The Erbsen family of Lanark, Illinois — the breeders behind Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET *RC EX-97 4E 10*, two-time World Dairy Expo Supreme Champion — just took the 2026 Robert “Whitey” McKown Master Breeder Award for Erbacres Holsteins. It is the Holstein Association’s highest herd honor, and Erbacres clears every bar with room to spare.
The Numbers That Won It
Small herd. Mighty barn. That is the shortest way to describe what the Erbsens have built on 700 acres and 100 registered head:
- 245 Excellent cows
- 21 Gold Medal Dams
- 25 Dams of Merit
- 28 years on the Progressive Breeders Registry
- 42 milking cows averaging 112.5% Breed Age Average
- 21,357 lbs milk · 4.3F · 3.3P rolling herd average
The McKown rewards genetics, production, longevity, and breed influence layered across generations. Erbacres brings all four, quietly and consistently, from a barn most people would call “small.”
Shakira, and the Cows Behind Her
Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET *RC is the headline cow — Supreme Champion at World Dairy Expo in 2021 and 2023and Supreme at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in 2023. Her daughters are showing. Her sons are in stud. She is now a standard-bearer for the breed.
But Shakira did not appear out of nowhere. The Erbacres prefix has been stamping the show ring and the sire directory for decades:
- Erbacres Damion EX-96 — former #1 Type sire at Select Sires
- Erbacres Rubens Libby-Red EX-94 — 2005 Red & White Futurity winner at World Dairy Expo, All-American Jr. 3-Yr-Old
- Erbacres Magician — two-time All-American, 1992 International Grand Champion bull at World Dairy Expo
- Erbacres Marie Hagen Marigold — first of nine Illinois Championship Show grand champions, dating back to 1974
- Erbacres Lancer Cherokee EX-91 GMD DOM — 1993 Pabst Futurity winner in Wisconsin
- Erbacres Tatoo Cleo EX-93 — 2026 Illinois Futurity five-year-old winner
Add it up: 25 Illinois Futurity winners and 25 Premier Breeder banners at the Illinois Championship Show alone, plus Premier Breeder honors at the Illinois State Fair, Wisconsin State Fair, and Wisconsin Spring Show.
Three Generations, One Prefix, No Gaps
The family story earns the award as much as the cows do.
Kenneth and Pauline Erbsen married in 1957 and started with a small herd of grade Holsteins. They dispersed the grades almost immediately, went registered, and the Erbacres prefix was born. They raised six kids on that decision — Paula (Bovre), Kathleen (Opperman), Kevin, John, Carl, and Carla (Mickey) — every one of them working the farm.
The herd expanded to a second location in 1975. When Kenneth passed in 1994, the family consolidated back to one barn and Kevin stepped into managing the operation and the breeding decisions, working alongside Pauline until her passing in 2021. Brothers John and Carl filled in around their off-farm jobs.
Then February of this year: Kevin faced unexpected health challenges and had to step back from daily operations. That is usually the moment a legacy herd wobbles. Erbacres did the opposite. Kevin’s wife Wendy and their children Payton and Delana moved into the decision seat. The extended Erbsen family closed ranks. The barn kept running. The 2026 show string kept winning — including that five-year-old Futurity title with Cleo.
That is the McKown in one paragraph.
59 Years in the Same Show Ring
The Erbsens have exhibited at their District Holstein Show — now the Northern Illinois Show — every year since Paula turned nine. That is 59 consecutive years in the same ring.
The 1974 grand championship with Marigold was the opening act. Nine Illinois Championship or Junior Championship banners followed, along with a long list of All-Illinois and Reserve All-Illinois honors across open and junior shows. The Premier Breeder banners kept coming — 25 of them at the Illinois Championship Show alone.
Leadership Off the Halter
Erbacres is a service herd as much as a show herd. The family’s fingerprints are everywhere in Illinois Holstein:
- John Erbsen currently serves as Illinois Holstein Association president — the same chair his father Kenneth held in 1993.
- Senior Breeder Awards: Kenneth (1988), Kevin (2017), John (2021).
- Pauline received the Illinois Holstein Distinguished Service Award in 2010.
- Paula and her husband Rick have been superintendents of the International Junior Holstein Show at World Dairy Expo since its inception in 2005, and Paula still helps with the Erbacres show string.
Add in service to the Jo-Carroll (now NW Illinois) Holstein Club, the Carroll County DHI board, Prairie State/Select Sires, First Brethren Church, Loran Mutual Insurance, 4-H, and FFA. Erbacres has been a fixture for judging practice ahead of World Dairy Expo, and Kevin and John have coached local FFA dairy judging teams and provided cattle for district FFA and 4-H contests for 35 years.
The Breeding Philosophy in One Sentence
Type-first, always. The Erbsens argue that high-type cows last longer in the herd and cash more lactation checks — and the 245 EX scorecard, alongside a 112.5% BAA on 42 head, is their proof. It is not a fashionable position in a genomic era chasing NM$ and feed efficiency, but it has kept a 100-cow registered herd competitive, profitable, and relevant across seven decades.
Why This One Matters
Master Breeder awards get handed out every year. What separates the 2026 McKown is the timing: recognition landing in the same year the family had to prove — again — that Erbacres is bigger than any single person running it. Kenneth built it. Pauline anchored it. Kevin carried it. Wendy, Payton, Delana, John, Carl, and Paula are running it now. The two great-grandchildren coming up behind them will inherit a prefix that already means something in every ring on the continent.
Congratulations to the Erbsen family from everyone at The Bullvine. The McKown could not have gone to a herd — or a family — that fits the definition better.
