Creeping across the pasture land. Got dirt on
the boots and a working hand. From the milk house
home to the auction call. These are the folks
standing strong and tall. Yeah, this is... Usually,
when we discuss a major agricultural convention,
the focus immediately goes to, you know, the
trade show floor. Right. The new robotic milkers.
Yeah, exactly. Or some massive corporate merger.
But today we're stepping away from those corporate
booths and, well, we're stepping directly into
the sawdust. I love that. Picture the scene.
It is a Sunday morning, late March. The blowers
are humming incessantly in the barns. You've
got that heavy scent of fresh hay. and Orvis
shampoo just hanging thick in the air. Oh, man,
you can smell it just talking about it. You really
can. And we're standing right on the edge of
the ring at the Showplex in Hamburg, New York.
The center of the universe for that weekend.
Exactly. And look, if you are scraping the return
alley right now, or maybe you're feeding calves
out in the freezing cold while listening to this,
you need to care about what happened in this
building. Absolutely. Because it's not just a
show. No, it's not. The decisions being made
by the judges on that colored sawdust today,
those are the exact genetic blueprints that will
dictate the profitability of your herd. Yeah,
the longevity, the structure of the cows in your
freestall barns like five years from now. That
is the perfect way to frame it because... The
show ring often gets dismissed by commercial
dairymen as just a beauty pageant. All the time.
People think it's disconnected from the harsh
realities of a commercial milking facility. Right.
But walking into that building, I mean, the energy
is a physical wall. It is the absolute definition
of sensory overload for a dairy breeder. Just
wall -to -wall cattle. Yeah. The sheer concentration
of elite genetics in one space is staggering.
What happens in Hamburg sets the genetic trajectory
for the entire North American dairy industry.
And we are not just analyzing a single event
here. Paint this audio picture for a second.
We have two massive elite level shows running
simultaneously in adjacent ranks. Literally side
by side. Yes. On one side, the International
Jersey Show is underway. Judge Shiki Cherist
is out there on the microphone and his energy
is just off the charts. He is so fun to watch.
He really is. He is practically bouncing on his
heels, actively hunting for exhibitors to talk
to between classes. He projects this enthusiasm
that completely electrifies the bleachers. And
then literally right across the aisle. Next ring
over. Yeah, Judge Chip Savage is operating with
a completely different intensity. So true. He
is standing dead center. Silently and like intensely
sorting through a massive power packed class
of red and white mature cows. The contrast in
judging styles and the breed atmospheres occurring
at the exact same time is fascinating. Two different
worlds. It is. The jerseys bring this undeniable
elegance, you know, sort of fiery refinement.
Fiery is a good word for them. Yeah. Well, the
red and whites, I mean, they just project sheer
undeniable power. But in both rings, the standard
of excellence is so high. that the tension is
palpable. The tension was incredible. Just watching
Deb Crothers working as the ring runner for the
jerseys, that was a master class in handling
pressure. Oh, ring running is no joke at that
level. She is frantically running back and forth,
communicating the judges' signals, correcting
class placings. In the winter yearling class
alone... Which was huge, by the way. Yeah, 18
absolute beauties. She had to physically correct
the lineup five separate times. Oh. Five times.
Five times. It's loud. It's incredibly tense.
The crowd is hanging on every single move. And
the quality of the cows in both rings is forcing
the judges to split the finest of hairs. And
see, when a judge of that caliber is moving animals
around five times in a heifer class, that communicates
that the top end of the class is flawlessly tight.
They're identical in quality. Exactly. They are
no longer judging the overall animal at that
point. They are dissecting the biomechanics.
Like getting down to the millimeters? Yeah. They
are scrutinizing the angle of a pastern, the
exact sweep of a rib, the precise tracking of
a hind leg on the move. Right. It is a high -stakes
puzzle where a fraction of an inch in structural
correctness separates the winner from the middle
of the pack. And that was just one morning of
the New York Spring Dairy Carousel, which ran
from March 29th to the 30th, 2026. A massive
weekend. Yeah, this is a wall -to -wall, multi
-breed explosion that officially kicks off the
North American show season. The tone setter.
Exactly. Across the aisle, the Holsteins were
gearing up for a historic showdown, while the
Browns, Swiss, and Ayrshires were bringing incredible
depth of their own. And look, the bullvine had
their full class -by -class show reports up immediately
for all five breeds. They did. Anyone can go
read those five separate retaps to see, you know,
who placed 10th in the fall calf class. But that
is not our mission today. No, it is not. We are
delivering the director's cut of the weekend
in this deep dive. Right. We're distilling those
hundreds of placings down to the core narrative,
highlighting the standout cows, the people behind
them, and diving deep into the underlying breeding
decisions that actually matter to the dairy industry
at large. Because our focus has to be on translating
the genetics in that ring to the concrete and
the freestalls at home. for you listening. Yes,
the practical application. We need to dissect
why these specific animals are winning and how
their biological traits impact the bottom line
of a commercial operation. So let's start where
the action was the thickest. Let's head back
to Sunday's dual rings. If there was one undeniable
theme of that morning, it was the sheer, breathtaking
dominance of the mature cow classes. Oh, the
veterans came to play. They really did. We aren't
talking about pretty young heifers here. We are
talking about veterans in their absolute prime.
Let's look at the red and white heavyweights
first. Let's do it. The five -year -old red and
white class was a clash of titans. Elmview Farm
brought out wild weed warrior Maui Red. What
a cow. Right? Going head -to -head with lucky
atomic castaway red exhibited by Tyler Carter,
Pat DeGroote, and Pat Conroy. Two absolute powerhouses.
So, Judge Chip Savage gets on the mic and he
highlights Maui Red's extreme mass, her width,
and her depth of heart. Classic traits. But see,
the old cliche we always hear in the show ring
is that a cow hits you like a truck. Right, you
hear that constantly. I want to throw that cliche
out. Okay, why? Because a truck doesn't tell
me how the animal functions. I want you to explain
the actual biological engine of a cow like Maui
Red. When a judge praises depth of heart and
barrel, what are we actually looking at biologically?
Well, a dairy cow is, at her core, a biological
furnace. I like that analogy. Yeah, her fuel
is forage and her output is milk. When we look
at a cow with massive depth of heart and barrel,
we are looking at the architectural framework
of that furnace. The physical space inside her.
Exactly. The barrel is her digestive capacity.
The wider the chest floor, the longer more open
and sweeping the ribs. Well, the larger the fermentation
vat. Meaning her rumen. Her rumen, yes. Yeah.
A dairy cow needs to consume upwards of 100 pounds
of feed a day. 100 pounds. Just think about that
volume. It's massive. And a narrow, frail cow
simply does not have the internal cubic volume
to physically process that much dry matter. Which
means if she can't eat the volume required, but
her genetics are telling her to produce 100 pounds
of milk a day. She is in trouble. Big trouble.
She starts pulling energy off her own skeleton.
She strips the fat and muscle off her own back
to keep the milk flowing. Precisely. That is
the metabolic cliff that so many high -producing,
narrow cows fall off. It's sad to see. It is.
But depth of heart, the area directly behind
the front legs, is arguably even more critical.
Because of the hardened lungs. Exactly. That
is where the cardiovascular system lives. Look,
to produce one single gallon of milk, A dairy
cow must pump roughly 400 gallons of blood through
her udder. 400 gallons of blood for one gallon
of milk. That ratio is wild. It's insane. So
if a cow is producing 12 gallons of milk a day,
that is nearly 5 ,000 gallons of blood pumping
through her cardiovascular system every 24 hours.
So Maui Red, standing there at five years old,
displaying that massive width and depth, she
visually confirms that she possesses a cardiovascular
engine and a set of lungs capable of sustaining
that extreme metabolic output without burning
herself out. That reframes the entire visual
for me. It's not aesthetic mass. It's the required
infrastructure for sustained elite production.
Yeah, it's functional mass. She has the biological
machinery to process feed efficiently and the
physical strength to hold her own at a crowded
feed bunk against 300 other cows. Boss cow energy.
Totally. Now, physically pivoting across the
aisle to the jersey ring, the visual is totally
different. Be a knight. Right. The animals are
smaller, they're more refined, but the intensity
is just as high. Into the ring walks Keveta Colton
Delilah, exhibited by Kira and Griffin Lamb.
Oh, Delilah. What an entrance. She walked in
with a massive target on her back. I mean, she
was the returning 2025 World Dairy Expo Junior
Show Grand Champion and an All -American. Heavy
is the head that wears the crown. And JP Charis
tapped her for both Junior Show Grand Champion
and Open Show Grand Champion. She delivered.
She really did. The ringside commentary fascinated
me, though. They were watching her in the lineup,
and one commentator asked out loud if Delilah
is just, quote, crazy. Crazy. Yeah, because her
head is always cranked up. Her ears are forward.
She never slumps. She never relaxes. She is intensely
alert the entire time. Oh, I see what they mean.
But I want to push back on this concept of ring
presence. I picture Delilah. Like a heavyweight
prizefighter who refuses to ever drop their hands.
She's posing. She's flexing. Right. From a purely
practical standpoint, is ring presence just a
beauty pageant trait? Does a cow walking around
with her head held high actually translate to
a more dominant cow in a standard freestyle environment?
Or do we just reward it because it looks pretty
for the cameras? It is entirely understandable
to view that alertness as pure pageantry. I mean,
it does look pretty. But there is a profound
correlation between ring presence and structural
health. Really? How so? Ring presence is a manifestation
of vitality and structural comfort. Think about
the biomechanics of a cow's spine, hips, and
hooves. Okay, I'm with you. A cow that is constantly
head down slouching or struggling to maintain
her posture in the ring is almost always a cow
in pain. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, her feet
might hurt. due to poor hoof angles, her hocks
might be inflamed from improper weight distribution,
or her utter attachments might be failing. Causing
suspensory discomfort. Exactly. So posture is
a direct visual health indicator. If standing
upright hurts, the cow will slouch to relieve
the pressure on her joints. Or her suspensory
ligaments. So Delilah can keep her head up and
stay on for hours because her biomechanics are
flawless. Flawless. Her feet and legs are perfectly
angled, so standing on hard -packed dirt or concrete
doesn't cause microtraumas to her hooves. Right.
Her udder is snug and well -attached, meaning
the weight of the milk isn't tearing at her internal
connective tissue. So she's comfortable. She's
comfortable. Yeah. And beyond physical comfort,
it translates to behavioral dominance in a commercial
setting. Back to the feed bunk hierarchy. Exactly.
In a freestall barn of 300 cows, the social hierarchy
is ruthless. The cow with her head up, the one
projecting aggressive, confident vitality, that
is the boss cow. She eats first. She eats first
at the bunk. She claims the most comfortable,
well -bedded stall. And she's never bullied away
from the water trough. That's fascinating. That
structural confidence directly correlates to
herd health and lifetime profitability because
she dictates her environment rather than letting
the environment dictate her stress levels. That
completely dismantles the idea of it being just
a beauty contest. It's biological confidence.
Yes. Perfect phrase. And we saw a beautiful genetic
echo of that exact concept with the reserve grand
champion in the jersey ring, Waymar Viral Noel.
Oh, the comeback kid. The ultimate comeback.
She hasn't been in a show ring since the 2024
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, which is... A
massive layoff. It's practically a lifetime in
show cow years. Seriously. She's exhibited by
Isaac Foltz, Forex Ford, and Cache Valley Genetics.
And digging into her pedigree, it's amazing.
She traces directly back to the legendary Waymar
Patrick Nadine. Nadine? Wow. Yeah, one of the
commentators recalled seeing Nadine back in 1996,
remarking on her immense, sweeping rib structure.
And Noel has it too. She does. Viral Noel inherited
that exact structural framework, giving her the
capacity to come back at five years old, after
a long hiatus and dominate with an incredible
mammary system. The genetic prepotency to pass
down that specific structural blueprint over
decades, I mean, that is what separates a good
breeding program from a legendary one. 30 years
of consistency. It proves that architectural
capacity is highly heritable. So true. Well,
if the five -year -olds in the jersey and red
and white rings are demonstrating peak prime
condition, the carousel pushed the limits even
further. Oh, we're going older. We are. We need
to transition from the five -year -old prime
to the absolute biological limits of the dairy
cow. I want to look at the animals that haven't
just been doing the job for five years, but for
a solid decade. The ultimate test of time. Yes.
Let's set the stage for the Holstein -aged cow
class. Judge Brian Karskadin is standing in the
center of the ring. A legend. He really is. He
has judged all over the world. He is a legend
in his own right. He is evaluating Lopine VA
Lady Crush, exhibited by Jeffrey Butler from
Butler View. Okay. And she is going against Jeffreyway
Hard Rock Twigs, exhibited by Doburner & Bowen,
Conroy Walker Dairy, and R &F Livestock. Two
incredible animals. Karsgatan was so blown away
by these cows that he got on the mic and compared
them to his iconic 2011 Hamburg lineup. Oh, wow.
Licorice, Stormatic Hazel, and Gold One Lotto.
Exactly. He named those three specifically. I
mean, for anyone deeply invested in Holstein
history, that 2011 lineup is mythological. It's
the gold standard. It really is. Those three
cows reshaped the modern breeding era. To have
a judge of Karsgaden's caliber invoke those specific
names is a massive statement. High praise doesn't
even begin to cover it. He is essentially telling
the crowd that they are witnessing history and
that these cows represent the pinnacle of the
modern Holstein standard. Well, Lady Crush ends
up taking grand champion of the whole show, bagging
up perfectly on her fourth lactation. Fantastic.
But the real mind -bending reality hits when
we dig into the 150 ,000 -cown lifetime production
class. This is where it gets crazy. In the Holsteins,
we have an 11 -year -old cow, Jericho Dairy Barracuda,
exhibited by Curry Holsteins. She has had seven
calves. Seven calves. Seven. And she is going
head -to -head with a 10 -year -old cow, Willow
Mar Diamond Bick Rose Red from Elmview Farm.
Two absolute iron women. Karskadon gives the
win to Barracuda based on incredible foot and
leg structure and phenomenal utter width from
behind. But the crossbreed crossover here is
what's really staggering. Right, with Rose Red.
Yes. That same 10 -year -old cow, Willowmar Diamondbick
Rose Red, crossed over and won the Lifetime Production
Class in the Northeast Spring National Red and
White Show. Double threat. And she didn't just
win her class. Judge Chip Savage tapped this
10 -year -old 7 -lactation veteran as the...
the honorable mention grand champion overall
in the red and whites. We have to pause and deeply
analyze the magnitude of that achievement. It's
almost unbelievable. It is. Imagine a cow in
a commercial herd that calved in for the first
time almost a decade ago. She has given over
150 ,000 pounds of milk. I tried doing the math
earlier. That's roughly 17 ,400 gallons of milk.
Think about the thousands of trips she has made
to the parlor to produce that. The thousands
of miles she has walked on abrasive concrete.
The wear and tear. Yeah, the sheer metabolic
output of producing that much milk. For that
animal to walk into a national level show ring
and beat out cows that are three, four, five
years younger than her for a grand champion banner,
it just defies standard biological wear and tear.
Gravity alone should have taken its toll, specifically
on the mammary system. Producing 150 ,000 pounds
of fluid means the udder has been under constant,
immense downward pressure for a decade. Gravity
is the absolute enemy of the dairy cat. It always
wins. Well, usually. Usually. The mammary system
is held to the body wall, primarily by the median
suspensory ligament. which is the central support
cable of elastic and fibrous tissue. Right. A
mature Holstein udder, when full of milk, can
easily weigh over 150 pounds. It's like carrying
a full -grown adult human underneath you. Exactly.
And that suspensory ligament has stretched and
contracted under that immense weight twice or
three times a day, every day, for seven lactations.
It's a miracle it doesn't just snap. Well, sometimes
it does in weaker cows. For a 10 -year -old cow
to maintain a balanced, utter floor that hasn't
dropped below her hocks, and for her teeth to
still be perfectly plumb, it requires genetics
woven with biological steel. Biological steel.
I love that. The collagen elasticity required
to prevent that ligament from simply snapping
or permanently stretching out is phenomenal.
And the economic impact of that biological steel
is the holy grail for a commercialized area,
right? It is the single most important factor
in dairy profitability. Think about it. The replacement
cost of raising a heifer from birth to the point
of her first calving is roughly $2 ,000 to $2
,500. That's a huge upfront investment. Massive.
And that animal does not start generating a true
profit until halfway through her second or early
in her third lactation. So she's just paying
off her own debt for the first few years. Exactly.
If a cow washes out of the herd after two lactations
due to poor feet or a blown udder ligament, she
was a net financial loss. You lost money on her.
You lost money. But if you can breed cows like
Bercuda and Rose Red, cows that thrive into their
6th, 7th, or 8th lactation, your profitability
skyrockets because your herd replacement rate
plummets. Because you aren't constantly raising
new heifers to replace broken cows. Right. Every
drop of milk they produce in those later lactations
is high margin. profit. They are the ultimate
blueprint for financial sustainability. That
is just incredible context. Now, while we are
celebrating these 10 and 11 year old iron women,
the carousel delivered a massive shock on the
exact opposite end of the spectrum. Oh, boy.
The youth movement. Yes. We have to transition
from the 10 year old veterans to a rookie who
walked into the building and completely upended
the hierarchy. Let's examine the youth uprising
in the Ayrshires. This was a wild story. It was.
The Ayrshire show, running simultaneously with
the Brown Swiss, was smaller. They had 49 head
total, and the milking cow classes were quite
thin. Not a huge turnout for the older cows.
No. We saw single entries in three milking classes
and no entries at all in the senior two -year
-olds. Then junior exhibitor Michaela Spencer
walks in. Just her and her heifer. She has exactly
one entry for the entire show. Her junior two
-year -old, Chaluka Rinalda Bella. A single entry.
Bella walks into the junior two -year -old class
as the only entry, winning by default. But then,
in the championship drive, she lines up against
the older, mature cows. The heavyweights. Including
the four -year -old, Palmyra Blackjack R. Roslin,
exhibited by Steve Linkowski, who took reserve
grand champion. A beautiful four -year -old.
He is. But Judge Churis walks right past the
mature cows, pulls this lone two -year -old out
of the lineup, and hands her the Supreme Grand
Champion banner. A single entry from a junior
exhibitor taking Supreme Grand over mature cows
is... incredibly rare unheard of almost it is
classic underdog territory but it is also a highly
controversial judging decision in many circles
which is exactly why i want to aggressively challenge
this biologically a two -year -old hasn't even
finished growing her frame her skeletal structure
is still developing handing her the supreme banner
doesn't that fundamentally ignore the proven
durability and the necessary mass of the older
cows we just spent 10 minutes praising I see
where you're going. If we just said mass and
depth of heart are essential for a biological
engine, how does a gawky developing two -year
-old beat a mature four -year -old? Are we prioritizing
a flashy, precocious youth over actual proven
dairy strength? That is the core debate of dairy
judging, honestly. But you have to understand
the specific philosophy of evaluating a two -year
-old. Walk me through it. You are correct that
she lacks the sheer mass and the extreme depth
of barrel of a mature cow. However, a judge is
not strictly comparing the two -year -old's size
to the four -year -old's size. Oh, they're not?
No. They're evaluating the two -year -old against
the ideal standard for a specific age and assessing
her potential trajectory. Ah, projecting her
future. Yes. For a two -year -old to win grand
champion, she cannot look like a cocky teenager.
She must possess a structural maturity that defies
her age. So she has to be advanced. Exactly.
She has to exhibit extreme dariness, meaning
she is clean, angular, and free of excess condition,
while still showing a wide, sweeping rib structure
that indicates her future capacity. So it's about
the architecture being so perfect that the judge
can project what she will look like at five years
old rather than just measuring her current sheer
volume. Exactly. But the deciding factor is almost
always the mammary system. Always comes back
to the udder. It does. A two -year -old that
takes Supreme must have an udder that is so highly
attached, so beautifully veined, so perfectly
balanced, and so incredibly snug to the body
wall that it cannot be denied. And Bella had
that. J .P. Cheris saw an animal that perfectly
exemplified the ultimate Ayrshire breed standard
on that specific day. When the structural correctness,
the angularity, and the utter promise are flawless,
the judge has to reward it, even over a cow with
more mass. It sends a message. It sends a powerful
signal to the breeders. Extreme quality and correctness
of parts will always trump sheer size. And it
wasn't just this one two -year -old sending a
signal on the Ayrshires. Like I said, the cow
classes were thin, but the heifer classes were
deep. Really deep. The summer yearling class
had 10 entries. The spring yearlings had nine.
If we were looking at the future, the sire data
from those classes was undeniable. One name kept
popping up. Heinemann Milius Rage. Rage was everywhere.
He was absolutely dominant. He put four daughters
at the top of the heifer classes. Ms. Cinderella's
Crown E .T. topped the 10 -head summer yearling
class for shocking genetics and took reserve
junior champion. Beautiful calf. And on the map
Rage Journey won the spring yearling class for
Ashton and Levi Wilcox. My question is, how does
a single sire manage to stamp that level of consistency
across completely different maternal lines? That
is the definition of genetic prepotency. Prepotence.
Yes. When a sire is highly prepotent, his genetic
markers for specific traits like angularity,
straightness of lines, or foot angle are so dominant
that they override the variability of the dams
he is mated to. So his genes just take over?
Pretty much. When you see a sire put four daughters
from different maternal lines raised in completely
different environments with different feeding
programs right at the top of national level classes,
that bull ceases to be an interesting prospect
and becomes a proven commodity. The carousel
just provided a massive data point for air shear
breeders. If your herd needs to improve style
and structural correctness, Heinemann -Milios
Rage is transmitting a highly reliable pattern.
That's amazing data to take home. So we've covered
the single entry underdog story. Now let's look
at the exact opposite strategy. The big strings.
Yes. What about the breeders who showed up with
massive strings of homebred animals dominating
multiple classes all day long? This transitions
us to a master class in breeding, the power of
the farm prefix. I love talking about prefixes.
Let's start with the Brown -Swiss sweep. Brian
Pacheco basically backed his trailer up and loaded
the banners. He had an incredible weekend. He
really did. He won senior grand champion with
Iroquois Acres Total Candy, who also won the
100 ,000 pound lifetime class at nine years old,
by the way. And he took reserve senior champion
with Jerlene Ama. I'm a Cali girl. Both incredible
cows. But the fascinating logistical angle here
is that Pacheco String is housed and managed
at Callum McKinvan's Lookout Farms up in Canton
de Hatley, Quebec. And this brings up the crucial
role of environmental epigenetics in daily management.
Okay, break that down for us. Elite genetics
are only half the equation. You can have the
greatest genetic blueprint in the world, but
if the daily management isn't world -class, those
genetics will never fully express themselves.
So the food, the barn, all of it matters? Everything
matters. The specific feed rations, the precise
timing of hoof trimming, the ventilation in the
barn, the daily exercise. Partnering incredible
cow families with the daily management expertise
of a facility like Lookout Farms creates a synergistic
effect that results in these dominant multi -banner
sweeps. But the Junior Dynasty and the Brown
-Swiss Ring was entirely homebred and mind -blowing.
Oh, Hannah Balthasar. Yes. Junior exhibitor Hannah
Balthasar from Bernville, Pennsylvania. She owned
the entire junior division. Sweat good. Junior
champion with CIE North Kill Creek Tessa. Intermediate
champion with North Kill Creek Groove ET. Grand
champion of the junior show with that same gal.
Unbelievable. Every single one bred and owned
under her North Kill Creek prefix. But the detail
that demands analysis is the fall yearling class.
Hannah took first place with one heifer and third
place with another. In the same class? In the
same class. Those two heifers are by completely
different sires, one by first choice, one by
design, but they are out of the exact same donor
cow, Northkill Creek Groovy. Groovy is a legend
in the making. Let's do a deep dive into the
mechanics and the economics of this. How does
one cow have two daughters in the exact same
age class? This is the immense power of in vitro
fertilization, IVF, and embryo transfer technology.
ET. Yes, ET. A dairy cow naturally has a nine
-month gestation period, meaning she can typically
only have one calf per year. Right, biology is
stubborn. It is. But when a breeder identifies
a truly elite female, a donor dam like Northkill
Creek Groovy, They can bypass that biological
limit. How exactly? They extract unfertilized
oocytes directly from the donor's ovaries, fertilize
them in a lab with semen from different elite
sires, and implant those resulting embryos into
surrogate recipient cows. So the surrogate carries
the calf, but the genetics are 100 % from the
donor and the chosen sire. Correct. This allows
a single genetically elite cow to produce dozens
of offspring in a single year. That is wild to
think about. It accelerates progress so fast.
When a donor cow like Groovy can throw national
-level class winners using completely different
sires, it proves that her maternal genetics are
overwhelmingly dominant. She overrides the bulls.
She is the anchor of the pedigree, locking in
the structural correctness regardless of which
bull she is mated to. We saw this exact long
-term strategy paying off in the jersey ring,
too. Mason Zimba with Z Class and Sunnyside Farms
quietly and systematically took over the show.
Quiet dominance. He won premier breeder, premier
exhibitor, junior best three in both the open
and junior shows, produce of dam and best three
females. His prefix was everywhere. He built
a program. He did. But I want to contrast this
generational homebred strategy with the massive
financial trend currently reshaping the industry.
The flush and flip market. Ah, yes. The quick
turnaround. The high end show ring is heavily
influenced by investors buying famous cows, flushing
them extensively for embryos, raising the calves
and immediately selling them at high end consignment
sales to people who want instant gratification.
It's a huge part of the business now. We saw
it at the carousel. The Jersey winter yearling,
Big Gun's Joyride Valhalla, was bought at the
New York Spring Select Sale on Saturday night
for a massive premium. And on Sunday morning,
she placed second in a massive class. Less than
12 hours later. It is buying a ready -made winner.
So if the flush and flip model guarantees you
a top -tier animal without the decades of trial
and error, why are breeders like Balthasar and
Ziemba doing it the hard way? What are the economic
risks of the flush and flip model? Well, the
flush and flip model is high risk, high reward
financial speculation. Speculation is the right
word. It requires massive upfront capital to
purchase the initial donor cow or the high end
embryos. If the resulting calves don't develop
perfectly or if the market suddenly favors a
different genetic profile, the investor can lose
tens of thousands of dollars overnight. It is
treating genetics like day trading. That's exactly
what it is. Yeah. And it ignores the epigenetic
reality of moving an animal from farm to farm.
Because the environment changes. Exactly. When
you purchase an animal at a sale, you are dropping
her into a completely new microbiological environment.
New pathogens, different feed sources, different
social stressors. Which can derail their development.
Oh, absolutely. When you breed the winter yourself,
like Balthazar and Zimba, you are developing
cow families that are genetically adapted to
your specific farm's environment, your specific
feedstocks, and your specific management style.
It's custom -built for their home. Yes. Winning
Premier Breeder, which is awarded to the farm
whose bred and owned animals earn the most total
points, is the ultimate validation of a true
dairyman. It means you aren't just an aggregator
of expensive cattle. You are a master architect
of bovine genetics. It takes so much time. Decades.
It requires patience, weathering the storms of
cathode pneumonia and failed matings, and holding
true to a long -term genetic vision. Blurring
our eyes and looking at the carousel as a whole
across all five breed reports. The judges were
incredibly aligned. They really were on the same
page. Karsgaden in the Holsteins, Savage in the
Red and Whites, and Cherist in the Jerseys and
Ayrshires, they were universally rewarding specific
traits. Consistency was key. They wanted dariness
combined with massive spring of rib. They wanted
high, wide udders snug to the body wall. But
the trait they were absolutely ruthless about
was impeccable hind leg tracking. Oh, the legs.
They were tough on legs. Every judge penalized
cows that couldn't travel smoothly. I want to
dig into the biomechanics of the dairy cow leg.
We hear terms like too much set to the hawk or
weak pasterns. If I'm walking the barns, a bad
hawk means a cow that can't get to the feed bunk.
Simple as that. So explain the physics of the
dairy cow's leg and why the judges were so critical
of it. The hind leg of a dairy cow is a complex
suspension system designed to carry massive weight.
Like shock absorbers. Exactly. The hock is the
equivalent of the human ankle, and the pastern
is the joint just above the hoof. When a judge
says a cow has too much set to her hock, they
mean the leg is too profoundly bent, or sickle
-hocked. It looks curved. Right. Instead of the
leg acting as a straight, weight -bearing pillar,
it acts as a collapsed spring. This forces the
cow's weight entirely onto the back heels of
her hooves, rather than distributing it evenly
across the entire hoof block. And on a brace
of concrete, uneven weight distribution is a
death sentence. It leads directly to heel ulcers,
digital dermatitis, and chronic laminitis. Which
ruins the cow. Completely. Conversely, if the
pastern is too weak, the joint drops and the
dewclaws drag close to the ground, pulling on
the tendons with every step. Ouch. The show ring
has historically been criticized for ignoring
leg structure in favor of pretty udders, but
the carousel proved that the judges are now fiercely
aligned with the commercial reality. They won't
tolerate a bad leg anymore. No. If the leg acts
as a faulty pendulum, the cow will not survive
a modern freestall environment. The sires that
stamped these correct traits were universally
rewarded. Right coup. In the jerseys, the video
daughters were everywhere, displaying incredible
length and presence. In the brown Swiss, HF Design
produced structurally flawless class winners.
But beyond the biomechanics and the genetics,
the emotional undercurrent of this weekend is
what grounds the entire industry. It's about
the people. It really is. Looking through the
photos and the results, it wasn't just massive
corporate syndicates winning the banners. It
was family. Well, you know, farming family. Yeah.
The Crothers sisters, Cameron and Macy, won the
four -year -old class in the jersey ring while
their sister, Deb, was running the ring. That
is so cool. The Lamb family took grand champion
in the open jersey show with Delilah, then walked
over to the red and white ring and took grand
champion of the junior show. Busy weekend for
them. And the Wilcox family brought their on
-the -map prefix to the front of three different
Ayrshire classes. These are families sleeping
in tack rooms, washing cows at 3 a .m. in freezing
water, and living the extreme labor of this life
together. The technology and the genetic data
will continue to evolve, but the foundation of
the dairy industry remains generations of families
working shoulder to shoulder. Bringing a string
of cattle to Hamburg requires an insane amount
of logistical planning, physical labor, and financial
sacrifice. When a junior exhibitor finally stands
at the center of that ring holding a grand champion
banner, it validates every 4 a .m. alarm and
every frozen water trough they had to break over
the winter. So let's bring this massive weekend
of data and observation down to one final critical
point. Someone is finishing up their chores right
now, locking the parlor doors. What is the one
defining thesis you think they should take away
from the 2026 New York Spring dairy carousel?
The defining thesis of this weekend is the balance
of extremes. The balance of extremes. Yes. Historically,
the industry operated on a forced compromise.
You either bred for a flashy, precocious two
-year -old that won the show ring but burned
out physically by her third lactation. Or you
bred for a slow -maturing, rugged cow that lasted
a decade. but lacked the refinement to ever win
a banner. You had to pick one. You had to choose.
The carousel proved that compromise is no longer
necessary. Wow. You can breed an Ayrshire that
takes supreme champion as a fresh two -year -old
because her angularity and utter attachments
are flawless. And if that structural foundation,
the precise angle of the hock, the strength of
the suspensory ligament, the sheer capacity of
the internal barrel is bred right, she does not
burn out. She comes back. She returns at five
years old. hitting the ring with the massive
power of Maui Red. She returns at 10 years old,
like Rose Red, carrying the weight of 150 ,000
pounds of milk, and she still commands the center
of the ring. It's beautiful. The modern dairy
breeder is building functional, profitable, living
art that endures. It is the ultimate fusion of
form and function. But, you know, it raises a
massive question for the future. What's that?
If we have successfully bred a biological engine
that can produce elite volumes of milk as a two
-year -old and still possess the physical durability
to last a decade, are we approaching the absolute
biological limit of the bovine frame? That's
a huge question. Or will these genetically superior
supercows eventually outgrow the physical limitations
of our current freestall architecture, forcing
us to redesign our barns to accommodate the massive
capacity we are intentionally breeding for? That's
our New York Spring Dairy Carousel Weekend Recap
on the bullvine deep dive. You'll find full class
-by -class reports, photos, and results for every
breed at thebullvine .com. Subscribe so you don't
miss the next show. story.