Louella just went Grand at Schau der Besten 2026 — on an O’Kaliber sire stack that most North American programs don’t even list in their catalogs.
Executive Summary: Wilcor O’Kaliber Louella, a GS Alliance O’Kaliber daughter from Wilcor Holsteins and Blondin Sires, was named Grand Champion and Intermediate Champion at the 52nd Schau der Besten in Verden, Germany, confirming the O’Kalibra cow family’s grip on one of Europe’s most influential Holstein shows. Her stablemate Wilcor Chief O’Katy, last year’s Grand Champion, returned as Reserve Grand and Reserve Intermediate Champion, giving Cord Hormann’s herd back-to-back overall wins and multiple class leaders. Irish judge Gary Jones built his lineup around cows with balance, strength, movement, and high-quality udders, with HM Grand Champion Loh TJ Chilli and heifer champion Loh HS Why So Shy fitting the same functional, dairy-strong pattern. Louella’s sire stack — O’Kaliber × Chief × Doorman × Goldwyn — sits in the heart of the O’Kalibra dynasty that has already produced Swiss Expo and Swiss National Champions and was named Holstein International’s All-Time World Champion line. The sires behind Verden’s winners lean heavily on European-proven bulls like O’Kaliber, Capitol, and Tigerman, with limited North American use, highlighting how European show breeders are selecting different bloodlines and a slightly different kind of cow than the Sidekick- and Lambda-dominated pedigrees topping World Dairy Expo and the Royal.
Three thousand people packed the Niedersachsenhalle in Verden, Germany, on February 26. Thousands more watched the livestream. When Irish judge Gary Jones placed his hand on Wilcor O’Kaliber Louella and gave her the Siegerklaps— the champion’s pat — he crowned the same farm’s cow Grand Champion for the second consecutive year. That hasn’t happened at the Schau der Besten in recent memory, and the sire stack behind it tells you something about where European type is heading that most North American show reports won’t bother to unpack.
Louella is the new Grand Champion and Intermediate Champion of the 52nd Schau der Besten 2026. She’s a GS Alliance O’Kaliber daughter from Wilcor Chief Loualiza VG-86 2yr., backed by an EX-91 Doorman and an EX-92 Goldwyn, tracing to a Reserve Grand Champion on her dam’s side. For Cord Hormann’s Wilcor Holsteins in Warmsen, Germany — co-owned with Blondin Sires Inc. — this is a repeat performance that cements one cow family as the most dominant force in German Holstein show cattle right now.
Back-to-Back: Wilcor’s O’Kalibra Dynasty
Last year, O’Katy — a Stantons Chief daughter tracing directly to the legendary Decrausaz Iron O’Kalibra EX-97 — won both the Junior Champion title (2024) and came back as Grand Champion at the 51st Schau der Besten in 2025. Judge Jürgen Ballmann praised her “fantastic ring presence” and “very good udder balance”. (Read more: Rising to Excellence: The Remarkable Journey of Cord Hormann and Wilcor Holsteins)
This year, Louella took the crown. Different cow, different sire, same cow family, same breeder. Both animals trace to O’Kalibra — the Swiss-bred Boss Iron daughter who became the first Swiss Holstein to score EX-97, won three Supreme Champion titles at Swiss Expo, took the European Championship in 2013, and was named Holstein International’s All-Time World Champion in 2021. That’s not a bloodline. That’s a dynasty.
And Cord Hormann has positioned Wilcor Holsteins at the center of it. At the 2025 show, Wilcor also won the older cow category with O’Kalotta (by Awesome), who earned Honorable Mention Grand Champion. Two cows in the top three. This year, the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion both came from the Wilcor prefix — O’Katy stood Reserve to Louella.
The Full 2026 Results
Judge Gary Jones evaluated approximately 185 Holsteins across two days. Here’s how the championships fell:
Grand Champion & Intermediate Champion: Wilcor O’Kaliber Louella (O’Kaliber × Chief × Doorman × Goldwyn) — Wilcor Holsteins / Blondin Sires
Reserve Grand Champion: O’Katy — Wilcor Holsteins
Honorable Mention Grand Champion: GMH Hermine — Kumlehn Holsteins, Steffen Henckel & Eike Spangenberg
Heifer Champion (Young Winner): Loh HS Why So Shy — Loh An Holsteins & Hubertus Sell. Jones described her as having “almost unparalleled strength that runs from front to back through her body” with a “fantastic udder” just four weeks into lactation.
Reserve Heifer Champion: Lenka — Friedrichs GbR
HM Heifer Champion: Fux Serena — Ralf-Günther Ritz, Uelzen
Progeny Champion: Arienne (by Capitol) — Hobbie Holstein GbR, Wangerland. Jones called her “a cow that delivers,” praising her “balance, milk type, and superb feet and legs”.
Reserve Progeny Champion: LIH Mona (by Tigerman)
Notable class placements included Livia from Morisse GbR in Bremen, who won her heifer class on “power, movement, openness and length” plus a “fantastic udder,” and Loh TJ Chilli from Loh An Holsteins, who won the five-plus lactation class on “transitions, balance, firm centre and movement”.
The Sire: O’Kaliber and the O’Kalibra Machine
GS Alliance O’Kaliber is an Acme son out of Decrausaz Iron O’Kalibra EX-97 herself — the two-time World Champion and European Champion. He’s not a bull you’d stumble across in a typical North American mating lineup. He has roughly 1,000 daughters milking in Switzerland and about 350 in North America. But the daughters he does produce win. One was named Intermediate Champion at World Dairy Expo. In Switzerland, his daughters have taken Grand Champion at Junior Expo Bulle and Reserve Intermediate at Swiss Expo.
His full brother O’Kalif is also in AI. And the family keeps branching — at the 2025 Schau der Besten, Wilcor Awesome O’Kalotta Red, a full sister to O’Katy’s dam O’Kera, won the senior championship. The O’Kalibra cow family is producing champions across multiple sire lines and multiple countries simultaneously.
O’Kaliber is available in North America through ABS Global. He’s not a production bull. Never was. His value is type transmission — and in Europe, where the RZE index rewards functional conformation and longevity alongside dairy character, that type transmission translates directly into breeding value.
Pat Conroy, who’s worked with O’Kalibra genetics, put it directly: “Cows that have some power and strength, yet are still dairy, will ultimately outlast and out-milk the high style younger cows that seem to be one-hit wonders. I think that Iron O’Kalibra is one example that proves this fact to be true”.
What Gary Jones Rewarded
Jones’ selections reveal a consistent type vision. The words that kept surfacing in the Masterrind commentary: balance, strength, transitions, movement, udder. Not an extreme dairy character. Not sharp angularity. Not high pins.
Louella won on completeness from front to back. Loh HS, Why So Shy won the heifer championship on “unparalleled strength” and udder quality. Arienne won the progeny class as “a cow that delivers” — not “a cow that photographs well”.
Contrast that with the 2025 All-American selections, where Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane took the 5-Year-Old banner and Grand Champion at the International Holstein Show — a Sidekick daughter representing the angular, extreme-dairy style that dominates North American judging. Different sires, different type goals, different selection philosophy. Neither is wrong. But they’re diverging.
Sire Representation: Germany vs. Madison
The bulls behind the top placements at Schau der Besten 2026 tell a story North American show enthusiasts should read carefully:
| Position | Animal | Sire | Sire Presence in NA |
| Grand Champion | Louella | O’Kaliber | Limited (~350 dtrs) |
| Reserve Grand | O’Katy | Stantons Chief | Widely available |
| HM Grand | GMH Hermine | — | — |
| Heifer Champion | Loh HS Why So Shy | — | — |
| Progeny Champion | Arienne | Capitol | German-proven |
| Reserve Progeny | LIH Mona | Tigerman | German-proven |
| Class winner | Loh TJ Chilli | — | — |
Chief crosses with O’Kalibra genetics. Capitol and Tigerman in the progeny classes. O’Kaliber on top. Several of these sires — Capitol, Tigerman — are Masterrind-marketed bulls with minimal North American footprint. The overlap with a typical North American mating program is thin.
At World Dairy Expo 2024, the Grand Champion Jeffrey-Way Hard Rock Twigs was by Hard Rock. The Intermediate Champion was an Avenger daughter. The Reserve Grand was a 5-year-old by Fabulous. Sidekick, Tatoo, Lambda, and Delta-Lambda dominated the class placements. Almost zero crossover with what won in Verden.
The O’Kalibra Effect
This isn’t really about one show or one cow. It’s about a cow family that has been producing champions across Europe for 14 years and counting.
O’Kalibra was born September 4, 2008, bred by Fredy Decrausaz and sons in Switzerland. Sired by Boss Iron. She became Switzerland’s first EX-97. Three-time Swiss Expo Supreme Champion (2012, 2013, 2015). European Champion in Fribourg, 2013. Named Holstein International’s All-Time World Champion in 2021, ahead of every North American cow ever shown.
Her lifetime production: 94,000 kg (206,800 lbs) of milk. She wasn’t just a show cow. She milked.
Now her sons and granddaughters are winning across Germany, Switzerland, and beyond. Erbacres Snapple Shakira, an O’Kaliber granddaughter, scored EX-97-2E. O’Katy won back-to-back at Schau der Besten. Louella took the crown in 2026. Goya, an EX-95 O’Kaliber daughter, was named Switzerland’s National Champion in 2023.
The genetics translate. The question is whether North American breeders are paying attention.
What Show Enthusiasts Should Watch
The Schau der Besten sits alongside Swiss Expo and Cremona as Europe’s three marquee Holstein shows. It attracts visitors from more than 20 countries. And for the second straight year, it’s telling a story about the dominance of one cow family and one breeding program.
If you’re tracking European type trends — and you should be — three things from this show matter:
- Wilcor Holsteins is operating at a level few European farms have reached. Two consecutive Grand Champions. Multiple class winners. The O’Kalibra family deployed through multiple sire lines (O’Kaliber, Chief, Awesome) and won with all of them. Cord Hormann is making breeding decisions that are repeatedly validated at the highest level.
- O’Kaliber semen is accessible. He’s in the ABS catalog. If you’ve been curious about European-type sires but didn’t know where to start, he’s the entry point. His WDE Intermediate Champion daughter proves that the genetics can compete on both continents.
- European shows are rewarding completeness over extremes. The judging commentary at Verden — balance, strength, transitions, movement — reads differently from what wins at Madison or Toronto. Neither system is objectively right. But if you believe functional type drives commercial longevity, the Europeans are selecting closer to that ideal right now.
How many of the sires behind Schau der Besten’s top 10 are in your current mating program? If the answer is zero, is that by design — or by default?
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