AWARD WINNER RECOGNITION 2021 A.C. “Whitie” Thomson Memorial Award
2021 Merle Howard Award
The A.C. “Whitie” Thomson Memorial Award was presented to Ysabel Jacobs of Ferme Jacobs, Cap-Santé, Québec, Canada, during World Dairy Expo 2021. Jacobs received this recognition for mirroring the exemplary leadership and sportsmanship that Whitie Thomson was known for in the showring.
Kylie Nickels was named the 17th Merle Howard Award winner at the 54th World Dairy Expo on Saturday, October 2. A hard-working, dedicated, and passionate showman, this year’s Merle Howard Award honoree started her showing career by exhibiting grade cattle from a nearby neighbor.
Jacobs has a degree in marketing and farms with her family including parents, siblings, and children. Ferme Jacobs consists of 2,000 acres and over 1,200 head of cattle. The farm and the family behind it have successfully marketed cattle and embryos around the world and recently hosted a sale that averaged nearly $13,000 with three females selling for over $200,000 each. With her degree, Jacobs manages the marketing efforts of cattle and embryos on the farming operation. The Jacobs family began exhibiting dairy cattle at the local level in 1980. In 2008, they brought their first full string to World Dairy Expo and achieve impressive results with a class winner and three others that stood in the top four. Ferme Jacobs has exhibited at World Dairy Expo for 13 shows and has build a reputation in the Showring that is recognized by many. Jacobs and her family have been awarded two Premier Exhibitor banners and nine Premier Breeder banners, including the Premier Breeder banner for the 2021 International Holstein Show. They have exhibited numerous champions including three Grand Champions who each went on to claim titles under the spotlight at Expo – Bonaccueil Maya Goldwyn, the 2013 Supreme Champion; Jacobs Lauthority Loana, 2018 Reserve Supreme Champion; and Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET, Expo’s current Supreme Champion. Jacobs possesses an incredible passion for the dairy industry and has garnered the respect of fellow breeders and exhibitors around the globe. She is known for being a leader, a visionary and is humble in victory and gracious in defeat.
From that humble beginning, Nickels began pursuing her dreams of building a dairy herd when she purchased her first registered Holstein . . . a spring calf. Following a mating to the Holstein sire named Atwood, her very first bred and owned calf was born a few years later. That first bred and owned animal eventually earned first-place honors at her district Holstein show and later a top ten finish at the Wisconsin State Holstein show. Nickels, now a University of WisconsinMadison student, most recently developed the winning Grand Champion of the 2021 International Junior Jersey Show at World Dairy Expo. There’s a reason for all the success this junior has earned . . . Nickels is one of the hardest working youths in the barns. Whether it’s helping catch manure, feeding hay, or being the one stuck clipping legs, no job is too big or too small for this young lady. To further develop her skills, Nickels began working for some of the very best breeder-exhibitors in the area, including Cresentmead, Crestbrooke, the Sell Family, the Great Northern, and Budjon Farms. Those experiences also allowed her to hone her skills working at shows across the country. The more this Dodge County junior learned about dairy cattle, the more she wanted to give back to fellow juniors. With an unquenchable desire to learn, Nickels teaches others by mentoring youth via fitting and showing clinics held at their family farm. In recent years, she has also served as herdsperson for her county at the Wisconsin State Fair and prepped nearly all the county’s cattle for the show.
It's at that Wisconsin State Fair that not once, but twice, she was named Supreme Champion Showman of the entire show in 2019 and 2021. A well-rounded individual, just a few years earlier, Nickels was on the Dodge County team that represented Wisconsin at the National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest at World Dairy Expo. That team won the entire contest that year. Nickels’ eye for good cattle also made her an ideal person to serve as committee chair for selections at the 2021 University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger Dairy Club Online Sale. As a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dairy Cattle Judging Team, Kylie earned second-place individual honors at the 27th Annual Vernon County Dairy Cattle Judging Contest in September 2021. 2021 Klussendorf Award Jeff Core of Salvisa, Kentucky was presented the 79th Klussendorf Award, the highest recognition given to a dairy cattle showman in the United States during the 54th World Dairy Expo. Core embodies every admirable quality of a great, late dairyman. The award is given in memory of Arthur B. Klussendorf, considered an outstanding showman of his time and a model for all those who have followed him. This year’s selection was made by members of the Klussendorf Memorial Association, formed in 1937, at its annual meeting held earlier this week in Madison, Wisconsin. Core received the silver trophy designed by Tiffany Jewelers of New York City on Friday, October 1. Born and raised on an Iowa Jersey farm, Core traveled to Kentucky four decades ago to see some of the best Jersey farms in the world. It was on that trip that he met his wife, and they went on to create the Keightley and Core Jersey Farm. Throughout the years, this dairyman and his wife have bred and exhibited multiple national champions, placed bulls in A.I. studs, and have bred production award winners. The farm has been a regular exhibitor at both World Dairy Expo and the All American Jersey Show. Not only has the 79th Klussendorf winner worked to build an excellent herd of Jersey cattle, Core has also judged both nationally and internationally including serving as the associate judge on the colored shavings for the 2019 International Brown Swiss Show; as associate judge of the 2004 All American Jersey Show; and as official judge at shows in both Canada and Mexico.
World Dairy Expo President Bill Hagement presents Ysabel Jacobs the time-honored A.C. “Whitie”Thomson Memorial Award during the Supreme Champion parade.
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Kylie Nickels was the recipient of the 2021 Merle Howard Award.
