The 2016 Royal Winter Fair Holstein Show – The show everyone will remember for all the wrong reasons

By all accounts, the 2016 Holstein Show at The Royal should have been a celebration of the many great moments that occurred. Instead, it will be remembered for one incident that many wish they could forget. (Complete 2016 Canadian National Holstein Show Results)

The Good

JACOBS GOLD LIANN
GrandChampion
2016 Canadian National Holstein Show
Westcoast Holsteins

Certainly, headlining the good is JACOBS GOLD LIANN. It’s not very often that the Grand Champion of either Expo or the Royal is a Junior Three-Year-Old. LIANN was not at Expo this year as Yan Jacobs was the associate judge, but she certainly was the consensus pick as the best cow, not at World Dairy Expo (Read more: World Dairy Expo 2016 Holstein Show Preview). And now she has proven that to be exactly the case. LIANN looked so impressive all week at Toronto that she commanded the attention of most everyone in the barns. This was especially the case for Westcoast Holsteins, who ended up acquiring her for what must be the most money paid for a show cow in some years. As expected, she did not disappoint. LIANN not only won her class and Intermediate Champion but she was also Grand Champion. That is saying a lot considering the judge Marc Comtois is also the breeder and now owner of the Expo Junior Three-Year-Old class winner, COMESTAR LAMADONA DOORMAN, and may have watched his chances of getting the All-American nod slip away as LIANN was also shown and won at The Big E this year and is eligible for All-American status.

BOSDALE GOLD LUSTRE
HM Grand Champion
Quality Holsteins Ltd., AGRIBER, BECKRIDGE, DUPASQUIER

Not often that a cow that is a class winner is able to breed a daughter that is also a class winner at the same national show. It certainly has only happened twice at a Holstein show at either Expo or the Royal in the same year. Apple did it with her clone and her daughter in 2014 (Read more: KHW Regiment Apple-Red – Beauty, performance, and even more record accomplishments) and Dupasquier Starbuck Winnie and her daughter Dupasquier Black Winnie won Grand and Junior Champion at the 1991 Royal Winter Fair, it has not happened in a Holstein Show since. That is until this year when BOSDALE GOLD LUSTER won the Four-Year-Old Class and her daughter QUALITY SOLOMON LUST was the 1^st place Intermediate Calf. It is interesting to note that these two magnificent animals are both part-owned by Dupasquier Holsteins.

QUALITY SOLOMON LUST
1st place Intermediate Calf
2016 Canadian National Holstein Show
AGRIBER, BECKRIDGE, DUPASQUIER, Quality Holsteins Ltd.

In what was an emotional moment during the show for all involved the very talented Blair Weeks from Weeksdale Holsteins, in P.E.I won the Andrea Crowe Memorial Award. The award was started by the friends and family of Andrea to celebrate and honor Andrea and her legacy as a passionate Holstein breeder and exhibitor and community minded individual. This year was extra special as Blair and Andrea where close friends and owned several animals together. A very fitting winner for a great award.

To celebrate and honour the life of the late Donald Dubois, a new annual award was established and was presented at the Royal Winter Fair in his memory. The award was presented to the top showperson at the show. The winner was the extremely talented showperson Marianne Jansen, Embrun, ON. Also very fitting as Marianne and Donald did battle in the show ring many times they where also very close friends. Also fitting as the fact the Rolly Dubois, Donalds older brother was the winner of the 2016 Curtis Clark Achievement Award.

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In what has proven to be one of the most exciting contest for dairy breeders around the world, Sylvain Cormier from Montreal Quebec is the 2016 Royal Winter Fairy Fantasy Exhibitor Champion. Sylvain had a team of BELFONTAINE DOORMAN DYLAN, SICY DOORMAN BRIE, JACOBS MASCALESE BALZE, MILKSOURCE SID DESIRE, DESNETTE ADELICIA IMPRESSION, TREFLE CHASSEP DOORMAN, MUSTHAVEN GOLDWYN JAELYN P, JACOBS GOLD LIANN, JACOBS JORDAN CARMEL, JACOBS FEVER CAEL, BRACKLEYFARM CHELIOS CHEERIO & LOYALYN GOLDWYN JUNE. Earning him a total of 304 points (214 plus 90 time bonus points) on a total budget of $1,689,000.

The Top 10 2016 Royal Winter Fair Fantasy Exhibitors

Sylvain Cormier 304
Evan Moyer 279
Nathan Ulmer 271
Chad Ryan 269
Melissa Marcoux 263
Brigitte Morneau 253
Franancois Vermette 251
Marcello Mamedes 249
Natasha Kirby 249
Jacob Schaefer 247

The ultimate team for this year’s competition that would have scored 257 points before time bonus would have been MS LISTERINES LUCKYLADY-ET, VERTDOR DOORMAN MORNING, KINGSWAY EQUATION GLOSSIE, MILKSOURCE SID DESIRE, JACOBS GOLD LIANN, VALLEYVILLE GOLDWYN BISSY, QUALITY SOLOMON LUST, BEAVERBROCK GOLDWYN ZOEY-ET, BRACKLEYFARM CHELIOS CHEERIO, BELFAST DOORMAN LUST, HILLPINE B ANYA-ET, PETITCLERC MCCUTCHEN SKY, BOSDALE GOLD LUSTER & BLONDIN GOLDWYN SUBLIMINAL-ETS which would have come in well under budget at $1,424,000.

While not part of the Holstein show it is also important to note that the Jersey Grand Champion Musqie Iatola Martha defended her 2015 Supreme Champion honours once again taking home Supreme Champion for her owners Milksource Genetics, WI. (Read more: 2016 Quality Seeds Supreme Champion – Royal Winter Fair)

The Bad

MS LISTERINES LUCKYLADY
Junior Champion
THOMAS, CUMMINGS

For those complain that World Dairy Expo placings will dictate the placings at The Royal, you need not look further than this year’s Royal Winter Fair Junior Champion, MS LISTERINES LUCKYLADY. LUCKYLADY had been 6^th at World Dairy Expo but fit the style Judge Marc Comtois was looking for. The Expo Junior Champion, Duhibou Fever Piranha, finished 4^th in her class at the Royal for new owners Westcoast Holsteins (Read more: 2016 Sale of Stars) and COBEQUID WINDBROOK PIROUETTE, who was the Reserve Junior Champion for Westcoast at World Dairy Expo finished 4^th for her now owners BARCLAY PHOENIX & TRIPLE-T HOLSTEINS.

HIGH POINT GAY IVORY
1st place Milking Yearling
2016 Canadian National Holstein Show
GLAUSER

That is not to say that all the winners from World Dairy Expo did not fare well. The winning Milking Yearling from World Dairy Expo, HIGH POINT GRAY IVORY, continued her winning ways north of the border. As did the winning Junior Two-Year-Old, TREFLE CHASSEP DOORMAN.

TREFLE CHASSEP DOORMAN
1st place Junior Two Year Olds
2016 Canadian National Holstein Show
Milk Source, LLC

These changes in placings certainly will make things interesting for our inaugural year of the All-North American competition. (Watch for more on this soon).

The Ugly

WENDON DEMPSEY PRUDE
2016 Royal Winter Fair

It seems that instead of celebrating what should have been a great year, the vast majority of the post show discussion is revolving around an unfortunate incident in the four-year-old class. While many had already annotated the winner from The World Dairy Expo & Reserve Grand Champion, WENDON DEMPSEY PRUDE, with the win at the Royal, I was not convinced. After walking around, the Royal barns, I figured she had not developed, now being about three months fresh, as much as I had expected and would be in tough to win her class. (Read more: 2016 Royal Winter Fair Holstein Show Preview). While I have the utmost respect for the cow and certainly understand why she has such a huge following after the unfortunate event that had occurred with the Chalack family this past year (Read more: There are more important things in life than a cow show), those items are outside the ring. As we all hold true to, judges need to place the cows as they see them on the day at the show. So, when Judge Marc Comtois did not pull her in with his first six animals, I was not entirely surprised. What I was surprised with was that he pulled her pretty much at the bottom of the class. Just to make sure I walked around the end of the class and then realized that her leadsman had decided to move her to the end of the class. Whether this was a move to make sure the judge would see the cow or whether it was out of spite we will leave that up to the Judge and the leadsman to decide. What I do know is that the events that followed took things from bad to worse. Judge Comtois had, several times during the show, been willing to change his initial assessment and made significant moves within previous classes. However, instead, this time he decided to leave the placings as they stood without reviewing his places at the bottom end of the class.

Wendon Dempsey Prude
2016 World Dairy Expo

What happened after this is certainly what caught everyone’s attention. When the first place cow led off to walk around to the final lineup and as she passed by the end of the row, Prude acted up, and the leadsperson did a circle with her. That was perceived by many Prude supports as her moving into first place and they let out a huge cheer. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and that is when everyone’s emotions got even more riled up.

This is not the first time an Expo winner did not look her best at the Royal and she is not the first cow to get buried in her class. The way this event has played out and the very emotional discussions from both the Prude supporters and the supporters of Judge Comtois has certainly led to some fairly heated debates on social media. There are those that wish there was no discussion about this on Facebook and other social media platforms. Moreover, while I understand the concerns of the families whom this cow has an extremely emotional connection to, it is 2016 and the power of social media had taken what was once milk house fodder for when the semen salesman came in the lane, to the point where it is now open conversations among people from around the world. The one thing I can say to the families is that at no time do I think this placing had anything to do with who bred the cow or owned the cow. That is not to say she was not lost in class and the events that followed led to her being buried even farther. As someone who has had to monitor the conversations on such social groups as The Milkhouse, I can say that at least discussion on these forums lends itself to the facts being told instead of rumors and false accusations that can occur, when the conversation is with two enthusiasts gossiping in a private conversation (Read more: Introducing The Milk House – Dairy Breeder Networking on Facebook).

The Bullvine Bottom Line

While there are certainly many great stories that have resulted from this year’s Royal Holstein Show, it’s the discussion about one event that will be remembered. Was Prude slammed or just lost? Did the lead person overreact or was it just a sequence of unfortunate timings? These are questions we may never know the answer to. What we do know is that the Grand Champion Cow could be one for the ages and, now due to this unfortunate event, we may never see her at the Royal again. We need to celebrate the good, acknowledge the bad and prevent the ugly from ever happening again.