YOUTH REPORT- Randy Slomp

With two years of Covid restrictions in the rearview mirror, youth activities were thankfully able go ahead without interruption.

Every 4H Club was able to hold their achievement day, including for the first year, the MountainView 4H Club which held their show on July 6th in Olds. Also, the Udderly Unique 4H club was able to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of their club.

The Alberta Youth Dairy Show was once again held in Rimbey on July 12-14 with over 50 4H members participating. The Grand Champion Calf was Thornspyc Attraction Diona-Red shown by Kristy van de Brake of the Udderly Unique Dairy Club with Reserve Grand being shown by Eleanor Slingerland of the Green Acres Club with Kenbert Doorman Enjoya.

Youth shows also took place at the Alberta Dairy Congress and Red Deer Westerner.

After having been cancelled for two years, the WCC was held once again in Brandon, Manitoba on August 23-27th. The Alberta team showed itself well with Alyssa Congdon winning Grand Champion with Quality Genie Lauren and Levi Congdon winning Reserve Grand with Mosnang A2P2 Living the Dream. Also, Silas De Lange finished second in Showmanship. On a sad note, it was tragic to hear of the accident that happened the day after WCC was completed in which three truckers lost their lives in a highway accident near Field BC, along with the show heifers that were being transported.

Congratulations to Aalte Jansen of Innisfail who has been awarded one of this year’s Youth Scholarships. She is currently enrolled at Olds College where she is working towards an Agricultural Management Diploma, while Majoring in Agricommerce.

With 2023 well under way, we look forward to what the rest of the year brings for the youth of our province!

AWARDS- Lee Simanton

The year started out with Mars Dairy being named Breeder of the year for 2021 at the annual AGM in February. Deerfield Colony took home the Presidents Club Cow Award with Deerfield Lynx Pamela EX-93-8E.

Congratulations to the two breeders who were awarded Master Breeder shields in 2021, New Mars Dairy & Rocky Mountain Holsteins.

This year the Marj Atkins award was presented to Ev & Marylee Simanton, both are great exampes of lifetime achievers in the Holstein breed and have contributed greatly to the youth over the years.

Past Winners of the Marj Atkins award include:

2021- no recipient

2020- Norm Atkins- Continental Holsteins

2019- Don Chalack- Wendon Holsteins

2018- Don & Carol Wright- Wrightside Holsteins

2016- no recipient

2017- Dale Bienert- Bienert Holsteins

2015- Orville Schmidt- Southrise Holsteins

2014- Marj Atkins- Continental Holsteins

AWARDS- Lee Simanton

PRESIDENT’S CLUB COW AWARD

2022 Club Winners

Country Roads – Skycrest Defiant Last Call – Skycrest Holsteins

Northern Club – New Mars Krusader Makenna– New Mars Dairy

Central Club – Marsfield Denzel Kimmy– Mars Dairy

Southern Club – Huntcliff Epic Endive– Huntcliff Dairy

Green Acres – Rietben Lis Royale– Nifera Holsteins

Breeder Of The Year Award

2022 Club Winners

Country Roads- de Wildt Dairy- the de Wildt family

Northern Alberta- New Mars Dairy- Henk & Lizette Schrijver & family

Central Alberta- Mosnang Holsteins- the Hehli family

Southern Alberta- Happy Cow Dairy- Kees & Miranda Verhoef & family

Green Acres- Nifera Holsteins- Ard & Jennifer Van der Kooij & family

Past ProvinCial Winners:

Van Benthem Dairy- Innisfail

Skycrest Holsteins- Athabasca

Wendon Holsteins- Red Deer County

Chubanna Holsteins- Lacombe

Past ProvinCial Winners:

Deerfield Lynx Pamela, GAHC Deerfield Colony

Rockymountain Super Teatro, SAHC Innislake Dairy

New Mars Sanchez Eastern, NAHC New Mars Dairy

Prehlea Igniter Coltmar, CAHC Chubanna Holsteins

Mosnang Lightning Bolt, CAHC Mosnang Holsteins

Summerdshade Icellene Baxter, CAHC Lucky Hill Dairy & Skywest Holsteins

CRF Goldwyn Celine, CAHC Wendon Holsteins

Irwindale Leduc Macy, SAHC

RockyMountain & Continental Holsteins

Alholm Rudolph Jingle, CAHC Morsan Farms

Continental Leduc Darla, NAHC

Continental Holsteins & Jack Haynes

Beercliff Destiny Lana, CAHC Morsan Farms

Mosnang Holsteins- Rimbey

Pol Butte Holsteins- Coaldale

Marsfield Dairy- Stettler

Skycrest Holsteins- Athabasca

Bernalta Holsteins- Innisfail

Crestomere Holsteins- Ponoka

BREEDER OF THE YEAR- Country Roads Holstein Club- DE WILDT DAIRY

Heifers ranked on the Top 100 list for LPI sit in the following spots: o #6 o #56 o #66 o #73 o #100

And Heifers from the herd ranking in the Top 100 for Pro$ sit in the following spots: o #14 o #31 de Wildt Dairy is run by Kees de Wildt and his two son’s Thijs and Job. The family moved to Canada in 2005 and built a brand new dairy barn (we bought property from a grain farmer so there were no barns on site). The first milking was just before Christmas 2006. Our cows were bought from a few different hutterite colonies (no cows with high genetics). The herd now consists of 100 milk cows, and 120 youngstock.

Genetics have always played a large role in the de Wildt herd. To ensure they continued this tradition when moving from The Netherlands, the family brought over embryos from our herd there. These embryos were used to accelerate the herd’s genetic progress. To this day the top percentage of the de Wildt herd are genetics descending from the Holland herd.

Currently de Wildt Dairy is ranked #39 for LPI in Canada and #2 in Alberta, #38 for Pro$ in Canada and #2 in Alberta.

The herd has cows ranked on the Top 100 list for LPI in Alberta at the following spots: o #29 o #69 o #76 o #89 o #94

Cows from the herd ranked in the Top 100 for Pro$ in Alberta include: o #49 o #54 o #96 de Wildt Dairy has some impressive Herd Management Scores, including Milk Value of 11,000 -placing the herd in the top 90th percentile and Udder Health score of 1.8- placing the herd in the top 85th percentile.

The de Wildt family is actively involved in the Country Roads Holstein Club, attending all functions as well as participating in the clubs annual production competitions. de Wildt Dairy consistently receives awards through the club for highest BCA and Deviation in 1st, 2nd and 3rd+ lactation classes. The herd has been presented with the Highest RHA BCA award in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and has received the most improved RHA BCA award in 2017, 2013, 2012, 2010.

Thijs has been coaching basketball at Barrhead Composite High School for about 6 years now.

BREEDER OF THE YEAR- Country Roads Holstein Club- DE WILDT DAIRY

Henk and Lizette emigrated to Canada from Holland in 2004 with their 2 boys Niek and Ruben, later on they had another boy named Justin that was born in Canada. They started New Mars Dairy a few miles west of Millet Alberta. Today Niek and his wife Mikayla & Ruben are involved in learning, working, and taking care of the dairy. Justin is still in high school and helps out on the farm in his spare time.

Currently New Mars operates with 5 full time hired help they milk 400 cows and farm 1200 acres of land. They grow corn, barley, and alfalfa on those 1200 acres to provide enough feed for the year.

New Mars has currenty 15 home bred cows in the herd over 100,000kg of milk, one of those cows is the 10 year old NEW MARS FEVER BEYONCE EX-90-6E, who has produced over 135,000 kg milk. Another mentionable cow is NEW MARS DENISON EARNMART VG-88 who is producing over 165,000 kg of milk.

Every year New Mars Dairy shows some cows at the local club show in Millet where they have a great time with friends and family. NEW MARS TATOO ARALUEN owned with Mosnang won 2nd in Junior 3 class at the Westerner Dairy Show in Red Deer, she is as well an amazing young cow that stands out to the Schrijver family.

The whole herd is purebred and they are using 50% high type proven sires, the other 50% is high type genomic sires, bottom end is bred to Angus.

Registration and classification is very important for New Mars for their own use and mating program also to get reliable numbers on sires.

The Schrijver family is honoured to be nominated by the Northern Alberta Holstein Club for the breeder of the year award. Last year they won the Master Breeder Shield which was a great time for them at the convention in Saskatoon, thanks to Holstein Canada and Sask Holstein they had an unforgettable experience with family and friends.