Nearly three years ago, Arolene Dempsey left the family. On Oct. 2, the 16-year-old who refused to forget her led her to Supreme Champion of the Junior Show at World Dairy Expo.
The seven breed champions of the Junior Show lined up on the coloured shavings Friday afternoon. One was a five-year-old Holstein from Cap-Santé, Quebec. At her halter stood a 16-year-old who, nearly three years earlier, had watched her favorite cow leave the family.
The judges picked the Holstein.
Arolene Dempsey Ella, EX-95, was named Supreme Champion of the Junior Show at World Dairy Expo 2026. Hall’s V-Lane Spectacle-ET, the Ayrshire owned by Ashton and Levi Wilcox, was Reserve Champion of the Junior Show.
Alyson Doiron wiped away tears. She’d been working toward this since she was a kid in a Quebec show barn: her own cow, her own halter, the biggest junior banner in Madison.
“I didn’t expect it,” she said, “so all the emotions came with it.”
The cow she wouldn’t let go.
Ella’s story starts with a handshake. The family co-owned her dam, Arolene Duhibou Apple Elmay, EX-94, with a partner. When Elmay calved a heifer, Alyson’s uncle Yan made the call. If the heifer turned into a good cow, they’d keep her together. If she was just okay, the partner could keep her.
She turned into a good cow.
Ella went to work fast. At the 2023 Suprême Laitier, entered by her breeder, Ferme Arolene 2020 Inc., and Ferme Jacobs, she won the winter two-year-old class, took Best Udder and Bred & Owned, and was named Reserve Intermediate Champion.
Then came the Royal.
“We owned her as a heifer and then sold her when she had just calved, to Butlerview at the Royal,” Alyson told the Expo Daily Edition.
It was a strange week to say goodbye. On Nov. 9, 2023, Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET was named Grand Champion of the Royal for a partnership that included Ferme Jacobs and Ty-D Holsteins. In the same show, Ella won the winter two-year-olds, took Best Udder and was named Honorable Mention Intermediate Champion, entered under Jim Butler’s name.
Alyson took it hard. She was “really mad at my mom and uncle,” she said.
Butlerview later sent Ella through the International Intrigue Sale. That’s where a teenager’s grudge turned into a plan.
“I was like, I have to bring this cow back home,” she said. “And that’s how it went.”
Growing up in the Jacobs barn
Alyson knows exactly what a Supreme Champion looks like up close. Her father, Tyler Doiron, led Shakira to Grand and Supreme Champion at World Dairy Expo in 2021, then did it again in 2023.
Her mother, Ysabel Jacobs, is a partner in Ferme Jacobs with her brother Yan and their mother, Marian Ghielen. By 2025, the farm had won 11 Premier Breeder banners at Madison and 11 more at the Royal.
That’s the bar Alyson grew up with. Great cows weren’t something she saw in magazines. They lived down the alley.
“Showing is our life,” she told the Expo Daily Edition. “In our free time, we are either showing or working with the show cows.” She’s studying agriculture so she can take over the farm one day.
Ask her who taught her the most, and she doesn’t hesitate: “My mom, my dad and Uncle Yan. They work with the cow every day.”
Two of them are the people she was furious with in 2023.
The summer it came together.
Ella has the pedigree to back up the banners. She’s by Dempsey, out of Elmay, an Applecrisp daughter who is the 10th generation of VG or Excellent dams. Go back far enough, and you reach Krull Broker Elegance, EX-96, one of the breed’s great cow families. Elmay is still showing, too. This year she won her class at Northeast Fall and was named Reserve Senior and Honorable Mention Grand Champion.
By July, Ella was showing in Alyson’s name.On July 16, she was Grand Champion at the Portneuf Holstein show. On Aug. 20 at the Suprême Laitier, judge Dominic Fortier called the top of the five-year-old class a close call: a fourth-calf cow against a third-calf cow. Gouldhaven Alligator Ezroyal won it on a higher, wider rear udder. Ella, the third-calver, settled for second and Honorable Mention Grand.
A loss like that can rattle a young exhibitor. Alyson had a rule for it, and it came from home.
“The best advice they have given me is not to let one show define my cow,” she said.
Then Ella classified EX-95, and Alyson packed for Madison.
Five days in Madison
On Sept. 27, judge Ben Wallace and associate Phillip Topp sorted 301 junior-owned Holsteins. Alyson had been on the coloured shavings before in showmanship. This was her first time leading a cow in a class there, and the cow was her own.
Wallace said Ella won the eight-cow five-year-old class handily. He placed her over T-Triple-T Side Peace for a higher, wider udder. In the senior drive, he said he couldn’t find a fault: she’s feminine, with an open rib, a beautiful rump and a great set of feet and legs. Then he got to the udder. High and wide, symmetrical and tightly attached.
He made her Senior and Grand Champion of the International Junior Holstein Show.
“We came here to Madison, and I wanted to do the junior show and just have some fun,” Alyson said. “I didn’t expect to win, but I’m really happy.”
Five days later came the open show. In a 17-cow five-year-old class under Ryan Krohlow, Ella stood second. The only cow ahead of her, Eixdale Pwrup, alongside Milk Source Genetics, went on to Grand Champion and Reserve Supreme of the whole Expo. Ezroyal, the cow that beat Ella in August, was sixth.
One show didn’t define her cow. Alyson had said it wouldn’t.
That afternoon, Alyson and Ella walked back in for the Supreme selection and walked out with the banner.
Her turn
Tyler has made that walk with Shakira. Ferme Jacobs has hung Premier Breeder banners in Madison and Toronto. On Oct. 2, the walk belonged to someone else: a 16-year-old who got mad, made a plan, and brought her cow home.
“We’re just a big family,” she said. “I love that part.”
Next comes the Royal in November. Then Ella calves again, with Madison 2027 as the goal.
Next comes the Royal in November. After that, Ella will calve again, setting her sights on Madison 2027 – only this time, she’s staying in the family.
Learn More
- The Ultimate Dairy Show Guide for 2026: Judging, Classification & Ring Craft — Arms you with updated PDCA scorecards and transition protocols to keep your projects competitive. Breaks down how specific feed adjustments and linear type choices directly impact your $336 lameness costs and robotic parlour efficiency.
- Remembering Jean Jacobs: The Quiet Builder Behind a Holstein Dynasty — Follows the money on what actually builds a 95-percent homebred herd capable of producing generations of Supreme Champions. Exposes the practical, unglamorous management decisions that set the foundation for Ferme Jacobs’ international genetic dominance.
- Winners Work: What Elizabeth Hall’s Expo Speech Means for Kids Who Didn’t Get Pulled — Dismantles the standard definition of success in the youth ring when 87 percent of competitors go home empty-handed. Delivers a blueprint for translating show-day setbacks into lifelong industry resilience, shifting the focus from ribbons to mastery.
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