The National Red & White Association hosted the 2014 National Red & White Convention, "Celebrating 50 Years" July 22-26 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The Convention began by members meeting the Canadian Red & White convention chairs for an evening hospitality. On Tuesday was the first day of farm tours where members visited Sexing Technologies, April-Day and Fertile Ridge Dairy, and Briar Holsteins, Wednesday entailed farm tours at Frozene Farms, Maple Lawn Farm, Rosedale Genetics, and Sellcrest Farm, Thursday was the last day of tours hosted at Holbric Holsteins, Luck-E Holsteins, Golden Oaks Farm and Sunshine Genetics, Friday was the 50th National Red & White Convention Sale, followed by the annual meeting and awards banquet and Saturday was the National Red & White Convention Show.

Tuesday morning started the convention off with three tour stops. Each of these farms focus heavily on special traits of the Red and White breed. Sexing Technologies Inc. goals are producing Sexed Sorted Semen and opening up markets for themselves and their customers around the globe to such places like the European Union and China. The second farm was a two-part stop at April Day Holsteins which focuses on breeding elite registered Holsteins while integrating high genomics and the polled gene into their herd. Embryo's that are harvested from April-Day are then transferred to their partnership with Fertile Ridge Dairy, a commercial dairy operation, where they calve in these embryo calves. Some of the prominent cow families at April-Day include the Ruby WINE family along with descendents from the Roxy and Redwing families. The third farm visited on Tuesday was Briar Holsteins. All of the cattle at Briar are either red or *RC and many carry the polled gene. They breed for longevity, type, production, and cow family as they use genomics and health traits for sire choices.

The second day of convention entailed tours of elite dairy herds with Red & White cattle tracing back to well known bloodlines. First stop was Frozene Farms, Rick and Linda Frozene, who have bred many All-Americans and All-American nominees and have exported many embryos. They have reduced the herd size but still have great passion for their cows. Next stop was Maple Lawn Farm where their motto is "breed for type and feed for production." They are currently milking 365 head with many All American Nominees in the herd. There have been many prominent cows bred with the L-Maples prefix such as L-Maples RM Pepper-Red EX 94 a 5 time All American Nominee. The third visit of the day was to Rosedale Genetics which was established in 2001 and owned/operated by Mark and Nicky Rueth. 80% of the Rosedale herd goes back to Mark's frist purchase, the famous, Stookey EP BLACKROSE, EX-96. They also are home to the 2005 and 2007 WDE Grand Champion and only R&W cow to ever be named Supreme Champion at WDE in 2005, Lavender Ruby REDROSE, EX-96. Last, but certainly not least, the members traveled to Sellcrest Farm. It is a family operation that started 53 years ago when the red hair coat was not sought after in the dairy industry. They are home to Debbie-Red, a National Champion who was solely registered RWDCA only and C Blue Haven Rose Ned-Red, the first Red and White cow to ever be classified EX-96.

Day three wrapped up the last day of tours while the members traveled south to cross into Illinois. The first stop was at Holbric Holsteins which started striving to change their herd from grade to registered cattle in 1965. Now they have developed cow families such as Elginvue Regal Arlene-Red who has over 30 descendents that have been nominated either All-American or JR All-American. The second stop was at Luck-E Holsteins, started by Dennis and Beth Engel, who purchased their first registered Holstein as a wedding present in 1968. They currently have 117 cows classified in their 2nd lactation which average EX-90. They are working with full sisters Luck-E Advent Asia *RC EX-94 and Luck-E Advent Atlanta *RC EX-94 which are the dams of prominent young sires. The third stop was at Golden Oaks Farm established by the Crown Family of Chicago. The milk about 730 head with 120 of those being Red and White or *RC animals. One of the most influential cows for Golden Oaks was, Scientific Beauty Rae-ET-RC EX-90 from the Roxy family. Her daughter was an appealing Red who was polled, Golden-Oaks Perk Rae-Red-ET*PO EX-90. The last stop to finish up the tours was Sunshine Genetics. The farm specializes in housing and caring for elite donors owned by breeders from all over the world who focus on embryo and IVF programs.

Friday entailed the annual National Red & White Convention Sale, managed by MD-Hillbrook Sales & Service. The sale consisted of 93 lots which averaged just over $5,000. There was a great crowd of buyers and spectators present during the sale. Walking away with high seller honors went to Siemers Defiant Juby-Red-ET, who also was the 1st place summer yearling at the NY Spring Show in 2014, lot selling for $20,500 to Juby Partners of Maryland. Second high seller was, Curr-Vale Sym Avelene-ET*RC, selling for $18,000. She sold to Luke Coblentz of OH and is a +2316 GTPI Sympatico x Curr-Vale Observer Avon-TW*RC VG-85.

Following the sale, the Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet took place at the Monte Carlo Banquet Room at Sperino's in Elkhorn,WI, Friday, July 25th with 200 members present. After the meeting dinner was served and was enjoyed by all members. It was the pleasure of this organization to award the work of its outstanding members who have invested in the betterment of the Red & White Cow. The 2014 National Red & White Convention Awards Banquet began with recognizing Mark Rueth of Oxford, WI was awarded the Larry Moore Master Breeder Award, Tom Lyons Jr of Westfield, IL received the J.P. "Doc" Ostrander Young Breeder Award and Cassy, Bryce, and Carley Krull of Wisconsin received the Junior Breeder Award. The Don Albrecht Distinguished Service Award was received by Kim Morrill of New York. Sellcrest Farm, Allen and Shirley Sell & Family, of Wisconsin were awarded the Gary Mayhew Keystone Award. The 2014 Junior Essay winners were in the junior division; 1st place Hannah Hensel, WI, 2nd place Ava Booth, WI and 3rd place Olivia Gries, PA. The intermediate division consisted of; 1st place Sarah Thomas, NC. In the senior division the winners were; 1st place Julianne Holler, PA, 2nd place Tyler Marotz, NE. The Albrecht Memorial Scholarships were awarded to Amber Gable, Lance Sexton, and Jordan Siemers. Katrina Nunes, hailing from Wisconsin was crowned the 2014-2015 National Red & White Queen and Anna Folgate of Illinois was selected 2014-2015 Alternate National Red and White Queen. 25-year members and 40 year members were awarded by Gary Janssen and Larry Olson. All-American, Junior All-American, and Superior Type Awards were presented to their recipients by 2013-2014 Red & White Queen, Cecilia Morse and 2014 Summer Intern, Michaela Ash. There was a new award created this year to award those Red and White cows that were not focused on showing but on the production end of the industry. The new Pinnacle Production Awards were presented as Top Milk 1st place: Dean-C-T Redlnr Dixie-Red-ET owned by Dominic Agresti-Assali, CA, Top Milk 2nd place: F-Jolin Persia 951-Red owned by Daniel L. First, MI, Top Fat 1st place: True-Blue Rampage 1860-Red owned by Gerald & Kevin Ihm, WI, Top Fat 2nd place: True-Blue Dagger 2085-Red owned by Gerald & Kevin Ihm, WI, Top Protein 1st place: Dean-C-T Redlnr Dixie-Red-ET owned by Dominic Agresti-Assali, CA, Top Protein 2nd place: True-Blue Rampage 1860-Red owned by Gerald & Kevin Ihm, WI. Members also recognized and thanked the retiring board members for their hard work and leadership; Mark Olbrich, IL, and Matt Lawrence, PA. New board of directors that were stated into office were; Mike Brown, Coalville, Utah, Jason Miley, West Salem, Ohio, and Jeff Winton, Mayville, NY. Anna Troester, assistant manager, was awarded for her hard work to help put the 2014 annual convention on while diligently working with the convention committee. RWDCA also hired a new General Manager to the team, Larry Olson.

A silent auction of donated items started Thursday afternoon and ended Saturday morning with the proceeds benefitting the RWDCA's Junior Programs and the 50th Convention. The Scholarship Calf Raffle winner was drawn at the beginning of the 2014 National Convention Sale on Friday. The winner of the raffle calf was Kylie Greenfield. Thank you to Briar Holsteins for donating the raffle calf; Briar Outdone Madness-Red. In addition, a THANK YOU to all the donors, buyers and consignors of both the silent auction and cattle sale and to those who purchased raffle tickets. Your continued support towards the Junior Programs and the RWDCA is highly appreciated by the members of the Red & White Dairy Cattle Association.

A special thank you goes to the National Red & White Diary Cattle Association, convention committee, and office staff for hosting a successful 2014 National Red & White Convention. Next year's convention will be held in Decorah, Iowa from July 14-16, 2015.

For more information, please contact the RWDCA Office at: Anna Troester 608-676-4900, rwdcaanna@gmail.com or Larry Olson 608-676-4909, rwdca.larry@gmail.com. Watch our website for more convention updates at www.redandwhitecattle.com or our facebook page www.facebook.com/RWDCA.

Founded in 1964, the Red & White Dairy Cattle Association has been located in Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania since 1975 and Clinton, Wisconsin since 2009. The RWDCA strives to encourage and promote the progressive breeding and development of superior Red & White Dairy Cattle by providing breeders with information, programs, and services to help track, evaluate, and improve the breed from one generation to the next. The Association is based on the principle of an open herdbook and currently serves over 1,300 members. For additional information, you may contact the RWDCA at (608) 676-4900 or 4909 or visit www.redandwhitecattle.com.
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7.29.2014