Breeding for better cows “started as a part-time hobby,” said David King, co-owner of Midas-Touch Genetics/AOT. “It was for the kids, to breed better show calves.
“I wanted my kids to be able to have a chance to learn how to raise and work with really nice cattle,” he explained, adding he and wife LouAnne started with a couple cows – and their genetics business built from there.
The New York Holstein Association will honor the couple with its 2021 Master Breeder award in January.
The Kings have bred 15 Excellent and 79 Very Good cows with the Midas-Touch prefix and had animals in the champion circle at World Dairy Expo more than once. Notable animals include Midas-Touch Jedi Jangle, Miss Champion Mitzi-ET, Regancrest Chanel, Gen-I-Beq Snowman Akilaiane and Ellbank Cherry Coke.
In addition, Midas-Touch has 170 animals on the Holstein USA Locator List and is co-breeder of the #1 proven bull, AOT Silver Helix. Genomic families include Habitan, Supersire Has and Seagull-Bay S Jillian.
David and LouAnne met at Cornell University; he grew up on Kings-Ransom Farm and she, at Mapleview Dairy. David became a nutrition and ag consultant, while LouAnne worked for extension and Farm Credit. In 1995 they bought their own farm, but she also continues to work as co-owner of Mapleview, while he is with Holtz-Nelson Dairy Consultants.
In 1998 the Kings went into business as Midas-Touch Genetics, and about eight years ago David and AOT owner Tom Kugler started a partnership when they wanted to buy the same heifer, Cookie-Cutter Supersire Has. She is the dam of AOT Silver Helix. Midas-Touch/AOT now has an extensive IVF program with many partner herds.
King and Kugler purchase and consign at every state-sponsored sale and encourage other breeders to do the same, trying to give farms not in the Registered Holstein business a chance to get in on quality genetics through embryo transfer partnerships.
“We have a wicked passion for what we’re doing,” David noted. “We just love good cows and we want to make better cows, and we want others to share that passion.”
He credits his Uncle Bill for teaching him about bulls and his father, Edgar, whose work away from Kings-Ransom as state deputy commissioner of Agriculture & Markets gave his son freedom to breed cows and observe the results of his dairy genetics.
In addition to picking good cows, LouAnne said, “David has the most creative ads in all of New York,” referring to his 2015 scheduling of a tag sale the day after their daughter Sara’s marriage to dairy farmer Matthew Bull.
David dryly noted “Vows & Cows” was an effort to come up with a way to pay for the wedding, asserting, “Everybody loved it.”
The couple are also parents to Kristin, Laurie and Jennifer, and have three grandchildren with two more on the way. David serves as an Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority board member, while LouAnne is a Farm Credit East Board director; both are members of the St. Lawrence County Holstein Club.
“I’m kind of stunned,” he said of the award. “I feel a little weird because I don’t milk; but I probably breed more than others do.”
