Creeping over fields of green Remembering the
faces The moments unseen The hands that built
a dynasty The vision in their eyes Echoes in
the auction bar Beneath an endless sky This is
the bull buy Turn the bar Welcome to the Bullvine
Podcast. Today's feature is written by Andrew
Hunt, founder of the Bullvine, sharing a powerful
story about youth development in dairy that will
change how you think about the future of the
industry. Half of today's dairy farms won't exist
in 20 years. That's not fear -mongering, that's
math. But watch these kids at 5 .47 a .m. in
a wash rack. and you'll understand why they're
going to thrive anyway. Because what Andrew learned
standing in those wash racks, it was never about
the cattle. In Andrew's own words, picture this.
It's 5 .47 in the morning. I'm 14 years old,
third year competing at what was then called
the Scotiabank Haze Classic. I'm exhausted, covered
in soap, trying to get my calf ready for a show
that starts in two hours. And that's when it
hit me. this truth that would shape my entire
life. This was never about the cattle. It was
about who we become when nobody's watching. Andrew
had just placed third in intermediate showmanship
the day before. Respectable, not remarkable,
but what moved him most wasn't the ribbon. It
was what happened in those quiet hours before
the crowds arrived, before the judges appeared,
before anything counted. Younger members from
another county team started seeking Andrew out
during those early morning wash sessions. Not
because anyone told them to, but because in those
cold morning wash racks, everyone learned the
same truth. You survive this together or you
don't survive it at all. They'd ask, can you
help me? How do you stay calm when everything
goes wrong? And that's when the weight of responsibility
landed. The kind that changes you. Andrew wasn't
just competing anymore. He was becoming someone
others looked to when the pressure got real.
Fast forward to Andrew's late 20s. He had everything
society says matters. Six -figure consulting
salary, professional prestige, a clear path forward.
Three generations of the Hunt family had built
a master breeder operation in southern Ontario.
Andrew's father spent nearly three decades revolutionizing
Holstein Canada's genetic evaluation system.
His philosophy wasn't just words on his office
wall. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. But
there Andrew was, following, following someone
else's dream while his own withered. The courage
it took to walk away from that security still
catches his breath when he thinks about it. Andrew's
wife's faith saved him. When he told her he couldn't
do it anymore, couldn't keep trading his soul
for a paycheck, she didn't panic about the money
they'd lose. She believed they'd figure it out
together. So Andrew came home, and started building
from nothing, a marketing agency from their kitchen
table. Within five years, they'd grown to serve
four Fortune 500 companies. But even that success
felt hollow. The pullback to dairy, to the industry
that raised him, was too strong to ignore. Now
here's where the story gets interesting. Let's
look at some numbers that shouldn't make sense,
but do. Canada has roughly 9 ,000 dairy farms,
according to Agriculture Canada's latest count.
The United States? Over 30 ,000. Canada has 1
.4 million dairy cattle. They have 9 .4 million.
By every logical measure, Canada should be irrelevant.
A footnote in global dairy genetics. Instead,
and this is amazing, Canada exports between $155
and $178 million in dairy genetics annually.
Canadian Holstein genetics consistently rank
in the top three globally. Canada achieves the
world's best carbon efficiency at 48 % below
global averages. How does a country a fraction
of the size punch so far above its weight? Look
at who's leading Canadian dairy. The vast majority
came through 4 -H programs like the Classic.
That's not a coincidence. That's what happens
when you systematically build leaders from age
12 up. Take Curtis McNeil. Won the Classic Grand
Championship in 2005. The same week, he captured
Holstein Canada's President's Cup. First person
ever to claim both. Today, he's earned three
Master Breeder Shields, serves on Cemex Alliance's
executive board. When he returned to judge the
2024 Classic Showmanship, watching 300 teenagers
compete, he called it the best showmanship class
I have ever seen in my life. Tyler Canning, 2022
Grand Champion. Nadia Ur. 2024 champion after
five years of competing. The pattern repeats
across hundreds of classic alumni now leading
every major dairy organization in Canada. But
here's the hard truth these kids deserve to hear,
even though it hurts to say it. Based on current
consolidation trends, industry analysts project
that approximately half the dairy farms operating
today won't exist when these teenagers are 35.
Not because farmers failed, because the economics
became impossible for mid -size operations. In
the United States, megadairies with 2 ,500 -plus
cows now produce 46 % of milk while representing
just 3 % of operations. Technology isn't optional
anymore. Robotic milking, AI monitoring, and
precision agriculture demand millions in investment
that most farms simply can't afford. The world
these kids are entering is exponentially harder
than what Andrew faced. So what does Andrew tell
those 300 teenagers preparing for the 2025 Classic,
knowing what's ahead? Don't be afraid to change
the world. Use what you're learning here to take
on the world. And remember, the bend in the road
is not the end of the road unless you fail to
make the turn. Some will leave dairy. That's
not giving up. It's using the judgment skills
learned right here. Sometimes the bravest decision
is recognizing when to pivot. toward where your
skills create more impact. Let's paint a picture
of what really happens at 5 .47 a .m. Standing
at the Royal Winter Fair last November, watching
the 41st annual TD Canadian 4 -H Dairy Classic,
Andrew saw himself and every teenager preparing
their calf in those pre -dawn hours. The wash
racks at dawn tell the real story. 300 teenagers
from counties across Canada all preparing for
classes that start in two hours. Premier County
Championships hang on every point. The competition
is fierce, but watch what actually happens. Competitors
from rival counties stop their own preparations
to help someone who is struggling. They share
equipment without being asked. They teach techniques
to direct competitors. They offer encouragement
when frustration peaks. Nobody mandates this.
No rules require it. This is simply who they
are. who they've always been. Those people beside
you at 5 .47 AM become your professional network
for the next 40 years. When you need someone
who understands the weight of impossible decisions,
when you need truth without judgment, you call
someone you showed against decades ago. That
trust, you can't manufacture it in boardrooms
or build it through LinkedIn. It's forged when
you're all exhausted, scared, and determined
not to let each other fail. The moment that changed
everything for Andrew came when he was 35. February
2012. Two weeks from initial idea to launching
the Bullvines' first article. For that entire
first year, Andrew did not seek advertisers.
Complete editorial freedom mattered more than
financial security. People thought he'd lost
his mind. Looking back, maybe he had. But every
skill Andrew needed to make it work came from
those years competing at the Classic. making
split -second decisions when your calf won't
cooperate and 500 people are watching, getting
up the next morning after not doing as well as
you had hoped, walking back into that ring knowing
you might fail again. That's the real training.
Not for showing cattle. For life. Today, the
bullvine reaches over 400 ,000 monthly readers.
It's become dairy's most essential, most provocative
platform. But what matters more is what it represents.
Proof that skills learned at 15 in a show ring
can build something at 35 that changes an entire
industry's conversation. What happens at the
Classic doesn't stay at the Classic. It builds
the collaborative tissue that makes Canadian
dairy globally competitive despite its size.
When Canadian dairy organizations pioneered genomic
selection, doubling genetic progress rates, it
succeeded because people who'd competed as teenagers
trusted each other as adults. Research institutions,
AI organizations, breed associations, and progressive
breeders all collaborating across traditional
boundaries. That web of trust, built at 5 .47am
in wash racks over shared exhaustion and determination,
drives Canada's outsized global impact. You can
trace nearly every major innovation in Canadian
dairy back to relationships formed in 4 -H. Parents
watching their children compete face an impossible
question. How do you prepare kids for an industry
that might not exist when they're ready to take
over? Here's what Andrew's journey taught him.
You're not preparing them for dairy farming.
You're preparing them to navigate complexity
and uncertainty with grace. Whether they lead
dairy operations, genetics companies, technology
startups, or ventures we can't yet imagine, they're
learning to drive change rather than be consumed
by it. For 10 years competing, Andrew thought
he was learning to show cattle. He was actually
learning to make impossible decisions with incomplete
information. To find hope when logic says quit.
To lift others when you're barely standing yourself.
To persist when persistence seems pointless.
These aren't cattle skills. They're survival
skills. The same ones that let you leave a secure
job with young kids depending on you. Launch
a media platform that everyone says will fail.
Tell uncomfortable truths that an industry needs
to hear and somehow find a way to make it all
work. Andrew's parents always said 4 -H was their
stepping stone for learning. From projects that
taught responsibility to giving reasons that
built confidence and public speaking skills,
4 -H became the cornerstone of everything that
came after. Let's share one more scene from that
morning at the Royal last November. from across
Canada. Premier County Championships hang on
every point. The competition is fierce, but watch
what actually happens. Andrew witnessed a young
woman from Western Ontario helping a first -timer
from the Maritimes who couldn't get all the soap
out of her calf. He saw a senior competitor from
Ontario lend clipping equipment to someone from
Alberta whose clippers failed. Nobody mandates
this. No rules require it. No one is keeping
score. This is simply who they are. 300 teenagers.
One cold November morning. The future of an industry
that statistics say shouldn't survive. But they
will. They always have. Not through miracles
or magical market corrections. Through each other.
That's the harvest that matters most. Not in
the field or barn, but in the people we become
together. The road will bend. It always does.
But if you use what you learn here, really use
it, you'll make the turn. Andrew has made that
turn several times now. and each time he's drawn
on skills learned standing exactly where these
kids stand today. In a world that often forgets,
this is what's really being taught in those wash
racks at dawn. How to be the person someone else
needs when everything feels impossible. The cattle
were always just the excuse to bring us together.
The humans we become in those moments before
dawn. That's the real legacy. Here are the key
takeaways from Andrew Hunt's story. Your competition
at 5 .47 a .m. becomes your career safety net
at 35. The teenager you help in the wash rack
today calls you with the opportunity that saves
your farm in 2040. Canada's secret weapon costs
nothing. We export $178 million in genetics with
one -third the farms because rivals helping rivals
at dawn creates trust that boardrooms can't buy.
The skills that matter aren't about cattle. walking
into the ring after public failure, making decisions
while 500 watch, lifting others when you're drowning,
that's the real curriculum. The bend in the road
is not the end. When half of dairy farms vanish,
classic alumni thrive because at 14, they learned
the difference between quitting and pivoting.
And finally, the cattle were always just the
excuse. Building humans who understand collective
success beats individual achievement. That's
why 4 -H kids run Canadian Dairy. Thanks for
listening to the Bullvine Podcast. This has been
Andrew Hunt's story about what really happens
at 5 .47 a .m. and how it shapes everything that
comes after. For more content like this, visit
thebullvine .com. never will die from the show
ring thunder to the quiet strength they knew
hear that story's now coming right on through
oh tell the tale tell the tale the bovine legends
live here