Bailey made it two. Peter Vail, 87, turned up in five breeds’ results. An 18-cow New Hampshire herd won Milking Shorthorn Grand again. Here’s the whole week in one read, with links to every report.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
- Supreme: Stoney Point Joel Bailey EX-97 won her second Supreme in three years.
- The pattern: six of the week’s headline results came from cows repeating, improving on or reversing a 2025 placing.
- The names behind the halters: Peter Vail’s ran through five breeds. Milk Source Genetics sat at or near the top in four.
- The counterweight: small herds took Grand in Milking Shorthorn and Guernsey.
- The breeding lesson: the Ayrshire show, where one sire took the top three senior cows and one cow family stood behind the Grand Champion.
Friday afternoon in the Coliseum, both cows at the top of the Supreme lineup had been there before. Stoney Point Joel Bailey EX-97 was named Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo 2026, her second Supreme after 2024. In between, Vierra Dairy Farms’ Jersey was Grand Champion Jersey in 2025 and Supreme at the Royal that fall. Reserve Supreme went to Eixdale Pwrup Alongside, Milk Source Genetics’ Holstein Grand Champion and last year’s Honorable Mention Grand.
Madison 2026 rewarded cows that came back, the people who keep bringing them, and a few small barns that refused to be crowded out.
Every champion, on one page
| Show | Grand Champion | Owner / Exhibitor | Reserve Grand | Judge |
| Supreme Champion | Stoney Point Joel Bailey EX-97 (Jersey) | Vierra Dairy Farms, Hilmar, Calif. | Eixdale Pwrup Alongside (Holstein) | — |
| Supreme Champion Heifer | Butlerview Glitter Girl-ET (Holstein) | Clarkvalley, K. Doeberiener, P. Conroy & Butlerview | Budjon-Vail Joel Starstruck-ET (Jersey) | — |
| International Holstein | Eixdale Pwrup Alongside | Milk Source Genetics, Kaukauna, Wis. | Md-Locustcrest P Zuriniah | Ryan Krohlow |
| International Jersey | Stoney Point Joel Bailey | Vierra Dairy Farms, Hilmar, Calif. | GMBV Joel Dixie-ET | Mike Berry |
| International Junior Holstein | Arolene Dempsey Ella | Alyson Doiron, Cap-Santé, Que. | Go-Sho Tatoos In Jericho-ET | Ben Wallace |
| International Red & White | Luck-E Devour Akooza-Red-ET | Golden Oaks Farm, Wauconda, Ill. | Hurcroft Awe Lillyann-Red | Aaron Eaton |
| International Brown Swiss | Pit-Crew O Malley Patty | Kirby Sparrow, Worthville, Ky. | Colebrook Creek DT Alina | Rick “RT” Thompson |
| International Ayrshire | Bricker-Farms King Cinderella | Milk Source Genetics, J&S Fairbanks & K&M Wolf | Coppenbarger Kingsire Trinity | David Hanson |
| International Guernsey | Donnybrook Ammo Stevie | Brittany Taylor & Laylaa Schuler, New Glarus, Wis. | RHG Villa Breezy Venus-ET | Chris Lang |
| International Milking Shorthorn | Mountainview TC Fired Up | Emily & Randi Fisher, Pittsfield, N.H. | Lazy M Jekyll Zella Exp | Matt Henkes |
Arolene Dempsey Ella was also Supreme Champion of the Junior Show.
Six cows built on last year, and that’s the lesson
- Bailey: three straight years at the top of the Jersey breed in Madison. Mike Berry told the Coliseum he didn’t know if there had ever been a cow quite like her.
- Dixie: GMBV Joel Dixie-ET stood Reserve to her for the second year running.
- Alongside: went from Honorable Mention Grand to Grand. Her leadsman, John Vosters, had never led an Expo Grand Champion before.
- Stevie: finished Reserve Grand behind Kadence Fames Lovely in 2025. This year, as a four-year-old, she swept Grand and Senior in both the open and Junior Guernsey shows.
- Fired Up: won Milking Shorthorn Grand for the second straight year, now as an aged cow.
- Cinderella: finished second to Coppenbarger Kingsire Trinity as a senior three-year-old in 2025, then beat her for Grand.
A cow that holds her udder and mobility from one lactation to the next is the same cow a commercial breeder is trying to make. Madison is just where she gets judged in public.
Not every Grand had a history. Luck-E Devour Akooza-Red-ET didn’t show last year. Aaron Eaton made her Red & White Grand anyway, calling her the best-uddered cow of the show and “about as perfect as a picture as she stands there.”
Peter Vail’s name ran through five breeds
The week the Klussendorf Association made him an honorary member, Peter Vail owned or co-owned placings in at least five breeds:
- Jersey: Budjon-Vail Joel Starstruck-ET, Junior Champion and Reserve Supreme Heifer.
- Ayrshire: Premier Exhibitor of the open show, plus Reserve Grand Trinity, Junior Champion Ullmstar-SV R Money Maker and Honorable Mention Senior B-Wil Kingsire Willow.
- Brown Swiss: Hilltop Acres H Damara, four-year-old winner and Honorable Mention Grand.
- Milking Shorthorn: Premier Exhibitor of the overall show, with five-year-old winner Lazy M Petrone Equisitely.
- Holstein: Reserve Intermediate Walk-Era Eye Candy Rebel.
“At 87 years old, my goal is to stay alive and do whatever I choose to do,” Vail said. He counted three Supreme Junior Champion contenders of his own in the ring Thursday night: in Jersey, Brown Swiss and Ayrshire.
The other honorees told the same story of staying power:
- Erbacres Holsteins of Lanark, Ill., took the Robert “Whitey” McKown Master Breeder Award. The Erbsen family raises about 100 head and milks 42 cows. Since 1957 the prefix has produced 245 Excellent cows, 21 Gold Medal Dams and 25 Dams of Merit, plus Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET EX-97 4E, Supreme in 2021 and 2023.
- Hank Van Exel of Lodi, Calif., who has judged in 15 countries, received the Arthur B. Klussendorf Award.
- Joe Price, whose career includes about 16 years managing Butlerview Farm, took the Klussendorf-MacKenzie. That was the same week a Butlerview co-owned heifer, Glitter Girl, was named Supreme Champion Heifer.
Milk Source finished at or near the top in four breeds
- Holstein: Grand Champion Alongside, and Honorable Mention Senior Jacobs Chief Dina, co-owned with Ransom-Rail.
- Jersey: Reserve Grand Dixie.
- Ayrshire: Grand Champion Cinderella, co-owned with J&S Fairbanks and K&M Wolf.
- Red & White: Junior Champion Dridge Dc Hot Tamale-Red-ET, co-owned through Milk Source LLC.
Twice, they finished right behind Bailey: in the Supreme lineup with Alongside and in the Jersey show with Dixie.
Big strings winning in Madison isn’t news. How they get built is. Jim Ostrom described how the Cinderella partnership started: “They came to us and they said, ‘We’d like you to consider buying part of her, take her to your place, and help her develop.'” A breeder with a great young cow and no show budget can use that model too.
Small barns still won Grand
- Fired Up came out of a tie-stall corner of Barn 2. Emily and Randi Fisher run an 18-cow operation in Pittsfield, N.H. Their aged cow won Grand for the second straight year at a Milking Shorthorn show of roughly 270 head. Emily’s reaction: “I had no idea.”
- Stevie is homebred. Laylaa Schuler spent the day worrying whether she would lead. By Thursday night the cow had Grand and Senior in both shows, Best Bred & Owned, Best Udder and Total Performance Winner.
- Alyson Doiron led her own cow on the colored shavings for the first time and won the International Junior Holstein Show. “I wanted to do the junior show and just have some fun,” she said. “And I didn’t expect to win, but now I’m really happy.”
The Master Breeder milks 42 cows. Breeding depth has never required a big herd. It requires decades of decisions made the same way.
The Ayrshire show was the week’s breeding lesson
Judge David Hanson and associate Eric Houdek sorted 191 heifers and 115 cows. Their top three senior cows were all daughters of Bear-Ayr Distinct Kingsire.
The maternal story ran deeper. Cinderella’s 11-year-old dam, Bricker-Farms Gibbs Carvella, won Senior Champion of the Junior Show. She was the first living Ayrshire scored EX-95. The Bricker family took Premier Breeder and Senior Best Three Females.
Sires stacked up elsewhere too:
- Innisfail Mega Lottery-ET kept its grip on the Milking Shorthorn Premier Sire banner.
- Indian Acres American Pie was Premier Sire in the Guernsey show.
- In Brown Swiss, Daredevil had nine daughters in cow-class top tens and Diego had 11.
When one bull’s daughters fill the top of a class, that’s genetic strength on display. It’s also the cue to check your own herd before the next round of matings leans on the same bull.
Here’s what the judges said they were paying for
- Ryan Krohlow, Holstein: “One of the easiest things I did today was make this cow grand champion. One of the tougher things I did all week… was name a reserve grand champion.” He put Zuriniah over the eight-year-old, six-calf Altona Lea Unix Herminie.
- Rick “RT” Thompson, Brown Swiss: “Dairy strength and the ability to milk are what I wanted to recognize in the breed today.” His Grand, Pit-Crew O Malley Patty, went from senior three-year-old class winner to Intermediate and then Grand over the mature cows.
- Aaron Eaton, Red & White: put Akooza over Hurcroft Awe Lillyann-Red on mammary. Lillyann has seven calves and won the 150,000 lb. Production Cow class.
- Ben Wallace, Junior Holstein: kept returning to udder quality, open ribs, rear flank, and feet and legs. He called the 17-head winter yearling class the best of the day. It produced his Junior Champion, Walk-Era Aint She Fancy-ET.
Read together, the brief is consistent: udder, dairy strength that holds up, and mobility. None of it is show-only. It’s the cow that lasts in a commercial pen.
Fantasy Exhibitor paid off on points, not reputation
In Fantasy Exhibitor 2026, just over half the field spent $309,000 of a fantasy budget on Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane, last year’s Grand Champion. Austin Yoder spent $92,000 on Herminie instead, and she outscored Kandy Cane 34 points to 20. He won with 246 points, didn’t have the Grand Champion, and left $115,000 of his $1.2 million budget unspent. The dollars are fantasy dollars. The lesson about paying for what scores, not what’s famous, is real.
The next generation kept it close
- Intercollegiate: Minnesota won its fourth straight National Intercollegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, the 105th. It scored 2,496 points, 41 ahead of Iowa State among 18 schools. Jacob Harbaugh took high individual 843 to 842 over Penn State’s Ainsley Sellers.
- 4-H: California won the 104th National 4-H contest, 2,046 to Wisconsin’s 2,029. Wisconsin’s Braeden Bechel was top individual.
- Post-secondary: Modesto Junior College swept team, team reasons, high individual and high reasons at the 36th International Post-Secondary contest. Daniel Diniz was high individual with 775.
- Showmanship: out of 339 showmanship exhibitors, Justin Brandel of Lake Mills, Wis., was Supreme Showman and Logan Harbaugh of Marion, Wis., was Reserve.
- Fitting: Suton Paulson of Illinois went from third in the 2025 senior male division to the Michael Heath Overall Fitter Award.
A one-point margin at the national level shows how deep the judging pipeline runs. These are the people who will place these classes, and buy into these cow families, 20 years from now.
What this means for your breeding program
- Breed for the cow that comes back. Before your next matings, pull your second- and third-lactation cows. Rank them on whose udders and mobility held. Those are the families to flush or retain.
- Buy the maternal line, not just the banner. Cinderella’s value was visible in her 11-year-old EX-95 dam. Before you buy into a cow, look three generations deep.
- Check your hot sire. Kingsire filling the top of the Ayrshire senior cows is a strength story. At home, check relationship and inbreeding on any bull you’ve used heavily before you lean on him again.
- Consider a partnership if you have the cow but not the budget. The Cinderella and Vail strings show breeders and developers sharing cost and credit.
- Treat a banner as proof, not profit. Show wins build marketing value for genetics and sales. They don’t pay a feed bill by themselves.
Full class-by-class results:
Champions and honors:
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