Tour of America

Rob Kite

Senior Championship

I was honoured to hear I’d been selected to judge the Open Milking Shorthorns at the All American Dairy Show. I was also invited to tour America, to visit shorthorn breeders with the opportunity to view their genetics. My whirlwind trip of three weeks to America started on the 17th September 2022, from London Heathrow to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania to the All American Dairy Show. I made sure to land a day early incase of any flight cancellations. As I made my way down to London Heathrow it was a busy journey due to thousands of people travelling to the capital to see the late Queen Elizabeth lying in state before her funeral on the 19th of September 2022. I had one day to rest at the Hotel and get ready to judge the Junior Guernsey show on the first day. The standard of animals presented was very high from the juniors, with my champion cow going on to stand reserve champion the following day in the Open show.

Harrisburg Intermediate Champions We currently have 10 Guernsey’s ourselves, so it was great to meet and catch up with breeders on the Wednesday following my Open Milking Shorthorn show, to catch up on genetics with them. The Junior shows in America are cattle owned or leased to shows by exhibitors under the age of 25. On Tuesday 20th September 2022 it was the Open Milking Shorthorns show day. Classes came in thick and fast keeping the judging in hand, a very refreshing task. The quality and numbers were very good. My Junior Champion was All-in Deuce Liza P, Reserve was Heavenly Lookin’ Good and Honourable Mention Lands-Brook KNH Chilli Pepper. Liza P is a lovely dairy animal with an awesome open frame, she walked on great feet and legs with a wide muzzle and hard level topline. This winter calf was really on form and turned out well to fully deserve Junior Champion on the day over two dairy, clean boned heifers in Reserve and Honourable Mention.

My overall Championship trio was Lazy M Wildside Genette, Hard Core C-Tie Sundance and Hard Core Lottery Fireworks. My Champion cow was the winning senior 3 year old second calver, she’s a super dairy cow with strength and width from nose to tail with a stunning mammary system snugly attached high and wide. Wednesday 21st of September 2022 at the All American show I was able to watch the last day of judging in the Open Shows of other breeds before the grand championship of breed sections that afternoon, along with catching up with the exhibitors. A very impressive show piece to celebrate the winners and awards, presented from the states county pageant Queen who was heavily involved. This show is the second largest showing of cattle in America after World Dairy Expo. To see how hard the staff and volunteers work to deliver such a professional show was great. With the show completed it was then to Maryland for one night with the Hess family before a day full of seeing herds. First up was the BJ Colours of the Nailor family. It was good to catch up with Brian after they had shown in Harrisburg. Only a small portion of Shorthorns in the milking herd but plenty of them in the youngstock pens for the future as it looks like they have no trouble getting heifer calves in the last few years! BJ Colours Lucky Strike Noble P was a very appealing young cow that I believe would suit a number of UK and overseas breeders. She was modern but had strength and substance to produce good yields and proving Shorthorns can deliver in herds with Holsteins.

Milking yearling class (Expo) Lazy M Wildside Genette

Also her dam BJ Colours Stanley Neveah EX91 was a very good aged cow milking on her 5th lactation and due to Gold Mine Pirelli, a mating that will be very interesting to see the outcome of. BJ Colours Comanche Australia was a very nice milk heifer along with a good number of Comanche daughters in yearling pens that all looked very balanced for conformation. Lunch was enjoyed at Delightful Dairy where we were treated by Katie Long, Katie is the sister to Jenny at Misty Meadows, our next destination. That afternoon was spent viewing the Misty Meadows herd of Jennifer Malott and family. Baby calves by Henkeseen CyRide and youngstock by Wildholm Ironmans Oak P. The bull Jenny used as her stock bull were certainly the stand out progeny. A quick view of the milkers along with the new Lely milking robot shed being constructed. A promising young cow just fresh was Misty Meadows Rosebud P, sired by Lucky Strike out of a Barbwire Red Dam. I was seeing a lot of Circle B Lucky Strike P as he was used a lot, being available in sexed straws and carrying the polled gene made him a favourable choice. Leaving Jenny to complete the milking we headed off to see the Cool Springs youngstock of Allen Hess in their barns. They were in great condition and show ready being on a simple hay ration and pellets, along with the chance to see my Junior champion of the show Liza P at home. Allen will either house milkers at farms near by or sell on to suitable buyers when fresh calved. He feeds the youngstock morning and evening between his full time job which seems a common thing with a number of breeders and exhibitors that still love to be heavily involved in showing dairy cattle. That night it was tasty beef Brisket prepared by Jennys brother. Plenty of food and drink before setting off for overnight stop at by Harrisburg Airport to fly via Charlotte onto Boston to meet Billy Bartlett of the Cold Springs Stud.

Comanche at BJ Colours(left)

Cold Springs (below)

I spent two nights and two days with Billy and his family, the company was great fun with great food and a chance to see the local sights and coast along with the camp site, run by Cheryl. The cows are milked by one robot in a great flat pack shed for extra comfort and it worked well. The calibre of cattle here was very good. The majority of the herd being shown from homebred to brought in cattle, just recently back from the Big E show, giving us many individuals to talk about. Daughters of Destry Lad, RR Zeus, Lottery and Presto stood out. Two fresh two year olds by Premium and Bentley looked very good prospects for the future along with calves by Petrone. Here I got to see KNH Endres Md Mr Chrome. This young sire is by Halpins Muddy Rockstar out of Molehill Lottery Caliente EX92. A smart individual and being a combination of Rockstar x Lottery, two sires that were in high demand on most breeders breeding plans. A very young bull being reared with a sire stack of Presto x Lad x Lottery looked the making of a smart bull for future use. Billy then took me on a scenic route past some very large dairy units before meeting for lunch with Greg and Marcia Clark from GMC, great to catch up again as I’ve had the pleasure of meeting them on our farm back in England in 2018. On the way to the farm we stopped by the Cornish Windsor Bridge built in 1866. The longest wooden bridge in United States and largest two span covered bridge in the World! The bridge connects Vermont to New Hampshire. Arriving at the farm I got to meet Brooke their daughter who is an integral part of the day to day running of the farm. Viewing cows whilst they were being milked was great as it gave me time to chat about what family and sires they were by. It was very interesting to see big, well known names from the Holstein world they were working with, along with well know Shorthorn families. A good amount of ET work is done here and it is great to see how it brings new blood lines into the herd to keep progressing. I saw three impressive milking ET daughters by Royalty and Megadeth out of Corstar Deuce Mix P EX94. Other highlights were a two year old GMC Robin Desire and Taylor Farms Rubens Spitfire before they headed off on the long journey to Madison later in the week. Daughters of St Clare, Lotto and Rockstar were doing a good job in the milking herd and GMC Lady’s Man progeny stood out in the youngstock.

Cornish Windsor Bridge

After an overnight stay I met up with Beth Hodge to go and visit her families, Echo farm. The set up was one robot to milk 65 cows and they process some of their milk into making puddings that I had the pleasure of sampling. Daughters by Comanche and Silverleigh Maxima stood out along with Echo Farm Patriot Miramar sired by North Stars Patriot on her 3rd lactation being a stand out individual. After a good day meeting the rest of the Hodge family, Beth then took me to Bradley Airport the night before I caught a flight going via Washington to Buffalo airport to meet up with Marjorie Kuszlyk of the Kuszmar herd for the day. At the Kuszmar herd we started by viewing some promising youngstock from a number of different breeds. We then headed off to see the milking herd and to walk the farm where the very well know man sires Othello, Megadeth and Mudslinger originated from. It was a pleasure to talk breeding and genetics to Marjorie. All the dairy breeds milked displayed the high type Kuszmar strive for. Highlights in the shorthorns were twin sisters sired by Yoman out of Kuszmar Arkansas Mud EX96 looked good young cows to be working with. A very nice stand out milking heifer was the full sister to Kuszmar Mercury Stargazer a sire recently released by Semex. After meeting some of Marjorie’s family and a lovely evening meal it was then off to Buffalo airport overnight via Detroit to Madison airport. Landing in Madison on 28th September 2022 I was met by Vince Ruzic who kindly offered to chauffeur me around for the next two days. Vince was a great and extremely knowledgeable guy on breeding and points of interest in and around Wisconsin.

Kuszmar

Jershir Herd

The first farm of the day was Jerry and Shirley Wagner’s organic Jershir herd. This pasture grazed herd only use stock bulls to serve cows which helped a lot with uniformity of the animals. The bull currently in use, Brand-New Just Flamin, was a very upstanding bull and displayed good type. He is sired by Justice out of two-time Expo champion Maple Fudge of 12 Oaks EX95. He was collected for straws before Wagners purchased him. His first calves were just being born at Jershir. A cow that stood out was Jershir Kenny Arla by Rovin Acres Abner Kay Kenny. Daughters by Mapleton Vly Mud Bermuda looked like they could milk with well attached udders. It was great to see this herd performing on a simple low-cost grazing system. Next, we headed on to the Elm-Roc Dairy of Adam and Kristina Luchterhand to see the shorthorns forming close to 50% of their herd and a chance to view their show team for Madison. Daughters by St Clare and Zippo stood out here for conformation and good production. We could have talked for hours with Adam and his family but milking time for them was soon upon us, and we had to make it back in time for a delicious dinner prepared by Roseanne Ruzic.

St Clare at GMC

Ricochet at Wide Open Acres

An early start the next morning to catch up with Vince, Roseanne and their daughter Katie Bue who milks 30 cows with her Husband Charlie at Wide Open Acres farm. Charlie also does foot trimming in the day. It was a pleasure to see these cows looking in fine form with Shorthorns, Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jerseys in the tie stall for milking time. All exhibited high type. A senior cow by Innisfail Red Ruben was just fresh on her 5th lactation along with a really good Cor-Bloo Ricochet daughter that had a high wide rear udder on her 2nd lactation. Ricochet has had very good use in the UK too.

Then we went to meet Pat Ruzic, Vince and Roseannes son, before he finished morning milking. Pat milks the Rovin aces herd and his parents look after some of the youngstock at their place. The Rovin herd has a number of family lines carrying the Polled gene. Rovin Precise P nearing the end of her 5th lactation sired by Abner P was a stand out cow here along with two daughters of Weissway Ocean who were also impressive. After breakfast it was a three hour drive to the World Dairy Expo to meet Katie from Mapleton as they were setting up ready for the show. This was my last change over as I would spend the night at Mapleton which would give me ample time to view the herd. Just as I was explaining to Katie the trip so far has gone really smoothly, luggage was all still with me etc her car would not start! So, after a change of plan getting home, all was fine. I do believe Katie has now replaced the old car for a newer model after Expo! Arriving at Mapleton in time for afternoon milking I met Pat and Phylis before walking into a beautifully kept barn, it was good seeing each cow walk into their own stall to be milked. Cows were very functional with great dairy capacity and strength. Mapleton Vly Julius Zulily, Rockstar Ronnie and Atlas Bellini were three very good individuals. Another cow Mapleton Vly Lucky Hugo P EX90 was on her 3rd lactation and bred to Mixology P. She was dairy with a powerful frame whilst not being over tall with great production already. Agnews seemed to have used a good variation of sires yet still maintained good uniformity in the herd. The next day it was time to head back into Expo with the show cattle and settle them in before Tom Agnew could start to clip them ready for show day. Now for a full week of Madison! The Mapleton crew kept me fed and watered whenever needed along with so many other breeders I met over the duration of the week.

Rovin Acres

Monday 3rd of October 2022 7am was the Milking Shorthorn classes with the first heifer class having 32 forward for judge Joe Sparrow to place with his associate judge Matt Fry. It was good to see a number of heifers forward from Harrisburg show with my Honourable Mention calf Lands-Brook KNH Chilli Pepper being crowned Junior Champion along with the Heavenly Lookin’ Good adding another Reserve Junior title to her achievements. The quality was great down the line in each class. The premiere sire of the heifer show was Halpins Muddy Rockstar. The milking classes soon arrived with the yearling milk class up first. The winner, Heavenly Hushpuppy sired by Presto and owned by Tyler Endres, was top of a class of beautiful young heifers that I believe would suit any type of breeder and system around. She was not the tallest in the class but was so correct and balanced with a stunning mammary.

Heavenly Hushpuppy

In the Junior 2 year old In Milk class, a similar stamp of heifer won, Mikes-Dar Trans Rebecca, she was clean boned, dairy with a very correctly attached udder. The Intermediate Champions were an awesome duo in Lazy M Wildside Genette and Henkeseen Royalty Reason taking the top spots. The older cow classes were great with plenty of exceptional cows in class line ups. In the senior cow championship Pine Valley Junebug sired by Presto from the Age Cow class had an incredible rear udder with width and height along with very desirable teat placement, who edged out for top honours ahead of the dairy machine Molehill Lottery Caliente, the winning 5 year old who is even looking a handy brood cow with her daughter by Kuszmar Devil Anse placing 3rd in the 2 year old class. Caliente is a feminine, powerful, dairy cow with a sweet udder full of veins. The Honourable Mention cow Corstar Presto Lulu, the winner of the life time merit class, completed a tremendous line up of senior champions. The overall grand championship was won by Lazy M Wildside Genette. It was great to see my champion cow from Harrisburg come out even better, just 2 weeks later, to take the top honours in Madison. She is one exceptional cow with a level top line, elegant with a deep body and the mammary being very level, with width and height of rear and fore udder blending smoothly into the body. Well done to Peter Vail, his team and to Mike Maier for breeding her. Premiere sire of the milkers by no surprise was North Stars Presto. He seemed to just breed very nice udders on all the farms I had visited along with the many daughters at the show. It was then great to meet and catch up with numerous Shorthorn breeders after the show throughout the rest of the week along with visiting the trade stands spread out on the Madison grounds. The week was great fun and soon came to an end with the climax of the Interbreed show on Friday before my flight home the next day. For any cow enthusiast, a trip to Madison is a must. Awesome cows and fantastic people to meet.

My three weeks in America were a blast. The generosity, hospitality and welcome I received from everyone was much appreciated. Thank you to everyone for making it a great experience. Rob Kite