He wore the belt buckle nearly everywhere. Custom-made, Braedale Goldwyn’s name on it, designed by Ron Stewart at Eastern Breeders while Shania Twain played in the background. If you ever met Julien Chabot at a barn, a bull stud, at Madison or the Royal, you saw the buckle before you shook his hand. He was proud of it — the way a man is proud of one great decision that came to define everything after.
Julien passed away early this week from heart complications. He was 31 years into a career that shaped more of the modern Holstein breed than most people realize — and, in the way he preferred, he never made much of himself in the telling.
He was 55, give or take. He had a wife he adored, a daughter he could not stop talking about, a bull barn full of the ones he was proudest of, and a granddaughter cow family that keeps winning right now in real time. The industry lost a giant this week. His family lost the center of everything.
From Saint-Patrice to Semex
Julien grew up inside one of Quebec’s most storied breeding families. His parents, Luc and the late Jeannette Chabot, bought the family farm in Saint-Patrice-de-Beaurivage in 1959. Jeannette passed away roughly 25 years ago, but she lived to see the first Belfast Master Breeder shield in 1993 — the foundation she and Luc had built together. Two of their sons, Denis and Robert, joined the operation in 1980, and the Belfast prefix they built with Luc earned Master Breeder shields in 1993, 2004, and 2021, with a fourth added in 2015 through Groupe Gen-I-Beq. Luc — still active with Belfast today, well into his 80s — raised six children with Jeannette and lived to see 14 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren carry the family’s love of cattle forward. His brother Yvon Chabot of Victoriaville has become one of Quebec’s most respected Holstein judges — 2019 winner of the Trophée Jean-Touchette (Holstein Québec’s highest lifetime honor for breed contribution), a fixture on All-Canadian selection panels, and the pedigree eye behind Holstein Québec’s mentorship sales.
Between Julien in the AI barns, Yvon in the show ring as a judge, and Robert, Denis, Nicolas and Vincent at Belfast, the Chabot brothers put the family’s stamp on Canadian Holstein breeding from four different angles at once.
Julien took a different road out of the same barn. He studied Agronomy and Animal Science at Université Laval, graduating in 1993, then joined Eastern Breeders Inc. as a Sire Analyst in January 1995. When Semex Alliance came together in 1997, he moved onto the new team. In August 2016, Semex announced his promotion to Product Acquisition Specialist — responsible for bull purchases across Canada, the US, and Western Europe. He held that role until his death.
Thirty-one years at one company. One lane. One elite level. Almost nobody does that anymore.
The eye — and where it came from
Before Goldwyn, before Windbrook, before Dropbox, there was a moment in the mid-1990s that tells you everything about how Julien saw cattle.
He took Sue Brown, the herd manager at Lylehaven, out to see a rangy, black two-year-old the industry hadn’t yet noticed. That cow was Thiersant Lili Starbuck EX-94 5E — the foundation brood cow for the entire “L” family at Lylehaven. Every Lila. Every Lekysha. Every Leah. Every Belfast Goldwyn Lasenza. All of it traces back to that day in a stall with a young sire analyst pointing at a cow no one else was looking at.
That was Julien. He didn’t just see a cow. He saw ten generations forward.
Around the same time, on the other side of the province, he contracted a two-year-old named Braedale Baler Twine — daughter of the great Braedale Gypsy Grand. “Gypsy Grand was just fresh as a two-year-old when I started working as a sire analyst in 1995. She was my first cow contracted at Braedale,” Julien told the Holstein Plaza family report. “I got lucky this great family was in my territory.”
That first contract — the patient work of a young sire analyst on a family Semex had been building for five generations — set up the bull that would define a career.
Goldwyn
Everyone in this business knows what happened next. Braedale Goldwyn, born January 3, 2000, at the Beaton family’s Braedale Holsteins in Cumberland, Ontario. A Shoremar James son out of Baler Twine, scored GP-84. Numbers arrived quietly in November 2004 at #82 LPI. Jumped to #5 by February 2005.
“From the first group of 20 milking daughters I saw, I could tell Goldwyn was going to make the really special ones, even before his numbers were on paper,” Julien shared. He said it in 2004. He said it in 2013. He said it in 2022, when Goldwyn’s 1,000th Excellent daughter was classified — a Canadian record no bull had ever touched.
Doug Blair called Goldwyn the type sire of the century. Twenty Premier Sire banners between World Dairy Expo and the Royal Winter Fair. Over 3,400 Excellent daughters in Canada by 2018. Sired 27% of the entire 2012 Royal — Grand, Reserve, Honorable, Intermediate, Reserve Intermediate, and Honorable Mention Intermediate Champions, all Goldwyn daughters.
Goldwyn died November 24, 2008. Julien wore the buckle for the next 18 years.
Sale of Stars, and the deals he closed
From 2005 to 2008, Julien ran point on the Semex Sale of Stars at the Royal. He dragged a fading sale series back to international relevance and posted record averages for Holsteins, the component breeds, and the embryo auction along the way. He was still doing consignment sale work in 2012, listed as the contact for the Vente Sale from his Embrun office — because Julien wasn’t the guy who signed the bulls and disappeared. He answered the phone. He walked the barns. He looked at the cows.
The Semex line-up carries his fingerprints far past Goldwyn.
Gillette Windbrook — the next Gypsy Grand family bull, out of a Blitz × Storm mating from La Ferme Gillette. Same maternal line as Goldwyn. Different generation, same instinct. Windbrook’s daughters would go on to include Idee Windbrook Lynzi EX-95 4E — 2019 Royal Grand Champion, Supreme Champion, and Holstein Canada’s 2020 Cow of the Year.
Gen-I-Beq Brawler — Julien’s own family’s breeding program, out of Gen-I-Beq Shottle Barbi tracing through Champion Bally to Baler Twine, Goldwyn’s dam. Same cow family, different partner, ten years later. #1 new release and #2 GLPI bull in Canada at +2638 in 2012.
Mr Ernestanthony Havenofear — a Delta-Lambda son of S-S-I Doc Have Not from the Dellias family, one of the most influential young sires in the current Semex lineup, delivering +1434 Milk and +12 Conformation on his first official proof this past April.
Kings-Ransom Dropbox — Julien’s most recent big purchase. As late as August 2025, he was still on the road viewing daughters, telling the Semex Podcast team on Episode 54, “36 total, deviations of 1.5 — you never seen anything this consistent.” Three months later, he was back on the mic for Episode 40’s WDE and Royal recap, doing what he’d been doing for three decades — walking readers and listeners through what mattered on the tanbark and why.
He was still doing the work in the last weeks of his life. He was still going to the barns. He was still right.
The judge, when he had time
Julien was a Level 4 Holstein Canada official judge (Eastern region, bilingual English–French), based at 1396 St. André Road, Embrun, per the Canadian Official Judges List. Ancaster Fair. Trois-Rivières. Regional shows in Ontario and Quebec. When a show committee wanted an honest eye and a straight answer — not politics, not favors — they called Julien.
He worked those rings the same way he worked the bull barns: quietly, thoroughly, with no interest in making the day about himself.
Mary Inn, Marianne, and Alex
Away from Semex, Julien and his wife Marianne Janssen owned and operated Mary Inn Holstein in Embrun, Ontario, with their daughter Alex Chabot.
Mary Inn is where the personal and professional stopped being separate. When Julien and Robert co-bred Belfast Goldwyn Lasenza EX-95-3E-CAN 14* — a Goldwyn daughter from the Lylehaven L-family Julien himself had helped establish decades earlier — the story came full circle. One family. One eye. One bull. Two brothers. Lasenza was All-Canadian and All-American Junior Two-Year-Old in 2014, a Holstein Canada Cow of the Year finalist in 2022, still cutting swathes through the Quebec show ring as recently as 2025.
Julien and Marianne were also personally in on the Lylehaven purchase with the Chabot brothers, per the Holstein Québec Master Breeder profile — quiet co-owners in one of the most influential cow-family investments in modern Canadian breeding.
The Chabot name showed up next to some of the biggest cattle of the last two decades — Twix. Caught A Vibe. Lasenza. Lovestruck. And in the shadow of the Million Dollar Lila Z, whose family Julien had recognized before anyone else knew what she’d become.
Alex, at the Royal, with the buckle still fresh
Then, this past November, the story turned again.
At the 2025 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, AJ Genetics — the young operation Alex Chabot runs in Embrun with her partner Josh Karn — walked into their first Royal and walked out with the Junior Holstein Red & White Championship. The winning heifer, Maple-Ain Blondes Have Morefun, was co-owned with the Hunter family’s Maple-Ain Holsteins, Mary Inn Holsteins, and Mitchell Anderson.
Julien was there. His daughter, in his hometown ring, with a champion under her halter, on the biggest stage in Canada. Eight months later, he was gone.
If you want to know what a life of good work returns to a family, that’s what it looks like.
The team he built with
“Julien loved life, people, and competition,” said Paul Trapp, Semex Genetic Acquisition Team Lead. “He loved his wife and daughter, and when he talked about them, he lit up. He was a huge asset to our team, always honest and acting with integrity. We will miss him.”
Every person who worked with him will tell you a version of the same thing. Sharp eye. Straight answer. Loyal to the family, loyal to the family cows, loyal to the herds and clients who trusted him with a mating plan or a bull deal. Equally comfortable talking Net Merit dollars with a large commercial herd in the morning and walking a show string in the afternoon — telling you exactly which heifer had the udder to win.
He didn’t play games. He didn’t pad résumés. He didn’t chase bulls he didn’t believe in. When Julien said a bull would make it, everyone listened, because he had earned that — one contract, one flush, one Excellent daughter at a time, for 31 years.
The part that mattered most
Julien loved Semex. He loved Goldwyn. He loved the bulls, the barns, the herds, the rings, the road, the sales, the phone calls, the friendships that came with a life spent chasing great cattle across four countries.
But anyone who spent five minutes with him knew the real ranking: Marianne first. Alex first. Family always.
The belt buckle was a great story. The bulls were a legacy. But the way his face changed when he talked about the two of them — that was the man.
Semex says he lit up when he talked about his wife and daughter. That’s the sentence to hold onto.
Alex has one more show season now to carry the name forward. She was already doing it in front of him. She’ll keep doing it. That family cow line traces back further than any of us, and it isn’t done yet.
The Bullvine sends our deepest condolences to Marianne and Alex Chabot; to Luc Chabot, to his brothers Robert, Denis, and Yvon, to Nicolas, Vincent, and the entire Belfast and Chabot families in Saint-Patrice-de-Beaurivage and Victoriaville; to Paul Trapp, Brian Carscadden, Mike West and everyone at Semex; to the Hunters at Maple-Ain and the Karn family; and to the countless breeders and herds across Canada, the United States, and Europe who trusted Julien’s eye for 31 years.
Jeannette went home 25 years ago. Julien joins her now. The breeding tradition she and Luc started in 1959 keeps going — through Belfast, through Mary Inn, through AJ Genetics, through every barn where a Chabot walks in with the eye.
The dairy industry lost one of the good ones this week. Two of them, if you count Goldwyn. But Julien would tell you the buckle was never the point.
Rest easy, Julien. The buckle earned its wear. And the L family is still winning.
