The 2026 National Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor has spent decades judging cattle, mentoring young people, and serving World Dairy Expo. His family and colleagues explain what that commitment has meant to them.
Mike Holschbach and his father were talking cattle with Carl Hagenow in the yard of the family’s registered Holstein farm outside Reedsville, Wisconsin, when the top half of the barn door popped open and out came the head of “this lanky, bushy-haired guy.” “That’s Bob,” Carl said. Bob made no comments, Holschbach recalled, but “he just hung on every word that was said, and I kind of knew right there that this guy was going to be something special.”
That interest in cattle became a lifetime of involvement. By his family’s count, Hagenow has judged more than 350 dairy shows. At World Dairy Expo, he serves as secretary/treasurer and is the lead ring steward for the Brown Swiss and Holstein shows on the colored shavings in Madison. Colleagues call him a servant leader.
Holschbach, a Baraboo dairyman and former World Dairy Expo board president, shared the memory in a tribute video for the National Dairy Shrine.
At its Sept. 28, 2026, awards banquet in Madison, the Shrine honored Hagenow as its 2026 Guest of Honor, its highest recognition.
Bob Hagenow accepts the National Dairy Shrine’s 2026 Guest of Honor award at the Shrine’s awards banquet in Madison on Sept. 28, 2026.
Service Beyond the Job
Hagenow has spent 39 years at Vita Plus, where he supervises and coaches employees. The Shrine recognized him primarily for the volunteer work he does outside that job. The Shrine noted that recipients have historically included academic educators, researchers and people from breeding companies and breed associations.
“Many leaders talk about servant leadership, but Bob embodies it,” said Josh Hushon of Cargill Animal Nutrition. “The stage is never too big or too small to receive his best.”
Helping Young People Find Their Place
Hagenow has coached many 4-H dairy judging teams to success and regularly volunteers as an official for student contests. In 2020, he was inducted into the Wisconsin 4-H Hall of Fame. He still coaches county teams, advises a collegiate dairy club, announces the state youth dairy cattle shows at the Wisconsin State Fair and serves as board president of the Wisconsin 4-H Dairy Fund.
Bob Hagenow (front) leads a Guernsey class with a Vita Plus crew in the Coliseum for World Dairy Expo’s intercollegiate and post-secondary judging contests, where students place the class and defend it in oral reasons. Photo © Leslie E. Schmidt
His own judging experience gives him plenty to draw on. By 2011, when he was a World Dairy Expo associate judge, he had already judged more than 225 shows, a total his daughter Sarah put at more than 350 in the 2026 banquet tribute. He has judged in well over half of Wisconsin’s counties.
“It always amazes me that Bob never takes a vacation,” said Nick Uglow, a Vita Plus colleague. “Bob’s vacations are being at industry events.”
Dr. Les Hansen, who spent 38 years as lead coach of the University of Minnesota dairy judging team, sees how exhibitors respond. “How many people in their 60s still are judging the number of shows that Bob judged? And he’s the most popular judge we work with,” Hansen said. “Everybody, the young people and their parents in the ringside, just love the way Bob shares his enthusiasm with the crowd.”
Bill Hageman, World Dairy Expo’s board president, said his early-morning calls to Bob often start with the same question: “Bob, where are you?” Any day of the week, Hageman said, the answer is usually on the way to or from a youth show, a leadership conference, or somewhere else Bob can mentor young people.
Serving Expo in the Boardroom and the Ring
By 2011, Hagenow had already volunteered at the Expo’s dairy cattle show for 25 years. On show days, Sarah said in the tribute, you’ll find him “greeting exhibitors as they come in the front gates or walking around the barns to make sure that everything is in order,” then on his feet through the long Brown Swiss and Holstein shows. “He’s literally introduced thousands of spectators and thousands of exhibitors to the colored shavings at Madison, Wisconsin,” Hageman said.
Bob Hagenow, lead ring steward for World Dairy Expo’s Holstein and Brown Swiss shows, works the 2026 Holstein ring beside Ryan Krohlow in the Coliseum.
Off the shavings, he is also an at-large representative on the Expo’s board and sits on its executive committee. Hageman sums up what he brings to the board as “best outcomes.” “He does his pre-work before meetings, he participates actively during meetings, and he does homework after meetings,” Hageman said. “Nobody brings their game more than Bob Hagenow when it’s a World Dairy Expo or any leadership activity throughout his life.”
The People Around Him
“For me, it really starts and ends with the word people,” said Randall Greenfield, a Vita Plus colleague. He joked about Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People: “I had to flip back to make sure it was Carnegie that wrote the book and not Hagenow.”
Mention someone to Bob, Greenfield and Uglow said, and he’ll know where they grew up, who their cousin married six years ago, and the dog’s name. “He’s actually interested in all that. It’s genuine,” Greenfield said. Uglow sees the same attention on farm calls: “everything gets attention, and nothing’s too minor.”
“I came to Vita Plus partially because of Bob Hagenow,” Greenfield said. “He’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve stayed.” He said Bob’s enthusiasm for dairy and for Vita Plus had strengthened his own commitment to both.
Hagenow has described his philosophy plainly: “The only way you’re going to reach your goals or objectives in life is to help everybody else around you be successful.” In the tribute, his daughter Ashley named one of his main focuses as “helping other people succeed.”
Bob Hagenow (front row, right) with World Dairy Expo’s executive committee. He is one of the Expo’s three officers, serving as secretary/treasurer with president Bill Hageman and vice president Tom Morris.
The Handshake
His grip is famously strong, delivered with eye contact and a smile. He’s known for returning every phone call with the same question: “How can I help?”
“It wakes you right up. You have to prep, and you got to brace,” Greenfield said. Hageman described the house rule: “If you don’t provide a suitable handshake, you get to try again.” Holschbach blamed Bob for some of his carpal tunnel, then turned serious: “we’ve known for a long, long time that there’s more to Bob than just a handshake.”
Holschbach once asked Bob why he keeps at it, with all the weekends, the driving and the travel. Bob told him that getting one person excited about the industry, and helping keep it going, was enough. “That’s all I need for coming back time after time,” Holschbach recalled him saying.
To Ashley and Sarah, He’s Dad
Bob and his wife, Lisa, raised two daughters, Ashley and Sarah, in Poynette. Both earned the role of Alice in Dairyland, a one-year, full-time agricultural communications position with Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Ashley was selected as the 76th Alice in 2023; Sarah became the 78th in 2025. They are the first sisters to hold the role.
Bob Hagenow with daughters Sarah and Ashley, who narrated his National Dairy Shrine tribute, and his wife, Lisa, on the colored shavings at World Dairy Expo in Madison.
The sisters narrated the banquet tribute together. Sarah took the room back to the barn outside Reedsville, where she said her dad’s passion for dairy cattle and the industry took shape. From “early morning milkings of the 50 cow herd” to “hot afternoons in the tractor on the hay field,” she said, “his curiosity and dedication later impacted his successful career.”
Ashley closed it. “As you can tell, Dad, you have created quite a legacy in the dairy industry. But out of all of these accomplishments, perhaps the most important to us is you being our dad.”
Learn More
- 2026 Dairy Show Guide: Judging, Type and Ring Craft — Equip your operation with the latest PDCA scorecard updates and transition protocols. Master linear classification to align your breeding strategy with modern judging priorities and protect your herd’s long-term economic foundation.
- World Dairy Expo Showmanship: The Speech Every Kid Needs — By shifting the focus from colored shavings banners to resilience, you gain a clear framework for youth mentorship. Measure a young exhibitor’s success by their daily work ethic rather than their final placement in the ring.
- National Dairy Shrine Honors Industry Trailblazers with 2024 Pioneer Awards — Historical context on four trailblazers gives you the blueprint for industry longevity. Apply these innovators’ hard-won lessons in genetic acceleration and team culture to build a more resilient, forward-thinking farm operation today.
The Sunday Read Dairy Professionals Don’t Skip.
Every week, thousands of producers, breeders, and industry insiders open Bullvine Weekly for genetics insights, market shifts, and profit strategies they won’t find anywhere else. One email. Five minutes. Smarter decisions all week.
