BREEDER OF THE YEAR- Central Alberta Holstein Club- MOSNANG HOLSTEINS

In June we showed at the Alberta Dairy Congress where we had 1st Jr. Breeders herd and were Junior Premier Breeder. Next was the CAHC Mid-Summer Classic where Wyatt and Adair also had their first 4-H Achievement day. Mosnang Believe in me was Reserve Champion that day.

In July the kids once again showed their 4-H animals at the Alberta Youth Dairy Show. We are lucky that it is close to home being in Rimbey!

Mosnang Holsteins started in 1980 when Heini & Ruth emigrated from Switzerland to the Rimbey area. Now their oldest son Markus and his wife Amanda along with their four kids, Wyatt, Adair, Georgia & Sawyer take care of the day to day operation of the farm. We are milking around 110 cows in a step up parlour. We make all of our own silage (barley, haylage, corn) and buy in our dry hay and straw.

In 2022, we had 24 VG 2 Year Olds, 9 VG-86 and 1 VG-88 in the US. We were also very proud to achieve our first EX-95 classification with Mosnang Solomon Liquify in the summer of 2022after she was sold to Westcoast Holsteins. Our herd classification is now 9 ME- 10 EX- 83 VG- 24GP.

We had several Superior and Longtime Production awards throughout the year and 7 Star Brood Cows, 1 CAHC production winner with Mosnang Wickham Ladybug, BCA 315-498-312. As well we had 1 Super 4 Award from Mosnang Doorman Lady Love. Our current RHA BCA is 226-263-233.

We continue to work towards our 1st Master Breeder Shield as we have been in the top 10 in our category for 5 years now!

2022 was a big year at the shows, as we went to a lot of them throughout Western Canada! Starting with the National Convention in Saskatoon where we had Jr. Bred & Owned Champion with Mosnang Miranda Lambert. We also bred 3 class winners there, Mosnang Little Sister, Mosnang Unix Lipstick & Mosnang Unstopabull Karma (owned with Lucky Hill & Lovholm).

In August we sent 4 heifers out to Manitoba for Team Alberta at WCC, the kids did a great job with their animals throughout the week and Levi & Alyssa Congdon ended up with Grand and Reserve Champion with Quality Genie Lauren and Mosnang A2P2 Living the Dream. Nicole Verhoef was 1st in her class with Mosnang Miranda Lambert. If things had gone as planned the heifers would have met us out in BC as we were showing at the Interior Provincial Exhibition in Armstrong that week. Sadly, the liner was involved in a collision on the way out to BC, as many of you know, and the heifers were lost in the accident along with the lives of the drivers. It was devestating news to get the day we were packing up the trailer to head out, but we were committed to making the trip and still managed to make the best of the show. Our kids had fun showing their calves and we had Junior Champion with our Holstein, Mosnang Chief Darla & Jersey, Mosnang Dell Never Give Up. While it was difficult it was also amazing to see the resillience of Team BC and the BC breeders as they still made the show happen and were able to spend time together following the accident.

BREEDER OF THE YEAR- Central Alberta Holstein Club- MOSNANG HOLSTEINS

In October Mosnang Bred animals were shown down in Madison at the World Dairy Expo. Mosnang Unix Lipstick and her dam Mosnang Solomon Liquify placed 3rd & 5th in their classes, which was exciting to watch! A partnership cow we own with Crestomere and Stanhope Wedgwood also placed well in the Jr. 3 class, Crestomere Sidekick Valkyrie. She was also Grand Champion at the Vancouver Island Show this summer.

Later in October at the Westerner Dairy Showcase Mosnang Chief Darla (owned with Garritt Schmidt, WI) did well once again winning Reserve Junior Champion. Our Junior Breeders herd was also 1st in class. Two partnership cows also did great at the Westerner, New Mars Tatoo Araluen (owned with New Mars) was 2nd in her class and Kozak Alligator Erica (owned with Stanhope Wedgwood) was 1st.

November at the Royal WInter Fair was certainly the highlight of the year when Mosanng Unix Lipstick was 1st Jr. 3 and went on to be Reseve Intermediate Champion! Later that day Mosnang Solomon Liquify along with her two daughters, Unix Lipstick and Bridgsetone Live Wire (6th Milking Yr) placed 2nd in the Breeders Herd class! Mosnang Holsteins was also 2nd Premier Breeder at the Royal. An unbelievable experience! A huge thank you to Westcoast Holsteins for taking such great care of these cows and getting them to this show level!

With the great show results in the fall we also had several nominations, 8 bred or owned All-Westerns, 3 All-American and 5 All-Canadian nominations.

A high numers cow we sold a few years back, Mosnang Jacoby Legendairy also produced a son that we co-bred with Blondin Sires that went into AI, Blondin Legend. It is exciting seeing this line of breeding doing well.

Markus is a director on the Central Club and is on the organizing committee for the Westerner Dairy Showcase. As well he is an official judge and was able to get away in April to judge the California State Show.

Heini finished his term with Alberta Milk in 2022 , he has dedicated a lot of years of service to the organization and enjoyed it greatly! Amanda is on the staff for Alberta Holstein as the Social media /Publication rep. We are also becoming more involved with the Udderly Unique 4-H Dairy Club as our kids get older! Markus also continues to be a mentor for the Alberta WCC team.

In a year that had some extreme highs and lows, we’d like to thank the Central Club for the nomination for Breeder of the Year, it is an honour!

Happy Cow Dairy started in 1999 when Kees and Miranda Verhoef immigrated from the Netherlands in the same year. They purchased a farm with a herd consisting of Holsteins and Brown Swiss cows from the Aare (Holstein) and Kama (Brown Swiss) prefix going back to Lausen Dairy (Scotchman prefix). They started crossbreeding in 2000 because it was difficult to find suitable Brown Swiss semen and because of the desire to reach higher components.

Kees and Miranda have 3 children; Simon (23), Robin (21) and Nicole (17). They are all involved in the farm around work and school.

We have a few influential and favorite cow families: Aare Megabuck Renate VG85 was one of the 45 cows we purchased with the farm when we started farming in Canada. When we relocated in 2002 to a newer and larger dairy farm down the road, we took our cows with us, but sold all our youngstock to make the move happen. While we were still milking offspring from Renate who clearly transmitted milk and longevity, we later purchased offspring of some of the young stock we previously sold in our move to our current farm. Ten Brummelhuis Dairy sold us two crossbred grand daughters of Renate from one of the animals we sold to them eight years earlier: Brummelhuis Jordan Rammer VG87 and Brummelhuis Firelight Rabber VG87. We kept a bull out of Rabber who bred offspring that is still in our barn today. There are also promising heifers in the youngstock barn that go back to Renate.

In 2000 we purchased from the only Brown Swiss herd in Alberta (Bob Galloway in Cochrane) a pregnant heifer: Pleasant View Lacy GP81. Although the first couple generations did not radiate perfection, the strong cows out of this family did not fail to impress. Out of this family we have bred multiple Very Goods and an EX-90-2E cow. Many of the animals still in our herd, that go back to Lacy, still show the strength and power that the earlier generations had as well.

Happy Cow Rosemountain Rome VG88 was one of the crossbred Jersey cows we purchased in 2006. Two of her daughters are still in our herd and they both in their 9th and 10th lactation: Happy Cow Pickel Rhodos EX-90 and Happy Cow Omega Rhodos EX92 4E. The third daughter Happy Cow Return GP-83 was sold as a bred heifer and went on to produce 110 760 litres in 9 lactations.

In order to take advantage of the genetics of this family, we decided to collect semen from a son of Happy Cow Omega Rhodos, named Happy Cow Axl Robinhood, as we saw very promising results of the seven sisters of this bull. Two of these sisters are EX-90, two are VG-88, two are VG-85 and all contribute greatly to our overall production and components. Semen is readily available with high fertility results.

Happy Cow Toldos GP-81 was a grade heifer purchased in 2005. Although her progeny tree is short, the longevity showed. The tremendous frames and exceptional milk production has lead to high classification scores and production awards. Happy Cow Albiorix Toffee EX-90-3E and Happy Cow Fever Tracy VG85 both contributed to our herd of distinction award. Toffee was a special 4H calf to Nicole and is ready to receive her 4th EX. Toffee has two promising daughters, Happy Cow Fever Tamika GP-83-2yr and Happy Cow Amaretto Taffy, in the herd and she herself has currently a lifetime production of 90 000 litres as she just started her 6th lactation. Her Daughter Tamika is projected for 13 800 litres for her second lactation.

Our crossbreeding program is with three breeds; Brown Swiss, Holstein (Black & White and Red), and Jersey, although we make the decisions based on what breed we feel fits each cow. The hybrid vigor is a great help in our goal to have high longevity and excellent feet and legs. Mating programs are not effective for our cross breeding program. Like every farmer our semen tanks are overflowing with options ranging from proven bulls such as Victorious, Dynamite and Rager-Red to upcoming sires such as Ryder-Red, Legend, and Burgundy-Red. Kees enjoys adding to his collections as he scans the choices of favorite sires by looking at health traits, very good udders, excellent feet and legs, and survival rates of 4th lactation plus. Red Holsteins are also a bonus. Influential sires are the Shottle son HOLCANM471838726 Albiorix and Ruti Appleboy CANM12076784 (Brekem out of Epic). Our herd currently contains 31 Appleboy animals (7 of them are VG+) and 23 Albiorix animals (with 10 of them scored VG+).

Highlight this year again was receiving the Herd of Distinction Award from Holstein Canada. This is based on the cows with a breed code of Holstein and 75% or more purity. Because of the purity, seven 100 000 litres cows were not recognized.

Besides working on the farm, Miranda also spends time with Alberta Milk as a Director. She is cleaver leader for the 4H club and helps with Breakfast on the Dairy Farm events with the East Olds Dairy Farmers Club. She also is a Simulated Client in Communication classes with Veterinary Students at University of Calgary. Simon works off the farm as a heavy duty mechanic but still enjoys helping out with corn silaging, other field work and repair and maintenance. Robin is working full time on the farm. Nicole is active in the Udderly Unique 4H Dairy Club and participates in the Provincial Youth Dairy Show and WCC.

Because we value registration, we do register every animal at Holstein Canada with the right sire and breed. By doing this, it does not help us with % purity of our animals, but we still hope that in the future it will be one Canadian herdbook for all breeds. We also value tools such as milkrecording, the Canadian Dairy Network database from Lactanet as a resource as well as classification, mainly in herd trends and individual linear scores. Over the last couple of years, we experience more appreciation for a correct, long-lasting crossbred cow from the classifiers. We appreciate the Alberta Holstein Assocation because of their support for the youth programs.

Our Rolling Herd Average is based on 76 supervised milkrecording cows with BCA 262–291–261 = 814. 11,776 kg milk, 483 kg fat and 374 kg protein. Our current herd classification over all our cows is 7 EX, 39 VG, 101 GP and 25 G cows making it 85.5% GP or higher.

We enjoyed participating in the 2022 Barn Cow Competition where it is so good to see that every farm has an opportunity to participate in. Nicole placed first with Happy Cow Immunity Trombone and 2nd place with Happy Cow Redstar Beauty. Happy Cow Indigo Liberall VG85 got 1st place in the 2nd lactation category. Happy Cow Pickel Rhodos EX-90 was 2nd place in the 100,000 kg Lifetime class.