UPDATE – The calves are HOME SAFE! We are so grateful to our local community, the ag community and law enforcement for all of the assistance in helping get our babies back to us. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office is working on leads and we look forward to the full prosecution of anyone involved. We’re so grateful and relieved!
UPDATE — June 5, 2026: Arrests made. A Lockport couple has been charged in the overnight theft of 17 calves from Lamb Farms.
A husband and wife from Lockport, New York, are facing multiple felony charges in connection with the 17 genotyped calves taken from Lamb Farms in Oakfield. Torrence A. Schmitt, 25, and Kerisa J. Schmitt, 26, were taken into custody Wednesday in Jamestown, with assistance from Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies, and transferred to the Genesee County Jail to await arraignment, The Daily News reported.
Both are charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree grand larceny, tampering with evidence, and first-degree falsifying business records. Each is also accused of removing and destroying the identification tags from 16 of the calves — the genotyping ear tags that ultimately made the animals traceable.
The calves disappeared overnight on May 24. According to investigators, a neighbor’s security camera on Lockport Road in Alabama captured a heavy-duty pickup pulling a cattle trailer, followed closely by a second vehicle, at 1:21 a.m. The animals were recovered May 27 at Lebanon Valley Livestock Market in Pennsylvania — roughly halfway between Harrisburg and Reading — and returned to Lamb Farms. Their total value was placed at $41,000.
The investigation was led by the Genesee County Criminal Investigations Division. Both Schmitts were released under the supervision of Genesee Justice and are scheduled to appear in Genesee County Court at a later date.
The Schmitts are charged but have not been convicted; the allegations described above are drawn from law enforcement and court information as reported by The Daily News.
The original industry-wide alert, published May 24, follows below.
Genesee County, NY — May 26, 2026 — Oakfield Corners Dairy, one of the most respected registered Holstein operations in the Northeast, is asking the global dairy community for help after 17 five-month-old Holstein heifer calves were stolen from its Bliss Road calf facility in the early morning hours of Sunday.
The thieves are believed to have left the farm with a truck and cattle trailer between 1:00 and 3:00 AM Sunday, traveling west on Lockport Road toward the Alabama Hotel/Holley Farm intersection. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation.
Why This Theft Is Different
These aren’t anonymous commercial calves. Every animal taken has been fully genotyped, meaning Oakfield Corners holds a complete genomic fingerprint for each heifer. Even if ear tags are removed, destroyed, or replaced, a single hair or tissue sample can positively identify any of these calves — at any sale barn, on any farm, anywhere in North America.
That changes the math for whoever is holding them. Genotyped cattle are effectively traceable for life.
How to Identify the Stolen Calves
The heifers carry a distinctive, layered ID system:
- Electronic ID (EID) button in the left ear
- 1–2 large visual management tags in both ears
- Tissue ear-punch in the right ear (genotyping sample site)
- Approximately 5 months old, typical Holstein heifer size and conformation
If any of these markers have been tampered with or removed, that itself is a red flag worth reporting.
What the Industry Is Being Asked to Do
Oakfield Corners and law enforcement are specifically asking:
- Sale barns, order buyers, and auction yards — flag any group of young Holstein heifers offered without clean paperwork, particularly with fresh tag holes or missing EIDs
- Neighboring producers — report any unfamiliar heifers that appeared on a nearby operation overnight
- Residents along Lockport Road and the Alabama/Holley corridor — review trail cams, driveway cams, and doorbell footage from the 1–3 AM Sunday window for a truck pulling a livestock trailer
- Haulers and truckers — note any unusual hauling activity in Western New York that night
Contact
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office directly. Tips can be anonymous.
The Bigger Picture
Livestock theft remains an under-reported crime in North American agriculture, and high-value dairy genetics are an increasingly attractive target. This case is also a quiet endorsement of what forward-thinking operations like Oakfield Corners have been doing for years: genotyping isn’t just a breeding tool — it’s a security system.
The Bullvine will update this Dispatch as new information becomes available. If you’re reading this, share it. In a connected dairy industry, 17 calves should not be able to disappear quietly.
🐄 Bring them home to Oakfield Corners.
