The Minnesota Holstein Association is excited to offer a bus tour January 20-21, 2024. Adult and junior members are welcome to participate in this low-cost opportunity. The tour will depart Hutchinson, Minnesota, on Saturday, January 20, and will pick up passengers in Stewartville, Minnesota, before departing on a two-day adventure through Wisconsin and Iowa. Seven unique breeders will be featured on the tour: Walk-Era Holsteins, Trent-Way Holsteins, Jeffrey-Way Holsteins, Le-O-La Holsteins, Farnear Holsteins, Moondale Holsteins, and Henkeseen Holsteins.
To Register:
Hotel Information: (traveler’s responsibility)
A room block has been established. Rates are $119 per night plus applicable fees. Guests will need to request to check in 1/20/24 and out on 1/21/24. You must reserve your own room on your own card at this hotel by 12/31/2023.
Holiday Inn
450 Main Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
Reserve by calling 563-556-2000 and referencing group ID: MHA Bus Tour
Busing: (covered by MHA)
There will be two locations to board the tour on Saturday, January 20:
Meals: (covered by MHA)
A boxed lunch will be provided on the bus on Saturday. The group will stop at Country Heights Supper Club for a Saturday evening meal. The group will eat breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning. Lunch on Sunday will be a quick stop at Center Street Bar & Grill for a pulled pork sandwich. Snacks and beverages will be provided on the bus.
Reminders:
If you have any questions, please contact Amanda at the MHA office at 320-259-0637.
TOUR FARM BIOS:
WALK-ERA FARMS
Built on family and faith, Walk-Era Farms of Wisconsin Dells is truly where dreams of excellence are coming true. The Walker family has been located in the Wisconsin Dells area since Erwin and Ella Walker arrived from North Dakota in 1941. Walk-Era Farms consists of 850 acres with an additional 130 rented, for a total of 800 tillable acres. All cattle are raised on site under the care of the Walker families. Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the farm is that all families involved today live within a three-mile radius of the barn. Walk-Era is a family corporation, including Dean and sons John, Tim, and Tom and their families. The Walk-Era herd has bred 175 Excellent cows to date. The quality of cattle in the herd today through years of selective breeding can be seen in their herd’s 110.6 percent BAA, the herd is 96 percent homebred. Since 2016, the Walkers have been breeding the bottom end of their genetic Holstein herd to Wagyu and direct marketing farm fresh beef, they sell about 12-15 beef as 1/4s, halves and bundles each year. The crew at Walk-Era is excited to watch the fourth generation of Walkers become more active in the farm as the kids grow up. They are driven by passion, determination and, above all, love of farming and of family.
TRENT-WAY GENETICS
Located in the rolling hills of southern Wisconsin, is Trent Way Genetics LLC. Just 12 years ago, starting as first-generation producers, Trent & Kelsey Henrickson journey began in December of 2011. Today the Hendrickson’s and their young family run about 700 acres, milking around 300 dairy cows, raising all young stock of 450 heifers, along with 100 breeding bulls.
Our focus as a breeder is to breed the next generation of animals that can work in any facility or herd commercial, tie stall, or robotics. Through the use of extensive IVF and Conventional flushing methods we have been able to achieve a high level of genetic advancement by using most of our milking herd and all our young stock as recipients. Excellent cow families like the Roxy’s helped us develop a lineup of red and white bulls like 250HO14465 Ronald RC, 7HO16303 Reward-Red, 7HO15427 Rompen-Red, and advanced us in achieving 12 of the top 25 red and white heifers in the breed (April 2023 proof)! Providing a new standard for the red and white and red carrier breed keeping the quality in breed leading health traits, outstanding high production while maintaining a balance type profile. Trying to focus on making every generation better and continuing to breed the most balanced animal.
Hard work, true passion, and excellent cow families is only the beginning for the Trent-way name! Can’t wait to show you our line up and what Trent Way Genetics has to offer!
JEFFREY-WAY HOLSTEINS
Jeffrey-Way Holsteins is owned and operated by Jeff, Kate, Brooks and Riley Hendrickson and Brooks and Rileys two children; Adlee and Callum. Jeffrey-Way Holsteins is home to 110 milk cows with a herd BAA of 113. The living herd includes one cow scored at Excellent-95, 10 cows scored at Excellent-94, 55 additional cows scored at excellent 90 or higher and 44 very good, giving the average classification score of 90.2. Currently the herd averages 88lbs a day with a 4.2 fat and 3.4 protein. We strive to breed functional type cows with great udders that will stand the test of time, make lots of milk and score high. The farm consists of 400 acres of land. We grow Alfalfa, grass, corn and soybeans to supply the feed for the livestock.
LE-O-LA HOLSTEINS
Le-O-La Holsteins is owned and operated by Rick and Kathy Demmer, a registered Holstein farm focusing on breeding high quality cattle backed by deep, proven pedigrees. They have a passion for excellent genetics and strive to create something that may spark interest in other dairymen across North America. To go along with this, they partake in Embryo Transfer and In-Vitro Fertilization to create a better animal to fit their program, generation after generation. They milk 75 cows twice a day in a tie-stall barn with a rolling herd average of 27,400 lbs of milk, 4.2% butterfat and 3.2% protein.
Taking pride in developing cows to their full potential and exhibiting them at a state and national level, Le-O-La Holsteins has received three All-American honors for their Senior Best Three group and numerous All-American and Junior All-American nominations and honors. Along with these show winnings, Rick and Kathy are proud to have bred one 95 Point Cow and have bred or developed twelve 94 Point Cows.
Most importantly, Rick and Kathy pride themselves on the family they have created. They have 7 children, Kayla, Kristy, Kyle, Riley, Rachel, Royce and Regan, their four sons all assist in different aspects of Le-O-La Holsteins, from genetics to day-to-day chores and more. Rick and Kathy now have nine grandchildren with one more on the way, they enjoy giving their grandchildren a bit of the farm life and watch them explore and enjoy the cows as much as they do.
FARNEAR HOLSTEINS
Farnear Holsteins is owned by Tom & Rick Simon, along with their sons, Adam and Mark. Cows are housed in a robot barn consisting of 9 Lely robots built in 2021 for exceptional cow comfort. The Simon’s are currently milking 540 cows in total. Current lactation average is 29,400 pounds, 1,257 pounds of fat, and 1,031 pounds of protein.
Farnear Holsteins was established in 1960. Tom and Rick breed their animals for a wide variety of traits to reach all markets within their genetic field. they have exhibited five homebred Grand Champions at the Iowa State Fair. Adler is now classified EX-96 and has been named Unanimous All-American Production Cow. Tom and Rick have sold over 350 bulls that have been sold to numerous A.I. studs. Altitude-RED has sired numerous class winners at national shows across North America. Delta-Lambda was the Premier Sire at World Dairy Expo 2023. Farnear Holsteins also exhibited the Junior Champion of the Junior Show at World Dairy Expo in 2023.
MOONDALE HOLSTEINS
Moondale Farm consists of 350 acres of corn, soybeans, and hay in the
rolling hills of northeast Iowa. Currently their herd has 50 registered Holsteins milked in a tiestall barn twice a day. Their BAA is 112 with 26 EX, 25 VG, and 1 GP. At the Iowa State Show, Moondale has been named premier breeder 19 times. A large number of animals in the herd trace back to Moondale Leader Pat, EX 94 4E 40,690 5.3 2138.
HENKESEEN HOLSTEINS
Henkeseen Holsteins of Luana, IA is ran by Trent, Leslie, and Matt Henkes. They currently milk 65 registered Holsteins and 12 registered Milking Shorthorns with a DHIR herd average of 28080 3.8 1035 3.1 861 and Holstein BAA (10/2023) of 111.5 with 23 excellent cows, 22 very good cows, and 5 good plus cows.Their herd was the #1 BAA in Iowa 2022 and #5 Top BAA herd in region 6 2022. The Milking Shorthorn herd consists of 6 excellent cows, 3 very good cows, and 3 good plus cows.
For 22 years they have been award winners of the Progressive Breeder Registry and Progressive Genetics Herd award winners for 18 years. Henkeseen has bred 180 excellents, 23 Dam of Merit winners and 21 Gold Medal Dams.
We focus on breeding for high type cows that translate to showing at local, District, State and National levels. Exciting young cows in the herd are sired by Jordy, Unstopabull, Delta Lambda and Moment to name a few. Were proud to be home to the 2X Unanimous All American Milking Shorthorn, Henkeseen Royalty Reason EXP EX 91. Reason is an 8 th generation homebred EX tracing back to Henkeseen M Hillary EX 94. Reasons daughters teamed up to place 2nd Junior Best 3 class at World Dairy Expo 2023.