The Alberta breeder from Unique Valleystream is the third winner of the award built in Richard Caverly’s memory, and the first from outside the United States.
The trophy Lee Morey took home from World Dairy Expo is a carved wooden Jersey.
She’s Glenamore Gold Prize EX-97-6E. Shown by Shamrock Genetics of Guelph, Ontario, she was grand champion Jersey at the Royal Winter Fair in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2000, and Richard Caverly worked with her all five times. Around the barns he was “the guy who clips Prize,” he told The Bullvine in 2013. She had “about as much hair as an eel,” and her wins made people think he had “magic clipper blades.” Ask him for his favourite cow and he’d say “Prize” without hesitation.
On Tuesday, September 29, the Richard Caverly Memorial Dairy Fund handed that carving to Morey on the colored shavings in Madison. It came right after Stoney Point Joel Bailey was crowned Grand Champion of the International Jersey Show. The carving has spent two years in the U.S., first with Katie Shultz in Pennsylvania, then with Tyler Woodman in Massachusetts. Now it comes home to the country where Prize won all five of her banners, in the hands of a breeder from Canada’s largest purebred Jersey operation.
Morey’s nominators made their case with a record most breeders never assemble: 25 sires into AI in eight years, 11 of the top 20 cows in Canada in 2026, and the country’s No. 1 LPI cow for seven straight proof runs. Then they added the detail that sounds most like Caverly. If a young exhibitor needs a heifer to show, Morey makes sure there’s a good one at Unique.
Who Was Richard Caverly?
Caverly died unexpectedly at home on February 23, 2024, at 56. He grew up showing his family’s Ayrshires in Maine and championed the breed his whole life, yet the cow he called his favourite was a Jersey. Early on he worked with the 97-point Ayrshire Belladina and with Helga, the 1978 World Dairy Expo champion. In 2001 he became the first herdsman at Arethusa Farm. He later worked for the 1,700-cow Flood Brothers Dairy and for ABS Global, and he won the 2013 Klussendorf-MacKenzie Award at Expo.
He also had a habit of finding young people in barns. Our 2025 profile of Tyler Woodmanrecords the advice Caverly gave him at Eastern States, back when Woodman was still building a show string: “Breed your cow the way you want your cow to be, not what everyone else thinks they should be.”
Friends set up the award in 2024 around three things Caverly was known for. He had great cow sense. He loved breeding and husbandry. And he believed dairy youth need someone to train and guide them. Nominators can’t just praise a candidate. They have to document examples of each trait.
Eight Years, 25 Sires: What Did Morey Build at Unique?
Unique Valleystream Genetics is a division of Northland Dairy Ltd., about an hour north of Edmonton. In 2019, The Western Producer called it Canada’s largest purebred Jersey operation, owned by Dave and Tracy Morey and their adult children, Casey and Lee. Lee manages the 400-cow milking herd of Jerseys, Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorns, covering daily operations, breeding and nutrition. He and his sister Casey lead the IVF/ET program. That program ships registered embryos around the world and holds several international contracts.
Here’s the record since he took over the breeding program in 2018, as his nominators laid it out:
- 25 sires into AI in eight years. That’s roughly three a year from one herd.
- 11 of the top 20 cows in Canada in 2026, including all of the top five.
- The No. 1 LPI cow in Canada for seven straight proof runs, bred by Morey. Lactanet publishes three evaluation runs a year, so seven straight covers every release since August 2024.
Unique has held the top spot before. Cowsmo reported in 2019 that Par For Belle VG-85 held the No. 1 LPI Jersey cow position for a record four and a half years. One cow at No. 1 shows a great cow family. Eleven of the top 20 shows a whole breeding program at work.
Can One Bull Carry Both the Index and the Show Ring?
Morey’s stated goal is balance: profitable production plus type that can compete in the show ring. At the 2025 Western Dairy Expo in Saskatoon, Lee and Melissa Morey brought their string to show that high type, high production and genomics can live in the same animal. “We have three AI bull mothers in our string,” they told The Western Producer. Unique Skyfall shows what that looks like.
Skyfall (250JE2131) is a Chrome Bosa son out of Redhot Matt Skyline-ET VG-87. He made Lactanet’s August 2023 top 50 young Jersey bulls for genomic parent average LPI. By 2025 he was one of the ten sires leading Jersey Canada’s registrations. Those ten bulls averaged 402 registered daughters each and together sired 29% of that year’s Canadian Jersey registrations. This August, Select Sires moved him into its daughter-proven lineup.
In the ring at the 2025 Westerner Dairy Showcase, Unique Skyfall Guitana and Unique Skyfall Wisers placed first and second in the Jersey spring yearling class.
So the same bull ranked high enough on the index to see wide use, and sired daughters good enough to top a national show class. That’s the balance Morey is chasing, in one sire.
Why Does a Breeder This Busy Still Judge 4-H Clipping Contests?
Someone did it for him. Morey worked sales and shows around the world as a young man and became a respected fitter thanks to the people who mentored him. He sees this as his turn to pay that back. It starts at home. The Moreys brought their one-year-old daughter, Avery, to that same Saskatoon show because “we want to pass our passion for cattle shows on to the next generation.”
- He’s an official judge on both the Holstein Canada and Jersey Canada lists. At the 2025 Royal, he was associate judge for the TD Canadian 4-H Dairy Classic conformation class.
- His nominators say he never turns down a judging job, even a small 4-H club clipping contest or a judging workshop.
- He teaches at judging, showmanship and clipping clinics.
- In 2026 he took on Alberta team coordinator and coach for the WestGen Canadian Classic. The competition has brought together 4-H members aged 12 to 17 from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba since 1985.
The heifer offer deserves the most credit. Unique markets embryos and genetics worldwide, so every good heifer calf there has a real price. Putting one on a halter for a junior exhibitor costs something, and that’s exactly the kind of commitment this award was created to recognize.
Carry the Torch: The Richard Caverly Memorial Fund and 2027 Nominations
Family, friends and acquaintances created the Richard Caverly Memorial Dairy Fund to keep his memory working. It presents the award every year and supports dairy youth activities.
The next chance to honour someone is 2027. If the age rule holds, nominees must be 18 to 30 on January 1, 2027, which means born between January 2, 1996, and January 1, 2009. A strong nomination documents specific examples of cow sense, breeding and husbandry, and work with dairy youth.
Maybe it’s the herd manager who runs your county clipping clinic. Maybe it’s the fitter who always makes time for a 4-H kid with a halter in hand. If you know someone like that, write it up. Nomination details and donation information are available through the fund’s Facebook page or from Committee Chair Jim Strout.
Caverly spent his career on great cows and on the young people he taught to care for them. From northern Alberta, Morey is doing both. Who’s doing that in your barn, and who did it for you?
Fast Facts: The 2026 Caverly Award
| Recipient | Lee Morey, partner, Unique Valleystream Genetics, Rochester, Alberta |
| Presented | Tuesday, September 29, 2026, World Dairy Expo, Madison, right after the Jersey Grand Champion was named |
| Trophy | Travelling wooden carving of the Jersey Glenamore Gold Prize EX-97-6E by Scott Hussey, plus a plaque and an embroidered travel bag |
| Eligibility | Ages 18 to 30 on January 1 of the award year |
| Past winners | Katie Shultz, Chambersburg, Pa. (2024) · Tyler Woodman, Mapleline Farm, Hadley, Mass. (2025) |
| Third winner, first from outside the U.S. | Lee Morey, Rochester, Alberta (2026) |
Learn More
- The 52-Point Gap Hiding in Every Jersey Sire Catalog in Canada — Breaks down the hidden fertility costs behind elite LPI numbers and delivers a concrete formula for setting subindex floors. While Morey balances type and production, this analysis arms you to prevent reproduction traits from dragging down your herd’s profitability.
- Why Heifer Fertility Might Just Be Your Dairy’s Biggest Opportunity in 2025 — Follows the money on $3,000 replacement costs to expose a massive performance gap in national conception rates. Beyond supplying junior exhibitors, tightening your operation’s heifer pregnancy protocols through targeted technology integration creates an immediate competitive margin advantage.
- This Was Never About the Cattle: What the TD 4-H Classic Really Teaches at 5:47 AM — Dismantles the myth that youth shows are simply weekend hobbies. Expanding on Caverly’s mentorship philosophy, this piece reveals how early-morning wash racks actually forge the dairy industry’s next generation of CEOs, Master Breeders, and strategic leaders.
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