Wisconsin Holstein Members celebrate Registered Holsteins in Manitowoc

Baraboo, Wis. – March 6, 2019 – The Manitowoc County Holstein Breeders, in coordination with the Wisconsin Holstein Association (WHA), hosted the annual Adult Holstein Convention at Holiday Inn in Manitowoc. Nearly 200 Holstein breeders from across the state were in attendance for sessions, speakers and tours and to receive recognition for outstanding accomplishments in 2018.

The convention kicked off Friday afternoon with a national delegate meeting and WHA committee meetings. Following these meetings, Jodi Hoynoski, Executive Director of Holstein Identification and Member Services at Holstein USA, hosted a Holstein USA town hall forum. Members heard updates from the national association and were able to ask questions.

At the Friday evening meal and banquet, the 2018 Wisconsin Top Performer cows were announced. Recognized were cows owned by Selz-Pralle Dairy, Humbird; Tom Kestell, Waldo; Valley Drive Holsteins, Campbellsport; Edward Jeanquart, Forestville; and Dylan and Cameron Ryan of Fond du Lac. Receiving the overall Top Performer for the second year in a row was Pam Selz-Pralle and Scott Pralle’s seven-year-old cow, Selz-Pralle Aftershock 3918 VG-88, with a record of 62,785 pounds milk, 2,564 pounds of fat and 1,838 pounds of protein. Also recognized were owners of cows that have produced more than 300,000 and 400,000 pounds of lifetime milk. There were 27 new 300,000 pound cows and one 400,000 pound cow in 2018.

Kati Kindschuh of Fond du Lac County was also presented with the Young Adult Education award. She will receive a $500 award to attend the 2019 National Agri-Marketing Association Conference.

The group celebrated with the 30thAnniversary of the WHA Royalty Program with a presentation of past princesses and princess attendants. The program, hosted by 2019 WHA Royalty, Princess Lauren Siemers and Princess Attendant, Mikayla Endres, featured fun facts from the past and updates on each princess. In attendance were 11 past royalists who spent the evening celebrating with friends and reminiscing on their experiences.

Following the presentation, the crowd experienced motivational speaker, Steve Jones, who inspired the group to create a winning culture. Jones recently completed his eighth season as head football coach for Kimberly High School. During this time, the Papermakers have compiled a 100-6 record including a Wisconsin state record of 70 wins in a row. His talk, titled “Developing the Leaders Who Create a Winning Culture,” sponsored by CP Feeds, focused on being a servant leader, shared values, personal connection and more.

Attendees at Saturday morning’s early bird session heard about the experiences of Norman Nabholz, of Union, Iowa. Nabholz has worked with some of the highest caliber Registered dairy cattle in the business. Nabholz reflected on his time in the show circuit with a large portion of his talk spent sharing his unique experience at Pinehurst Farms working for David Bachmann, Sr.

The annual WHA business meeting was held and included committee reports from board members and a report on the financial status of the Association. Kurt Loehr of Eden was newly elected to serve a three-year term. Joseta Halbur, Fond du Lac; Heather Jauquet, Pulaski; and Steve Endres, Waunakee were all re-elected to another three-year term. Retiring board members include Bryan Stremcha of Bangor.

Following the annual meeting, 40- and 50-year members and Wall of Fame inductees were honored. This year's Wall of Fame inductees were person, David Bachmann, Sr.; bull, Pinehurst Copyright; and cow, Audrey Posch.

Bachmann was the second living person inducted in the Wisconsin Holstein Association Wall of Fame. In 1950 at the age of 22, Bachmann took over Pinehurst Farm, that was originally owned by his grandfather. Before he started overseeing the dairy program, the farm went through a herd dispersal and Bachmann started to rebuild the Registered Holstein herd. These purchases came from many of the quality herds in Sheboygan County.

Bachmann had a knack for finding influential bulls and merchandising them. A number of these were moved into AI or export markets. Pinehurst also produced many bulls including Pinehurst Copyright, Pinehurst Blueprint, Prestige of Lakehurst, Beau Incomparable and many others.

Pinehurst accomplishments include 50 All-American and Reserve All-American awards with more than 200 nominations and four World Dairy Expo Grand Champions in four different breeds including two Supreme Champions. Bachmann also bred or developed two 97-point and 12, 96-point cows as well as 44 animals that were at least 95-points. Bachmann was able to join in the celebration on Saturday.

Born July 1, 1973, Pinehurst Copyright established himself as a prominent sire at Pinehurst Farms in the 1970s. Copyright was out of Dolvic Fury Bubaleah 2E-97 and sired by Prestige of Lakehurst. Bubaleah was purchased by Pinehurst Farms in 1972 and according to Bachmann, was one of the finest cows he had worked with. A number of Copyright’s daughters would go on to be All-Americans with the most famous being Pinehurst Charity 4E-96, All-American 4-year-old in 1980; and Pinehurst Precious 5E-95, All-American 5-year-old in 1982. In 1980 Copyright was the Premier Sire of the Central National Holstein Show. Over the years Copyright sired 38 Excellent daughters.

This year’s Wall of Fame Cow, Audrey Posch, is the only cow in the breed to have a 19-generation group of Excellent females. To date, research indicates that there are now more than 400 Excellent descendants of Audrey Posch. Born in 1936 and bred by Yates Farms, Audrey was a product of dairy’s line-breeding program. She sold to Mallary Farms in Vermont where she produced a national record as a 14-year-old and two Gold Medal Sons. A notable 12-generation descendant was Pinehurst Royal Rosa EX-91 who had 14 Excellent daughters. Royal Rosa is now the dam of 42, 15-generation Excellents. In total there are now 65, 13-generation Excellents in the breed from the Audrey Posch family.

Following the awards luncheon, the afternoon was highlighted by a farm tour to Cloveredge Farms, LLC where the Holschbach Family milks 500 cows with eight GEA Monobox robots. Attendees saw the robotic system in action and learned about the process the family went through to transition to this style of milking.

Tour goers also saw the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center and were able to interact with the educational stations available. The goal of the center is to take visitors beyond the barn to give the full experience of Wisconsin agriculture.

Honored at the Saturday evening banquet was this year's Distinguished Young Holstein Breeder, Marlowe Nelson Distinguished Service, and Distinguished Holstein Breeder award winners. This year's Distinguished Young Holstein Breeder award recognized Kurt and Sarah Loehr, of Forest-Ridge Holsteins, Eden.

Kurt and Sarah Loehr have been farming for 15 years. Sarah grew up on a Registered Holstein farm and was active in the Wisconsin Junior Holstein Association and was a former Outstanding Holstein Girl. Kurt grew up on the current operation but didn’t get involved in Registered Holsteins until he finished college. His first Registered Holstein was Stelbro Michelle Rubens-Red-ET 3E-93, an 82-point two-year-old purchased on the Elm Park Sale in 2003. Michelle became the matriarch of the Forest-Ridge herd and was named Reserve Grand Champion at the Midwest Spring Show, was nominated All-American and introduced the couple at World Dairy Expo.

To date, the herd at Forest-Ridge Holsteins has a RHA of more than 26,000 pounds of milk with nearly 1,000 pounds of fat with an SCC of less than 60,000. The herd’s BAA is more than 111 which ranks them among the best in the nation for BAA in their herd size. The couple has bred or developed more than 70 Excellent cows, had four state show winners, five national show winners and a number of All-American and Junior All-American nominations across three breeds.

This year’s Marlowe Nelson Distinguished Service award honored R. Paul Buhr of Viroqua. Buhr is the seventh person to be awarded both the Distinguished Service award and Distinguished Holstein Breeder award. Buhr completed six years of service to Holstein Association USA and it’s 28,000 members. During his time serving the association he guided the Junior Advisory Committee and served on the Legislative and Industry Affairs Committee. He also played a prominent role on the Genetic Advancement Committee (GAC) and became the GAC vice chair in 2013. In 2012, Buhr was recognized as the Distinguished Holstein Breeder and his herd, Rabur Holsteins has been recognized on the Progressive Breeder Registry (PBR) for nearly four decades and has received the Progressive Genetics Herd award every year since its inception.

Being honored as the 2018 Distinguished Holstein Breeder, was Mike and Valerie Holschbach of Heatherstone Enterprises, Baraboo. Mike and Valerie both grew up on Registered Holstein farms and continued their passion for the breed when they bought the farm from Valerie’s parents in 1994. At that time the herd was 100 percent homebred on the top and bottom side of the pedigree. Mike introduced new genetics through AI breeding and had early success with Heatherstone Valiant Trinket. In these early days, the farm was modernized with upgrades to the barn and the purchase of the TMR mixer.

One of the most notable animals at Heatherstone was Heatherstone Redhot-Red EX-92, who was nominated Global Red Cow of the Year in 2017 and now resides at Milk Source Genetics. Redhot topped her class at World Dairy Expo for four consecutive years. To date, Heatherstone has bred 71 Excellent females, developed another 99 Excellent females and males, been home to a Holstein Star of the Breed and has had 45 top five placings in national competitions among a number of other allocades.

Mike and Valerie have three children, Chase, Chelsea and Brienne. Heatherstone Enterprises will be dispersing their herd of Registered Holsteins on April 13 at their farm in Baraboo.

Also honored at the Saturday evening banquet were outstanding advertisements in the Wisconsin Holstein Newsin 2018. Taking top ad honors for the year was Wargo-Acres.

The WHA Board of Directors met at the conclusion of the convention to elect officers for the upcoming year. Craig Carncross of Lodi will serve as a second term as President. Vice President will be Steve Endres, Waunakee, and Erica Ullom of Bloomer will serve as Secretary for a third year. Pam Selz-Pralle, Humbird, and Heather Jauquet, Pulaski, were also elected to serve on the Executive Committee.

The Wisconsin Holstein Association holds its annual convention each year in February. For more information on this or other events, visit www.wisholsteins.com, or contact Director of Communications, Mara Budde, at 1-800-223-4269 or marab@wisholsteins.com.

Those looking for high resolution photos of our award recipients can contact Mara Budde.

About Us

Wisconsin Holstein is a not-for-profit membership organization with the purpose of promoting the Wisconsin Registered Holstein Breed and its breeders and owners. For more information visit the WHA website at www.wisholsteins.com.