2011 National Red & White Dairy Cattle Association Convention
July 20-23, 2011 Sauk Rapids, MN
'Red & Whites Under the Northern Lights'
The Minnesota Red and White Dairy Cattle Association hosted the National Red and White Convention on July 20th-23rd, 2011. Dairy producers flew, car-pooled and made their way to Sauk Rapids, MN. The convention was a fantastic opportunity for breeders to meet and share their ideas with others throughout the United States. Participation was excellent and generous prizes were given as convention goers put their name in a drawing for free embryos each time they attended an event (donations given by the farms hosting the events.) This was not the only generous donation either, names from all over the country were put into the Red & White Albrecht Memorial Scholarship Raffle of which the winner was given the heifer, Scha-Way Haven Emma-Red, born June 2, 2010 (donated by Mark Adams, Wayne Dankers, John Diersen, Bob Eustice, Mike and Jill Eichler, Doug Ende, Spencer Hackett, Cory Salzl, Cheryl Scapanski Family, Tracy Schaefer, John and Julie Schmitz and Scott Welch.) Other prizes on the scholarship raffle included the 2nd prize, a Benelli Super Nova 12 GA Pump gun (or $500 cash), 3rd prize, a R&W Canadian True Type Model Cow, and 4th-10th prizes were 10 units of semen. Attendees were able to experience Minnesota as they watched the Minnesota State Red and White show, visited farms and toured the central part of the state.
Cattle settled into their barns and those attending the convention made their way to the Benton County Fairgrounds to enjoy a welcome pork chop meal for all in attendance, provided by Melarry Farms on Wednesday evening. Activities began and the rest of the week was highly anticipated by visitors. The RWDCA Queen contestant speeches were held in conjunction with the meal. The competition results revealed the 2011-2012 Red and White Queen, Laura Emerson of Middletown, Delaware. Laura has plans to get a degree in Agriculture Education and someday open her own creamery where she can host agriculture tours on the family farm. Some visitors may have welcomed the heat of this day but it made for a warm week in Minnesota, reaching temperatures in the high 90's throughout the convention.
The competition heated things up a little more on Thursday morning, as the National and Minnesota State Red and White show got underway at 8:30 a.m. Judge Robert Yeomen of Dover, OK traveled to place these high quality animals, well represented by Minnesota. 35 heifers and 13 cows were exhibited, with final honors of Grand Champion awarded to TJ-Pollema Rdlnr Shania-Red, the first place senior three-year-old cow, exhibited by Brooke Pollema and Quentin Scott and Reserve Grand Champion awarded to Platte-Vu Advent Sara-Red, the first place aged cow, exhibited by Ryan Griffin. After this successful day the Milking Shorthorn Association sponsored a barbeque meal. The rest of the day was filled with fun too and everyone had the opportunity to enjoy a cool down on the waterslide at the Summerland Fun Park in Saint Cloud. Wrapping up the second evening of the convention was a social, hosted by Skaj Hilltop Dairy of Saint Joseph. It was a great time for conversation, touring the dairy and a light meal.
Friday morning's departure for farm tours began at 8:30 a.m. A coach bus was filled with convention goers that were excited to see a farm operations of Central Minnesota. The bus first pulled into TJ-Pollema Farms of Browerville. Todd and Jean Pollema and their children Blake, Brooke and Bryce have been at their current location since 1995 where they milk 72 cows in a 52 tie-stall barn. This was a great experience to visit the farm and see their barn full of homebred, "Excellent" cows. Next, the group stopped for a lunch break at the Pine Grove Zoo in Little Falls before moving on to tour Starlight Acres where they served dilly bars as a nice dessert. Starlight Acres is also home to many "Excellent" cows where their tag line is "Where the cows are stars and the people make them shine." Tracy Schaefer and Karla Smieja have 46 milking cows in their tie stall barn with a BAA of 111.5. Minnesota can take pride in the farms and animals they have to offer. The convention's banquet took place Friday night as well, with a delicious chicken or choice of ham meal.
The final day of the convention marked the closing of the silent auction, the convention sale and convened with a farewell meal, by Manannah-Valley. The sale went very well and had a good turn out of buyers and sellers. Chuck Will Sales managed the convention sale with 102 lots that averaged $3,934. Top selling animal of the day at $20,000 was Lot 10, Golden-Oaks Perk Rae-Red-ET Ex-90, consigned by Golden-Oaks Farm of Illinois. She sold with 5, #1 embryos and was purchased by Adolf Langhout of the Netherlands. The second top seller was Lot 11, Schultz Farm L Regal-Red-ET from the Roxy family. Consigning this animal was Androscoggin Holsteins of Northleeds, ME and John Dierson purchased her for $13,000. Many other influential red animals were sold from some of the finest cow families in the country.
The 2011 National Red and White Convention along with the show, tours and sale were certainly worthwhile events to attend. Let this be a fond memory of Minnesota as dairy breeders take home their experiences here and share them with other breeders around world. Be sure to join the Red and Whites again next year as the 2012 National Red and White Convention is to be hosted in Listowell, Ontario, Canada.