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DAIRY ST R “All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 20, No. 16
How sweet it is
October 13, 2018
“If it wasn’t for family, friends and even strangers, I don’t know what we would’ve done.” – Sharon Meyer
Meyers recoup after devastating September storm
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAIRY AGENDA TODAY
Associate judge Carla Stetzer congratulates Ashley Brandel as Maple Fudge of 12 Oaks won her third youth show championship at World Dairy Expo Oct. 3 in Madison, Wis.
Maple Fudge, Brandel win WDE champion accolades By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
MADISON, Wis. – A last-minute decision to raise her hand to bid on the last calf selling in the Wisconsin Dairyland Milking Shorthorn Sale on a late April day in 2014 turned out to be a wise one made by an 8-year-old, buying her rst calf with her own money. Fast-forward 4.5 years to the 2018 World Dairy Expo, and 12-year-old Ashley Brandel of Lake Mills, Wis., and 4-year-old Maple Fudge of 12 Oaks have been on the ride of a lifetime. The ride started Oct. 3, when after winning her class Maple Fudge received her third grand championship banner in the WDE youth show and culminated when judge Brian Behnke selected her as his overall grand champion Milking Shorthorn. While she stood in the middle of the ring waiting for Behnke’s nal selections, Ashley admits she did not know what to think. “I was getting a little confused,” Ashley said. “They kept telling me to go back in. At rst I didn’t know what I was going back into the show ring for, but then I gured it out and I thought, ‘Oh boy, I don’t think we can win this, but that’s OK as long as I keep trying my best.’” Stealing a glance at her family, Ashley said she saw lots of hugging and excitement going on following each high-ve she received from Behnke. “I couldn’t believe that she had won the whole entire show,” Ashley said. In his reasons upon selecting Maple Fudge as the grand champion of the International Milking Shorthorn Show, Behnke said, “I get emotional when it comes to good cows, and it’s pretty cool to make a little girl grand.” Ashley is the daughter of Matt and Tracy Brandel, and along with her brothers, Colton, 14, and Justin, 9, and sister, Katie, 10, she works on the family’s 220cow farm in Lake Mills, Wis. Ashley, a seventh-grader at Lake Mills Middle School, now owns Maple Fudge with Colton, but the entire family acknowledges that Turn to BRANDEL | Page 7
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Meyers – (from leŌ) Alan, Sharon, Samantha and Andy – stand where their freestall barn once was aŌer a tornado touched down Sept. 20 on the farm site near Kenyon, Minn.
Kenyon family plans to rebuild dairy By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Debris is scaƩered across the Meyers’ dairy farm near Kenyon, Minn. A tornado hit the farm on the evening of Sept. 20.
KENYON, Minn. – Despite the challenges dairy farmers are facing, Alan and Sharon Meyer are grateful for the very industry they are a part of. After a fall storm passed through southern Minnesota Sept. 20, destroying the Meyers’ freestall barn and robotic milking room, the support they have received has made it possible for the them to move forward. “It is so humbling to know all the people who came and helped us cope with this, because there was no time for us to sit by ourselves and think about it,” Sharon said. “If it wasn’t for family, friends and even strangers, I don’t know what we would’ve done.” Alan and Sharon and their son and daughterin-law, Andy and Samantha, milk 120 cows and run 700 acres of land near Kenyon, Minn. Prior to the Sept. 20 storm, the milking herd was housed in a 115-stall freestall barn and milked with two Lely robots installed in 2010. Turn to MEYERS | Page 5