show, Xanadu Champion Kandy Kiss, winner of the five-year-old cow class.
Also of the Midwest, Adam Keener, of Milford, Ill. exhibited the winning entry of the five-year-old class in the Central National Junior Brown Swiss Show with Stookeyholm Cartoon Mariah, who went on to win grand champion honors of the junior Brown Swiss show.
“The quality of cows here is phenomenal,” said Nussbaum. “It’s always a fun time, no matter what you’re coming up here for, it’s the biggest and best show in the world and where memories are made every year.”
For additional information and a full list of class winners, visit online at www.worlddairyexpo.com Published on Oct. 7, 2009 |
