Some cows win a show. Stoney Point Joel Bailey EX-97 wins eras.
Friday afternoon, Vierra Dairy Farms’ great Jersey was named Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo 2026. It’s her second Supreme in three years, after 2024. In between, she was Grand Champion Jersey in 2025, and later that fall she was Supreme at the Royal. This week, Judge Mike Berry made her Grand Champion again. He told the Coliseum he didn’t know if there had ever been a cow quite like her.
He’s not the only one wondering.
Two-time company
Bailey joins a very short list of two-time Supreme Champions. One of the most recent names on it is Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET EX-97 4E, Supreme in 2021 and 2023. That makes a fitting bridge into this week’s other headlines.
Reserve Supreme went to Eixdale Pwrup Alongside, Ryan Krohlow’s Grand Champion Holstein, for Milk Source Genetics of Kaukauna, Wis. It was the second time Milk Source finished right behind Bailey this week. GMBV Joel Dixie-ET was Reserve Grand to her in the Jersey show.
In the Junior Show, Arolene Dempsey Ella won Supreme for Alyson Doiron of Cap-Santé, Que.
Erbacres: small herd, long shadow
The family that bred Shakira was honored with the 2026 Robert “Whitey” McKown Master Breeder Award.
Erbacres Holsteins of Lanark, Ill., started in 1957, when Kenneth and Pauline Erbsen married. Today the farm raises 100 head of registered Holsteins and milks 42 cows. The cows average 112.5% BAA, with 21,357 lb of milk at 4.3% fat and 3.3% protein. The prefix has produced:
- 245 Excellent cows
- 21 Gold Medal Dams
- 25 Dams of Merit
- 28 years of Progressive Breeder Registry
The breeding goes beyond Shakira. Erbacres Damion EX-96 was once the No. 1 type sire at Select Sires. Erbacres Tatoo Cleo EX-93 won this year’s Illinois five-year-old futurity.
This year also tested the family. In February, Kevin Erbsen had unexpected health problems and stepped back from daily work. His children, Payton and Delana, and his wife, Wendy, took on more, and the extended family pulled together to keep things going. That may be the truest definition of a master breeder there is.
Hank Van Exel: the Klussendorf
The 2026 Arthur B. Klussendorf Award, the show ring’s highest individual honour, goes to Hank Van Exel of Lodi, Calif.
Van Exel grew up on a Lodi dairy farm, where his family runs both Holsteins and Jerseys. He has judged in 15 countries. He has placed the Holsteins at World Dairy Expo once and the Jerseys twice. He has also judged the Royal, the European Championship, Black & White Days in Australia, every U.S. national show and the National Jersey Show in Louisville.
The Exels have had Reserve Grand Champions at Expo in both the Holstein and Jersey shows. They were part of Supreme Champion Rosiers Blexy Goldwyn in 2017. His son and daughter-in-law, Adam and Lacey, are now deep in the day-to-day work at home and on the show circuit. Ask Hank what he enjoys outside the big rings and he’ll tell you: youth shows.
Peter Vail: honorary member at 87
Peter Vail was named an Honorary Member of the Klussendorf Association. He was one of three honorees this year.
“It’s just incredibly humbling,” Vail told interviewers. He pointed out that the Klussendorf has been around since 1937.
His numbers this week were hard to believe. Budjon-Vail Joel Starstruck-ET was Junior Champion Jersey and then Reserve Supreme Heifer. Vail said he had three Supreme Junior Champion contenders in the ring on Thursday night, in Jersey, Brown Swiss and Ayrshire, plus the Shorthorn he bred.
Asked about goals, he didn’t miss a beat: “At 87 years old, my goal is to stay alive and do whatever I choose to do.”
He named a favourite for each breed:
- Griffin (Jersey)
- Blexy (Holstein, yes, that Blexy)
- Delilah (Brown Swiss)
- Carmina and Willow (Ayrshire)
- Jeanette (Shorthorn)
Delilah is the one who’s stayed with him longest. She has 77 registered offspring, and he bought another IVF session out of her this summer.
His passion, though, is young people. A girl from Vermont came up to him this week and asked to lease a calf. He said yes and told her to pick one. “I want young people to be proud to be in this business,” he said, “and to want to continue in agriculture.”
Joe Price: the man behind the scenes
The Klussendorf-MacKenzie Award went to Joe Price. He has managed Butlerview Farm for about 16 years and rarely stands in front of the cameras.
“I’m up there with all my role models,” Price told interviewers. “It means the world to me.”
His story starts in Amboy, Ind., at Price View Farms with his parents, Terry and Kathy. They dispersed when he was about 13. He calls that heartbreaking, but it pushed him into clipping alongside his uncle Jerry and cousin Gary. Later he and his wife, Amber, milked their own cows. Then a farm accident set him back, and Jeff Butler called. “It was hard,” Price said. “But we made the jump.”
The cows that mean the most to him:
- Cookview Goldwyn Monique, two-time Reserve Grand Champion at Expo
- Rocky Mountain Talent Licorice
- Regancrest Chasity, Global Cow of the Year
About Chasity, he said, “To watch all the people come to the farm for her, that was unbelievable.” True to form, he gave the credit away: Amber, he said, “probably deserves this more than me.”
His advice for the next generation is simple. Ask questions. “If you have the courage to come up and ask somebody, then they should give you the correct answer.”
You could say the barn backed him up. On Thursday night, Butlerview Glitter Girl-ET was named Supreme Champion Heifer.
That’s a wrap
A two-time Supreme, a breeding family that kept going through a hard year, and three men who’ve each spent a lifetime at the halter, in the ring or behind the scenes. That’s Madison 2026.
See you on the colored shavings next fall.
The Sunday Read Dairy Professionals Don’t Skip.
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