Butlerview Glitter Girl stood 11th in a 61-head calf class in this Coliseum last October. Ten heifers beat her. Two of them have since lost to her in Madison.

Harrisburg, September 2024. Ryan Krohlow taps a four-year-old Sidekick from Saskatchewan as Senior and Grand Champion of the Eastern Fall National.

Hamburg, March 2025. Krohlow again. Same cow, now a five-year-old, Grand Champion and Best Udder of Show. He calls her “on the money” — “dairy, long, and feminine yet has so much chest” — walking “so free,” with an udder he calls “perfect” and “symmetric”.

Madison, October 2025. Aaron Eaton takes one look and says it out loud: “when that 5-year-old came in the ring today, it was game over.” Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane — Grand Champion of the International Holstein Show, Reserve Supreme of World Dairy Expo.

Krohlow had her purple twice before Eaton ever laid a hand on her. He staked his reputation on that cow in two separate rings while the rest of the industry was still deciding. Now he holds the microphone at the show that made her famous — and Kandy Cane, since scored EX-97, has not been seen in a ring all year.

Neither has the Junior Champion who stood beside her in that final callout. Neither has the Reserve Junior Champion, the Honorable Mention Intermediate Champion, or the Honorable Mention Senior Champion. Of the nine animals who took a divisional banner in Madison last October, five have not surfaced at any of the sixteen major North American Holstein shows held in 2026 — a majority of that callout has been dark for eleven months.

One of the others surfaced in April, in Chilliwack, and won.

A caution before you bet anything: World Dairy Expo does not publish a public Holstein entry list, and entries closed August 31. Nobody outside these barns knows who is on the truck. What follows is who has earned a place in the conversation — and who has been conspicuously, deliberately quiet.

The Cow Who Beat Barabas Is Back — And She’s A Grand Champion Now

West-Adub Lambda Sadie was Intermediate Champion and Reserve Grand Champion of World Dairy Expo 2025. Eaton said she “runs away with it” — “so dairy, so open, so flawless in her parts” — and he put her over Famipage Legend Barabas for Intermediate on being “a little cleaner” with “more quality” to her mammary system.

She then sold at the Parade of Perfection to Butlerview Farm, with Westcoast Holsteins of Chilliwack retaining half interest. In April she walked into the BC Holstein Spring Show at the National Convention as a four-year-old and Jamie Black made her Grand Champion.

Barabas, meanwhile, aged into the same class and won Grand at the Ontario Summer Show — her second straight Ontario Summer Grand, after taking it as a senior three-year-old in 2025.

Two Grand Champions. One class. A rematch of the closest call of last year’s show. That’s Friday’s headline, and we’ll get to why it’s a fight between two completely different kinds of cow.

The Show You’re Walking Into

The scale, from last year: 468 Holsteins — 236 heifers, 169 intermediate cows, 63 mature cows. The winter heifer calf class alone ran 61 head, the spring calves 42. Judge Aaron Eaton spent two days on it.

The week starts earlier than most people think. The International Junior Holstein Show goes Friday, October 2nd at 10:00 a.m., official Ben Wallace of Stoughton, Wisconsin with associate Phillip Topp of Botkins, Ohio. That’s the junior-exhibitor ring, so it only catches the animals owned by juniors — but that list is not short this year, and it includes some of the best cattle in this preview. Sarah Hill’s Four-Hills Pazzle 71530-TW, Hayden Burrus’s Ms-AOL Alpha Ralpha, the Schmocker sisters’ Luck-E Merjack Asalia, Kolton Utecht’s winter calf, Tenley Chittenden’s JAKKS Arcitect Cupid-Red and Macie Noble’s aged cow all sit in junior hands. Watch Sunday and you get a free four-day preview of Thursday and Friday.

And it doesn’t end Friday morning. The Holstein Grand Champion goes on to the Parade of Champions at 4:00 p.m. Friday for Supreme, and the heifer Supreme is selected Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Last year Kandy Cane won the Holstein ring and still finished Reserve Supreme, beaten by the Red & White champion Golden-Oaks Temptress-Red. Winning Friday morning is not the last word.

Eleventh Place Is Now The Best Heifer On The Continent

Butlerview Glitter Girl-ET finished 11th in the winter calf class at Expo last October — out of 61 head.

This season: Junior Champion at Midwest Spring National, Northeast Spring National and the Ontario Summer Show, winning the winter yearling class at all three. Brian Carscadden called her “one of the nicest heifers I’ve had the privilege to make Junior Champion in my career”.

She isn’t the anomaly. Crisdhome TStruck Abudahbi was 3rd in her class at Expo; she’s now Grand Champion of Northeast Fall National. Sandpiper Sidekick Disco was 3rd in hers; Grand Champion of the Atlantic Summer Classic. Cnossome Mirand Penelope was 4th in the senior three-year-olds; Grand Champion of Western Spring National. Ryan-Vu Awesome Rapture was 6th in the spring yearlings; Reserve Intermediate Champion of Midwest Summer National.

Five cows who got beaten in Madison came back as champions elsewhere — and Rapture did it on these exact shavings, at Midwest Summer National in August. Krohlow’s job Friday is to weigh those against the ones who haven’t shown at all.

The Cheat Sheet

Favorite = best 2026 form. Live threat = the animal most likely to beat her, which is sometimes a proven Expo performer who has gone quiet and sometimes a winner off a circuit the favorite has never faced. Dark horse (cow classes only) = the third argument in the class — a champion off a circuit nobody here has faced, or a cow whose 2026 placings are a freshness snapshot rather than a ceiling.

◆ = proven at Expo last October, unseen at any show since.

Heifers — Thursday, October 1, 1:30 p.m.

Class	Favorite	Live Threat
Spring Calf	Do-N-Joy Major Jax-ET	WSC TStorm Rattlin Bog-ET
Winter Calf	Genosource Mjr Heartatak-ET	Extondale Master Mae
Fall Calf	Nehls-Donk Best Giddy Up	Ms Vierra Back 4 More-ET
Summer Yearling	Butlerview Master Shock-ET	Curr-Vale Detective Adeen-ET
Spring Yearling	Go-Sho Detect Revenge-ET	Beers Master Tulsi ◆
Winter Yearling	Butlerview Glitter Girl-ET	Miss Master Elite-ET
Fall Yearling	Kamps-Rx Abercombi Abella	Our-Favorite Endzone-ET

◆ = proven at Expo last October, unseen at any show since.

Cows — Friday, October 2, 7:00 a.m.

Class	Favorite	Live Threat	Dark Horse
Milking Yearling	Ms Campbell Run DL Konni-ET	Weeksdale Major Lea ◆	Sco-Lo Legendary-ET
Summer Junior 2-Year-Old	Fraeland Beckridge Energy Brie	Jolipre Master Angel ◆	Walk-Era Eye Candy Rebel
Spring Junior 2-Year-Old	Ulmar Lambda Dorthe	Silverdream Major Tootsie ◆	Ryan-Vu Awesome Rapture
Winter Senior 2-Year-Old	Winright Sidekick Champagne	Echo Glen Master Ivy ◆	Axel Havenofear Camy
Fall Senior 2-Year-Old	Ms Have No Fear Bet	Kawartha Chief Bailey ◆	Jacobs Alligator Bawl-ET ◆
Junior 3-Year-Old	Crisdhome TStruck Abudahbi	Crackholm Lambda Cleavage ◆	Millen Lambda Amelia
Senior 3-Year-Old	Cedar-Crown Tatoo Amelia	Micheret South Believe ◆	Goldenflo Lambda Dominate-ET
4-Year-Old	West-Adub Lambda Sadie Famipage Legend Barabas (co-favorites)	Jacobs Chief Dina	Cnossome Mirand Penelope
5-Year-Old	Oby-Crest Victor Aria	Eixdale Pwrup Alongside	Gouldhaven Alligator Ezroyal
Aged Cow	Lo-Pine-Va Lady Crush	Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane ◆ Altona Lea Unix Herminie ◆	Jeffrey-Way Hardrock Twigs
Lifetime Production	Luck-E Merjack Asalia	Peace & Plenty Doc Jubie16-ET ◆	Walk-Le Delta-Lambda Breezy

One honest asterisk on our own aged-cow pick. Lady Crush is the form favorite on a March Grand Championship, but she was fresh since July 2025 when she won it. If Butlerview hasn’t recalved her she walks in roughly 15 months fresh, and a 15-month cow does not carry bloom. That pick is conditional on a calving date nobody outside her barn knows — which is exactly why the live threat and the dark horse in that row are both Grand Champions in their own right.

The senior three-year-olds carry two dormant Expo animals, not one: Believe won that class outright last October with Best Udder, and MD-Locustcrest P Zuriniah was HM Intermediate Champion of the whole show. Either one changes the class.

The four-year-olds are a genuine three-way, which is why the table carries two favorites instead of one. Sadie holds last year’s Reserve Grand; Famipage Legend Barabas answers it with back-to-back Ontario Summer Grand Championships. Jacobs Chief Dina is the live threat on the freshest record of the three — Grand and Best Udder of the whole show in this Coliseum five weeks ago.

One eligibility caveat, because it decides which day you watch. Several animals in this preview carry Red or red-carrier names — Cherry Lor Robin-P-Red, Golden Oaks I Altitu-Red-ET, Hilrose Ac Attababy-Red-ET, Carpsdale-J Fall-Red-ET, Ms Be Tempted-Red-ET among them. Registered Red & Whites show in the International Red & White Show, heifers Wednesday, September 30 at 2:00 p.m. and cows Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 a.m. — a different ring on a different day. Which ring any individual animal lands in depends on her registration, and we can’t confirm entries. Don’t be surprised to find one or two of these names in Wednesday’s lineup instead of Thursday’s.

Watch five and you’ve watched the show: Glitter Girl in the winter yearlings, Abudahbi in the junior threes, the three-way four-year-old fight, Aria in the five-year-olds, and the aged cows, where two 2026 Grand Champions and the cow who won this ring last October could end up in the same lineup.

What Krohlow Rewards, In His Own Words

He’s a fitter first — 18 years at it, plus three as a professional hoof trimmer, running HammerTime on 40 acres at Poynette, Wisconsin with his wife Haley and four kids, Callie, Conway, Cooper and Case, off eight to ten show heifers a year. By his own official Expo biography he prepared 17 Grand Champions at World Dairy Expo and nine at the Royalduring that fitting career, in Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Mexico.

His stated ideal: “cows that are square frame, cows that are balanced and hard top, cows that walk out extremely comfortable front and rear,” with “tremendous udders, quality, texture, and symmetry.” In heifers, animals “extremely comfortable in their locomotion” with “quality from end to end” that “track straight both front and rear feet.”

Two tiebreakers repeat often enough to bet on. He splits close pairs on rib — “a tad more drop of rib,” “spring and openness all the way to her barrel,” “more depth right up in that fore rib.” And he reads the back of a rear udder hard enough to separate third from fourth on “more definition to see on the back of that rear udder” and “more seam, all the way at the bottom of that udder.”

He also forgives youth, praising one winter two-year-old as “a February heifer just moving 20 days out of being a junior two-year-old” with a “tremendous future” — and putting her top of the class over cows with more milk behind them.

The Fitter’s Eye: Why Over-Bagging Will Backfire

Eighteen years of fitting means eighteen years of hands on udders the night before a show. A man with that history knows the difference between glandular texture and fluid sitting in the rear seam, and he knows exactly what a cow looks like when she has been held too long — because at some point in 18 years he has been the one asked to do it.

His own reasons tell you he reads for the real thing rather than the volume. He moves cows up on “veination and quality all the way through her mammary system,” on “tightness right at the top of the rear udder attachment,” on “more quality and texture” in a fore udder, on “definition of the seam” at the bottom of the rear. Every one of those is a texture word, not a capacity word. And three years of commercial hoof trimming sit underneath the rest of it: he splits close cows on “bone and flatness right down in the hock,” on pasterns, on cows that “track so comfortably, so straight.” Extra weight in an udder shows up first in exactly the places a trimmer looks — a cow who roaches over her loin to carry it, or who stops handling her hocks cleanly by the second lap.

The rules are on his side, and they are not vague. World Dairy Expo lists “improper fitting practices, such as over filling and over bagging” as an ethics violation outright, alongside “treating an animal, particularly the udder, without a verifiable veterinary need… for the purpose of improving the appearance” and using any device to artificially create or enhance the udder crease. Overfilling udders carries a one-year suspension as a Category 1 violation; udder alterations are Category 2, a minimum two-year ban — and a second Category 1 inside three years is elevated automatically.

Enforcement is not theoretical either. The top one-third of every class is ultrasounded, and champions are ultrasounded and milk-sampled after their champion class and again after Supreme. Udder ultrasounds, milk sampling, hair pulls and blood draws are four of the ten testing actions every exhibitor consents to at entry. Expo also endorses the PDCA Show Ring Code of Ethics, adopted February 2025.

So the read for Friday: pushing extra capacity into a four-year-old or an aged cow to force the look of bloom risks two separate problems. It risks a judge who has spent two decades learning what fluid looks like under the lights and who scores on texture and seam definition rather than volume — and if her rear teats come off their plumb line or her top goes soft carrying it, he sees it before she finishes half a lap. Then it risks the ultrasound afterwards.

The Associate Factor: Kelly Barbee in the Big Heifer Classes

The associate is Kelly Barbee of Concord, North Carolina, and he is there because Krohlow put him there — at World Dairy Expo the official judge submits three names for associate, and the selection is then approved by a committee of Expo exhibitors. This is a pairing the official wanted.

Barbee is a territory sales manager for Trans Ova who has exhibited over 30 All-Americans or All-American nominations across multiple breeds, previously developed and boarded high-end show cattle for clients in the U.S. and Canada, and managed a large commercial herd for ten years before that. His two biggest assignments are both colored-breed: the 2010 World Dairy Expo Jersey Show and the 2008 Royal Winter Fair Jersey Show.

That Jersey pedigree is the thing to watch Thursday afternoon. A judge who has made his name sorting Jerseys is a judge trained on dairyness, clean thurls, open rib and silky hide rather than sheer scale — and Thursday’s first three classes are where those eyes earn their money. Last year the winter calf class ran 61 head and the spring calves 42. In a class that size nobody evaluates 61 animals equally; the depth of the lineup gets sorted while the top end is being walked. A coarse, round-boned calf with extra throat flesh can hide in the middle of a 60-head class under some panels. Against this one, expect her parked early.

Thursday: The Heifers

Spring Calf — the one class with no history

Born March through May of this year, so nobody holds a form line — which means pedigree is most of what you have to go on.

Do-N-Joy Major Jax-ET won 22 head at Midwest Fall for Brooklyn, Bryce & Blakely Kohls, Arlington, MN, with HM Junior Champion of the Junior Show. She’s a Robella Major out of Cresentmead Jaurora-Red-ET, born March 26. Major is the frame-and-cleanliness side of this cross; the red-carrier dam line is where the dairyness comes from, and it’s worth knowing which one she took after when she walks in — Major daughters that inherit too much substance from the maternal side get coarse, and this judging panel will not reward that.

WSC TStorm Rattlin Bog-ET (Thunder Storm) topped 38 at Eastern Fall for Hayden Weaver, Ephrata, PA — biggest spring calf class of the fall circuit. B-Will Mas Dancing Diva-ET(Master) won the class in the Coliseum itself at Midwest Summer National for Charlotte Wingert and Grace Salter, Pearl City, IL. Also Cornerest Altitud Magpie-ET (Altitude), 28 head at Northeast Fall for Kialah Nelson, and Winright Major Erica, 40 head at Ontario Summer, bred and owned by Brian Enright.

Two more with provincial credentials: Petitclerc Airdrop Samantha won the spring heifers at Le Suprême Laitier, bred and owned by Ferme Jean-Paul Petitclerc & Fils of St. Basile, QC, and Cobequid Tatoo Calypso (Tatoo) won the spring calves and took HM Junior Champion of the Atlantic Summer Classic for Ferme Val D’Espoir at Saint-Philippe-de-Neri, QC. In a class this young, a provincial final win in September is worth as much as a bigger class in August.

Winter Calf — the Canadian nobody has faced

Blacklilly Direct Lala-ET (Direct) won the winter calves at Northeast Spring for Eaton Holsteins, Glamourview Farms and Zeh & Cates Morrill of Marietta, NY — out of 12 head, which is the honest caveat on her, because two heifers in this class beat fields three and four times that size.

Extondale Master Mae (Master) won 45 head at Ontario Summer for Beckridge Holsteins, Keswick, ON — the largest heifer class held anywhere in Canada this year — and has never crossed the border. Against her: Genosource Mjr Heartatak-ET (Major) out of 40 at Eastern Fall for Billy Jo Rhodes and Chris & Jennifer Hill, Utecht Major Superstar (Major), Junior Champion of the Midwest Fall Junior Show bred and owned by Kolton Utecht, Fairmont Brielle-ET (Lombardi), Reserve Junior Champion of the Northeast Fall Junior Show for Ella Purchase, and Heritage Crazy Drama (Delta-Lambda), class winner at Midwest Summer National for Madison & Melanie Sarbacker.

Fall Calf — two circuits, one unbeaten record

Ms Vierra Back 4 More-ET won the fall calf class at Southern Spring National in March and at Mid-East Summer National, taking Reserve Junior Champion both times for Jason & Jared Pareo. She has never met the fall-circuit calves.

Those are led by Nehls-Donk Best Giddy Up, Junior Champion at Midwest Fall over 30 head for KurthHaven, Melissa Sprecher and Doug Petzel. Her cross is the interesting one: Blexys Best Sidekick-ET out of Sheeknoll Unix Giselle-ET. A Unix-sired dam again — the same maternal sire sitting under Butlerview Glitter Girl, and the same bull whose daughters held the mature end of Quebec and the Maritimes together this year. If you’re tracking why two of the best young heifers in North America both read as long, wide and strong through the body, the answer is on the dam’s side of both papers.

Oakfield Major July-ET (Major) was Reserve Junior Champion at Northeast Fall for Trina & Garret Bailey. Hilrose Ac Attababy-Red-ET (Acetylene) beat 40 head at Eastern Fall for Justine Kelsey (check the Red & White sheets first — the R&W heifers go Wednesday, September 30 at 2:00 p.m., the day before this class), and Ocean View Sassy After Dark(Master) won the class at Midwest Summer National for Evan Hathaway.

Summer Yearling — the heifer who got better all season

Butlerview Master Shock-ET (Master) is the one who kept answering: class wins over 24 head at Midwest Spring and 27 at Northeast Spring, plus Reserve Junior Champion of the Midwest Spring Junior Show, for Addison Lortie, Albion, IN. Fifty-one head beaten across two spring shows is the deepest résumé in this class.

The one to fear is Curr-Vale Detective Adeen-ET (Detective), Alphie Stoltzfus, Gap, PA. Third at Northeast Spring in March; in September she won 36 head at Eastern Fall and took Junior Champion. Heifers on that trajectory peak in October. Carpsdale-J Sidekick Timber(Sidekick) took HM Junior Champion at Northeast Fall for Anthony & Kennedy Liddle, Echo Glen Master Irina (Master) won 26 at Ontario Summer for Beckridge, shown by Lily Beckett, and SPF Angel Eyes-ET (Eye Candy) won the class at Midwest Summer National plus HM Junior Champion of the Junior Show for the Harbaugh and Loehr families, Marion, WI.

Spring Yearling — the champion, and the calf who beat her once

Go-Sho Detect Revenge-ET (Detective) is the only heifer here with an Expo class win banked — she took the spring calves last October for Pierre Boulet and Clarkvalley, then won the spring yearlings at both Midwest Spring and Northeast Spring for Butlerview.

Beers Master Tulsi (Master) stood second to her in Madison. Kale, Kley, Ryan and Logan Beer of Berne, Indiana haven’t shown her since. In a class Krohlow will split on a rib, twelve months of development is how second becomes first.

Behind them: Beslea Eyecandy C Electra-ET (Eye Candy), Junior Champion at Northeast Fall for Rick Allyn & Dan Hovden; Petitclerc Eyecandy Kayla (Eye Candy), Reserve Junior Champion at Eastern Fall for Ridgedale Farm, Jon Mortensen and Uma Thurman; Eastriver DL Carrera (Delta-Lambda), Junior Champion at Mid-East Summer; Esperanza-CC Tenacity-ET (Tatoo), Reserve Junior Champion at Midwest Fall.

Winter Yearling — the calf who beat her by nine places, and what happened next

Glitter Girl’s pedigree is the reason she went from 11th to unbeatable. She’s a Jacobs Bruins out of Rosemary Unix Goldie EX-95 — a Unix-sired dam who was an All-American in her own right. Unix daughters are what held the mature end of Quebec together this year: Sicy Unix Adriene won the senior threes at Le Suprême with Best Udder, Knonaudale Tiffaney took Grand at the Atlantic Spring Showcase, Altona Lea Unix Herminie won the aged cows at Expo. That’s the frame and dairy strength underneath Glitter Girl, and it’s why the judges keep using the same three words on her — length, width, body strength.

Carscadden had her on “precision on all four legs,” barrel spring, a clean inner thigh and refinement through the neck. Adam Hodgins at Ontario Summer had her on “so much length, width and body strength,” moving “free and comfortable,” handling her hind legs “a touch nicer down in the foot.”

And there was one animal who had her number. Curr-Vale-AE Direct Epic-ET (Direct) finished second in that winter calf class — nine places ahead of Glitter Girl. Then the two met again at Midwest Spring National, and the result inverted: Glitter Girl won the winter yearlings bred and owned, and Epic stood sixth, taking first junior exhibitor for the Osinga family, Hico, TX. A nine-place deficit became a five-place win in about six months. That is the cleanest measurement anyone has of how much Glitter Girl improved over one winter — and the reason the 11th on her Expo card tells you nothing about Thursday.

The heifer who finished closest to her in that spring rematch is Miss Master Elite-ET (Master), second in that Midwest Spring class for Grai-Rose Cattle Co. and Jeremiah Lungwitz, Petaluma, CA — and a class winner bred and owned at Midwest Fall National. She is the live threat on the table on the strength of that finish plus a class win bred and owned at Midwest Fall National — the only heifer in this conversation who has both. Third in that same Midwest Spring class was Walk-Era Aint She Fancy-ET (Direct) — the heifer who was 3rd in the 61-head winter calf class at Expo, eight places ahead of Glitter Girl, and who took the class runner-up spot and HM Junior Champion at Midwest Summer National in August. Ten heifers finished ahead of Glitter Girl in Madison. Two of them — Epic and Aint She Fancy — have since been beaten by her in the same ring.

The most recent heifer to finish directly behind Glitter Girl is Crisdhome EC Tallahassee (Eye Candy), and she got a banner for it. At Ontario Summer in July she stood second in the winter yearlings and walked out Reserve Junior Champion of the show — one place and one banner behind Glitter Girl, who took the class, the Junior Championship and Champion Bred & Owned on the same afternoon. Brian Joseph Enright, Jaquemet Holsteins and Velthuis Farms Ltd of Winchester, Ontario own her.

Her other outing tells you she doesn’t only run second to Glitter Girl. At the Quebec Spring show she was second in the winter yearlings again — this time behind Jacobs Knowhow Bike, bred and owned by Ferme Jacobs, whose full sister placed fourth in the spring yearlings the same day out of the same VG-86-2YR 3* dam. That is the honest shape of Tallahassee’s season: two shows, two seconds, no class win, beaten once by the best heifer on the continent and once by a Ferme Jacobs cow family that is only starting to arrive. She is an Eye Candy, which is the other reason to watch — the same sire has a dark horse in Friday’s summer junior twos. If Krohlow is looking for length and a clean front end behind Glitter Girl, she is the one who has already been placed there by a judge this summer.

Also live: Petitclerc Jerry Adine (Jerry Lewis), who won the class and took HM Junior Champion at Expo last year for Clarkvalley and stood third at Ontario Summer in July; Reyncrest Dundee Affable (Dundee), Reserve Junior Champion at Northeast Spring for Glamourview. And out of Madison in August: Genosource Headliner-ET (Haniko) won this class and took Junior Champion of both the open and junior shows at Midwest Summer National for Katie Ledvina and Jacob Treml, Algoma, WI, with Aint She Fancy second and HM Junior Champion.

Fall Yearling — beaten twice, and the best pedigree in the ring

Our-Favorite Endzone-ET (Lombardi) won the fall calves at Expo last year for Butlerview, then ran second in this class at both Midwest Spring and Northeast Spring. Six months to answer that.

The cow who answered both times is Kamps-Rx Abercombi Abella (Master), 17 head at Midwest Spring with HM Junior Champion of the Junior Show, bred and owned by Demi, Elliot & Alayah Kamps, Darlington, WI. Also live: Appalachian AN Amaretto-ET (Analyst), HM Junior Champion at Eastern Fall; Ranway Handsome Spade-ETS (Handsome), HM Junior Champion at Northeast Spring, bred and owned by Alexis Schultz; Hans-Gen Master Roku(Master), Junior Champion at Southern Spring for the Osingas and a winner of this same class in the Coliseum at Midwest Summer National — two class wins on two circuits.

And note who is not eligible here any more: Sco-Lo Legendary-ET (Legend) was 2nd in the fall calves at Expo, 4th at the Royal and an All-American, but she calved before July. She is a cow now, and Friday’s milking yearling class is where to look for her.

Friday: The Cows

Two class-size patterns frame the whole day.

Milking yearling classes in 2026 drew 2 head at Mid-East Summer, 2 at Atlantic Summer, 4 at Midwest Fall, 6 at Northeast Fall, 8 at Ontario Summer, 11 at Eastern Fall. Junior three-year-olds drew 1 at Atlantic Spring, 3 at Northeast Spring, 4 at Midwest Spring. Those cows exist — they were bred to hit peak on October 2, and Madison is the first ring most of them will see.

Freshness Snapshot vs. Seasonal Ceiling

There is a third category on this card, and it is the one most likely to make you look foolish: the cow who already showed in 2026 and got beaten because she was too fresh to win yet.

A cow eight days into a lactation and a cow eight weeks in are two different animals wearing the same name. The early one has no bloom in her udder, she hasn’t come out in her top line, and she gets placed where the judge finds her that morning — fourth, seventh, wherever. Six weeks later she is the cow her breeder was always describing. The results sheet records the first version and says nothing about the second.

It happens every season, and it happened in plain sight this one:

• Curr-Vale Detective Adeen-ET stood third at Northeast Spring in March. In September she won 36 head at Eastern Fall and took Junior Champion. Same heifer, six months of development.
• Roquet Gelatine Reddit was only third in the junior three-year-olds at Quebec Spring. By Midwest Fall she won 14 head with Best Udder and went Intermediate and HM Grand Champion.
• Ms-AOL Alpha Ralpha was third in the senior two-year-olds at Southern Spring in March. Two months later at Midwest Spring she won the class, took Reserve Intermediate of the open show and Intermediate Champion of the Junior Show.
• Sco-Lo Legendary-ET was 2nd in the fall calves at Expo, 4th at the Royal and an All-American — then surfaced at Ontario Summer in July placing seventh, freshly calved as a milking yearling. Read that seventh as a calving date, not a verdict.

So when you scan the class results in this preview, read every mid-pack finish with a question attached: was she beaten, or was she early? October 2 is the date the whole continent breeds toward, and a cow who placed fourth in May while a month fresh is precisely the animal a barn holds back and points at this week. She will not be on anybody’s favorites list, including ours.

The Young Cow Shopping Floor: Why Friday Morning Sets the Market

Here’s the part that makes Friday morning worth watching even if you don’t care who wins: the intermediate classes are where diamonds get found, and the people doing the finding are standing at that rail right now.

The precedent is the best cow of the last decade. Erbacres Snapple Shakira-ET was bred by Francisco Rodriguez and the Erbsen family at Erbacres Holsteins in Lanark, Illinois — who this year took the 2026 Robert “Whitey” McKown Master Breeder Award on the strength of her. The partnership of Ferme Jacobs, Ferme Antelimarck 2001, Attaboy Holstein, Kilian Theraulaz and Ty-D Holsteins bought her as a fresh two-year-old — at World Dairy Expo, in 2017. She went on to Grand Champion of the International Holstein Show in 2021 and Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo in both 2021 and 2023, scored EX-97 4E. Somebody watched a two-year-old walk a class in Madison, did the math on her family, and wrote a cheque. That is the whole business model in one cow.

It is still running. Three of the biggest names on Friday’s card changed hands as young cows:

• Millen Lambda Amelia was purchased by Ferme Jacobs and presented as a junior three-year-old at Quebec Spring, where she took Intermediate Champion with Best Udder
• Famipage Legend Barabas sold for $120,000 at the International Intrigue Sale to Ron Grandy as a senior three-year-old. She has been Grand Champion of the Ontario Summer Show twice since
• West-Adub Lambda Sadie sold at the Parade of Perfection to Butlerview with Westcoast retaining half interest, months after winning Expo’s Intermediate Championship as a junior three-year-old

Ferme Blondin built an entire operation on this. The Bullvine’s own profile describes the deliberate turn into “an elite cattle sales and show operation” running 90 cows milking out of 550 head total, and Holstein Québec credits their buying — not just their breeding — with diversifying the herd and developing new bloodlines. Watch what that looks like in a results sheet: at Le Suprême Laitier this year Blondin put five head into the Spring Junior Two-Year-Old class alone, and collected second place in three more young classes — Bruview Fuel Rowan in the winter two-year-olds, Hill View Randall Praline in the senior twos, Charbend Detective Beatrice in the summer yearlings — without winning a class outright, then walked off with Premier Exhibitor anyway. Volume in the two-year-old ring is the strategy, not an accident.

Pierre Boulet works the same seam from Montmagny. In 2026 alone his name sits on Go-Sho Detect Revenge, Pierstein Dempsey Lexi, JM Valley Sidekick Jacuzzi, Clayhaven Crushabull Lysanna, Dubenoit Dynasty Ever Ready and Valrick Delta Lambda Pamela — cows carrying six different prefixes, none of them his.

And look hard at Butlerview’s 2026 championship list with this in mind: Aria, Lady Crush, Dominate, Champagne, Beast, Constance, Zany, Sadie. Eight champions and class winners, eight prefixes that aren’t theirs. The home-bred exceptions number two — Glitter Girl, and Butlerview Master Shock-ET, who won her summer yearling class at both Midwest Spring and Northeast Spring but did it in Addison Lortie’s string, not theirs. That isn’t a criticism — it’s the most successful show-ring model in North America right now, and it starts with somebody standing at the rail during a junior two-year-old class writing a name in a catalogue.

So when the milking yearlings and junior twos come in Friday morning and you don’t recognise half the names: that’s the point. Some of those cows will be wearing a different prefix’s halter within six months, and one of them is a 2030 Supreme Champion that nobody in the building has heard of yet.

Milking Yearling — the fragile class, and the weather nobody talks about

This is likely to be the biggest milking yearling class of the year — nothing on the 2026 circuit topped 11 head — and it’s also the most breakable. First-calf heifers are the animals that lose a show between the trailer ramp and the wash rack: they go off feed in a strange barn, they don’t let down for a new milker, and an udder that isn’t emptied on schedule for two days doesn’t come back by Friday morning.

Madison in early October gives you both problems at once. The October normal high is about 60°F with a normal low near 40°F, and that daily 20-degree swing is the real hazard — warm, still afternoons in a full barn followed by cold night drafts through the alleys. Fresh heifers are the first to shut down at both ends of that. The strings that win this class are the ones that hauled early, kept the milking interval identical to home, and blocked the drafts before the first night, not the ones who arrived Wednesday.

One more piece of the fresh-cow paperwork that catches people out: every lactating cow needs a negative Influenza A Virus PCR test within seven days of arrival, a rule in force since 2024, and exhibitors whose travel plus exhibition time exceeds the 10-day federal interstate window may need a second round of testing to get home. For a first-calf heifer, that’s another handling event in the week she can least afford one.

Ms Campbell Run DL Konni-ET (Delta-Lambda) won 11 head with Best Udder at Eastern Fall, bred and owned by Sarah Campbell and Evan Creek, Hagerstown, MD — the largest milking yearling class of the season. Carpsdale-J Fall-Red-ET (Acetylene) won at Northeast Fall, Fraeland Alpha Precious (Alpha) took 8 head with Best Udder at Ontario Summer, Sunkist A Palma (Anders) won at Midwest Fall, and Ms Be Tempted-Red-ET (Believe-P) took the class at Midwest Summer National for Milk Source.

The one with the biggest heifer reputation in the class is Sco-Lo Legendary-ET (Legend) — 2nd in the fall calves in this Coliseum last October, 4th at the Royal, an All-American — who freshened in time to place only seventh at Ontario Summer in July. On the evidence of this class she is a seventh-place milking yearling. On the evidence of her heifer career she is nothing of the kind, and three more months of udder is exactly what separates those two readings.

The quiet one comes out of last October’s fall calf class, which split two ways this year — still-dry heifers went to Thursday, the early-freshening ones come Friday. Weeksdale Major Lea(Major) was fifth in it and the top bred-and-owned heifer in the class for Weeksdale Holsteins, Pleasant Valley, PE.

Summer Junior 2-Year-Old — a Reserve Junior Champion, in milk, in a new barn

Jolipre Master Angel (Master) was Reserve Junior Champion of the International Holstein Show last October off a summer yearling class win for Joel Lepage of Amqui, Quebec, and she was named All-Quebec for the season. She now carries JM Valley Holstein ownership — the same barn that took Grand Champion at Le Suprême with Gouldhaven Alligator Ezroyal. Nobody has seen her with a calf behind her.

On form, Fraeland Beckridge Energy Brie (Energy) is the favorite: class win with Best Udder bred and owned at Ontario Summer, then Intermediate Champion and HM Grand. Hodgins called her “a tremendous winner,” a “wide-open, hard-topped young cow,” full through her midsection with depth “all the way down” and “an unbelievable udder.” Hard top plus free movement is Krohlow’s exact vocabulary.

The U.S. answer is Walk-Era Eye Candy Rebel (Eye Candy) for Budjon, Vail, Heartland Dairy, Genosource, Farnear and Demmer, Lomira, WI — she won the summer junior two-year-olds at Midwest Summer National in August and took Intermediate Champion and HM Grand Champion in the Coliseum. Note the barn: Budjon and Vail are also the people sitting on Crackholm Lambda Cleavage. Fier-View Energy Rhegan (Energy) took HM Intermediate of the Midwest Fall Junior Show; Peace & Plenty Have Too Zack (Have Too) won 12 head with Best Udder at Eastern Fall.

Spring Junior 2-Year-Old — Grandy’s other cow

Silverdream Major Tootsie (Major) won the spring yearling class at Expo last October and was an All-American for Ronald Grandy, Beaverton, ON. She hasn’t shown since. Grandy is the man bringing Barabas to the four-year-olds, and he doesn’t miss on development.

The form pick is Ulmar Lambda Dorthe (Delta-Lambda) — 16 head with Best Udder, bred and owned, plus Reserve Intermediate at Ontario Summer for Pfister Dairy, Beckridge and Quality Holsteins. Hodgins called her “the heifer that’s the most trending today,” long and angular, “a dairy machine.” Ryan-Vu Awesome Rapture (Awesome) is the one with Coliseum form — class win and Reserve Intermediate Champion at Midwest Summer National for Arizona Dairy Co, Maple Leigh and Grai-Rose Cattle, having placed 6th in the spring yearlings at Expo last year. Jacobs Tarmac Constance (Tarmac) won the class at Northeast Spring for Butlerview, having been third to Tootsie in Madison. Ms Bratcher-Vu Di Barbie-ET (Delta-Lambda) won 14 head with Best Udder at Eastern Fall; West-Aub Architect Sage (Architect) was Reserve Intermediate at Mid-East Summer. And Armcrest Select Bandana (Master) is unseen this year — the heifer Krohlow himself put top of the spring yearlings at Hamburg on her “long and clean” neck, “silky” hide and open rear rib.

Winter Senior 2-Year-Old — where the missing Junior Champion lands

Echo Glen Master Ivy (Master) was Junior Champion of the International Holstein Show in 2025 and All-Canadian Winter Yearling, tapped for being “a little more dairy all the way through” and “maybe a rib longer in her makeup.” Ronald Grandy has not shown her anywhere in 2026.

Favorite is Winright Sidekick Champagne (Sidekick), who beat 12 head with Best Udder at Midwest Spring for Butlerview and went Intermediate Champion and HM Grand under Pierre Boulet. Her hardest 2026 opposition is Canadian: Axel Havenofear Camy won the class with Best Udder and took Intermediate Champion of Le Suprême Laitier for Ferme Jacobs, Cap-Santé — the best senior two-year-old result anywhere in Québec this year, and she has never met Champagne. Four-Hills Pazzle 71530-TW (Pazzle) was Grand Champion of the Northeast Fall Junior Show and HM Intermediate of the open show for Sarah Hill. Golden Oaks I Altitu-Red-ET (Altitude) took Reserve Intermediate at Northeast Fall; Mortenson Master Anika (Master) was second at Midwest Spring, then won the class with Best Udder at Midwest Fall.

One more absentee: Winright SK Creme Brulee-ET (Sidekick), second in the winter yearlings at Expo last year — and Krohlow’s own Junior Champion at Hamburg in 2025, where he gave her the nod on “a tad more drop of rib.” The judge has already decided he likes this cow.

Fall Senior 2-Year-Old — the Texas cow they kept home

The Osingas have won classes all year at Southern Spring and Midwest Spring. The one they haven’t shown is Kawartha Chief Bailey (Chief), who won the fall yearling class at Expo last October.

On the board: Ms Have No Fear Bet (HaveNoFear) took her class with Best Udder bred and owned plus HM Intermediate at Eastern Fall for Ernest Kueffner, Teri Packard and La Casa de Lac. AR-Line Eye Candy Aerial-ET (Eye Candy) was HM Intermediate at Mid-East Summer; Real-In-Lant Bella (Summerfest) Reserve Intermediate at Northeast Spring. Also unseen: Jacobs Alligator Bawl-ET (Alligator), winner of the milking yearling class at Expo for Budjon Farms, Peter Vail, Genosource & Farnear — her birth date decides whether she lands here or in the junior twos.

Junior 3-Year-Old — third place, twelve months, one purple banner

Abudahbi’s story is the article in one cow: 3rd at Expo last October, Grand Champion at Northeast Fall in September for Elmvue Farm, Johnstown, NY.

The cow who beat her by two places that day was Crackholm Lambda Cleavage (Delta-Lambda), for Budjon Farms and Peter Vail, Lomira, WI, and she hasn’t shown in 2026. Budjon and Vail don’t campaign a cow all summer when Madison is the target.

The rest is loaded. Roquet Gelatine Reddit (Reddit) won 14 head with Best Udder at Midwest Fall for Intermediate and HM Grand — and was only third in this class at Quebec Spring in the spring. Millen Lambda Amelia (Delta-Lambda) was Intermediate Champion with Best Udder at Quebec Spring for Ferme Jacobs. Blondin Eye Candy Salana (Eye Candy) took Reserve Intermediate at Le Suprême. Tex-Stein Unstopabull Lorel (Unstopabull) swept Intermediate, HM Grand and Champion Bred & Owned Cow at Southern Spring. Rosblais Tatoo Madisson(Tatoo) won the spring junior twos at Expo for Glamourview-Iager & Walton and is also unseen.

Senior 3-Year-Old — three Grand Champions, and the two ghosts the room is backing instead

No class carries more proven purple, and almost none of them have met. Start with what happened here last October, because it explains the rest of the class: Butlerview owned the top three of the Winter Senior Two-Year-Old class at Expo 2025 — Micheret South Believe first with Best Udder, Goldenflo Lambda Dominate second with the production award, Sandpiper Sidekick Disco third. All three aged into this class. One of them has been a Grand Champion since, one has been an Intermediate Champion since, and the one who beat both of them has not been seen since.

Micheret South Believe is that cow. She won the class and the Best Udder in it, and there is no 2026 record for her anywhere in the sixteen shows tracked here. If she walks in Friday carrying another lactation, every placing below is provisional.

Ringside agrees, and not by a little. Believe and MD-Locustcrest P Zuriniah are the two most-backed cows in this class in our Fantasy Exhibitor contest so far, at 18.4% and 18.6% of entries — 37% of the senior three-year-old vote on two cows who have not been in a ring in 2026. Our own favorite in the class, Eastern Fall Grand Champion Cedar-Crown Tatoo Amelia, sits ninth at 4.1%; Midwest Fall’s bred-and-owned Grand Champion Carlan D-Lambda Annita draws 4.4%. Read that for what it is: the people who watch these cattle for a living are discounting summer-circuit form in favour of what they saw in this Coliseum last October.

Cedar-Crown Tatoo Amelia (Tatoo) is Intermediate and Grand Champion of Eastern Fall National for Oakfield Corners Dairy. Carlan D-Lambda Annita (Delta-Lambda) is Senior and Grand Champion of Midwest Fall National, bred and owned. Sandpiper Sidekick Disco (Sidekick) is Grand Champion of the Atlantic Summer Classic for Joel Phoenix, T & L Cattle Ltd and Weeksdale Holsteins. Cherry Lor Robin-P-Red (Journey) is Senior Champion and Reserve Grand at Northeast Fall for Elmvue (check the Red & White sheets first — the R&W cows go Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 a.m., which is before Krohlow’s heifers and a full day before his cows). Miley Challenger Beth (Challenger) is Intermediate and HM Grand at Mid-East Summer.

Goldenflo Lambda Dominate-ET is the technical pick. A Farnear Delta-Lambda out of Goldenflo Fitz Rice Krispies, second lactation, she won the class with Best Udder and took Intermediate Champion at Northeast Spring for Butlerview, where Carscadden cited frame length, a smoother neck-to-shoulder transition, a more level udder floor and “seamless blending of parts.”

The ghost: MD-Locustcrest P Zuriniah (Parfect), HM Intermediate Champion at Expo in 2025 and All-National Fall Senior Two-Year-Old, where Eaton praised her as a cow that “spells milk from one end to the other” despite being eleven months into her lactation — which is the durability argument in one line, not a knock. One more lactation on her, zero rings in 2026, for Chip, Chase & Connor Savage and Tom Mercuro, Union Bridge, MD.

4-Year-Old — a clash of two archetypes, not just a rematch

This is the class of the show, and the reason isn’t the rematch. It’s that Sadie and Barabas are opposite kinds of cow, a third one has the freshest win of the three, and Krohlow’s stated preferences cut every way at once.

Famipage Legend Barabas is power. A Legend daughter — Legend being a Walnutlawn Sidekick son out of Mosnang Jacoby Legendaire VG-89 — bred by Ferme Famipage, owned by Ronald Grandy, VG-89 as a three-year-old, All-Canadian Senior 3-Year-Old of 2025. Hodgins gave her Ontario Summer’s Grand on “a little more width all the way through,” “more comfort on her pasterns” and “a touch more venation in that rear,” calling her a cow that excels in “frame, capacity and a tremendous mammary system.” Wide, deep-chested, uphill, and she keeps her udder underneath all that mass.

West-Adub Lambda Sadie is quality. A Farnear Delta-Lambda out of Winright Sidekick Salsa, with an EX-91 mammary system, tracing back through Budjon-JK Gold Chip Ellen EX-91 and Budjon-JK Linjet Eileen EX-96 to Krull-Broker Elegance EX-96-USA 3E — the Elegance tap root is the engine. Eaton’s language on her was all refinement: “so dairy, so open, so flawless in her parts,” “a little cleaner,” “more quality to that mammary system.” Cut out through the front end, silky, with an udder glued to the body wall.

Now read Krohlow’s own words against that. He wants square frame, hard top, comfortable front and rear — Barabas. He also wants texture, symmetry and definition of the seam, and he breaks close pairs on drop of rib and the back of the rear udder — Sadie. He has spent 18 years with his hands on udders, and the two hardest things he’s said about mature cows are that he’s looking for the “complete package of dairy strength” and that he’ll move a cow up for “veination and quality all the way through her mammary system.”

Eaton split them on cleanliness and mammary quality and went Sadie. Hodgins, judging Barabas alone, rewarded width and venation. Krohlow is the one judge on record valuing both halves equally, which is exactly why this could go either way on the floor of an udder.

Then there’s the third Grand Champion in the class, and a skeptic should note she has the most recent win of the three. Jacobs Chief Dina (Chief), Milk Source LLC and Ransom Rail Farms, Kaukauna, WI, won the four-year-olds with Best Udder at Midwest Spring in May — then took the class again with Best Udder at Midwest Summer National in Madison on August 26, where Ryan Weigel made her Senior and Grand Champion and Best Udder of the show out of 230 head. She won that one on the same shavings this show uses, five weeks ago, under a judge who saw her against Wisconsin’s best. Sadie and Barabas both have Grands; Dina has a Grand in the Coliseum.

Behind those three it’s still deep. Cnossome Mirand Penelope (Mirand) is Grand Champion of Western Spring National for Logan & Lauren Silveira, Chowchilla, CA — and she was 4th in the senior threes at Expo last year. Cal-Denier-I Goldwyn Hez-ET (Goldwyn) is Senior and Grand Champion of Southern Spring National for Emma England, Murtaugh, ID. Tombeth House Ariat (Helix) was Reserve Grand and Champion Bred & Owned at Midwest Summer National for Thomas & Elizabeth Kearns, Gays Mills, WI. Chrisland Ashby Dazzle (Ashby) took HM Senior at Northeast Fall, Oakfield Honour Sing-ET (Honour) Reserve Senior at Eastern Fall bred and owned, Fricosos Sidekick Lasenza (Sidekick) Reserve Grand at Mid-East Summer, Martin-View Doc Hot Shot (King Doc) Reserve Grand at Ontario Summer. The one nobody has seen is Weeksdale Unix Tiktok, second in the senior threes at Expo last year and unseen since.

5-Year-Old — the favorite with nothing proven here

Oby-Crest Victor Aria is an Our-Favorite Victor-ET out of Oby-Crest Atwood Avia, EX-94, in her third lactation. She won her class and took Senior, Best Udder of Show and Grand Champion at Midwest Spring, where Boulet said simply, “what a show — and what a great show cow.” At Northeast Spring she won the class again for Reserve Senior and Reserve Grand, with Carscadden admitting, “I’m a sucker for a great udder,” and adding “there’s not a lot of points you can’t put into this udder.”

The catch: she was not in the top six of any class in Madison last year. Two 2026 Grand Championships, no Expo record.

The cow with the Expo record is Eixdale Pwrup Alongside (Alongside) — 2025 four-year-old winner and HM Grand for MilkSource — who stood second to Aria at Midwest Spring for Reserve Grand. That’s the one clean head-to-head. Directly behind Alongside in Madison sat Jacobs Lambda Baz-ET (Delta-Lambda), unseen in 2026, with another lactation on a Delta-Lambda daughter in the year his daughters hit their prime.

Also real: Gouldhaven Alligator Ezroyal (Alligator), class win with Best Udder and Grand Champion of Le Suprême for JM Valley Holstein, London Dairy Farms & Pat Conroy, where Dominic Fortier settled the championship on udder freshness — “more bloom and more veining.” Maiden-Kine Chief Cami (Chief), class win, Senior Champion, HM Grand and Bred & Owned Champion at Eastern Fall. Elm Bend Gapster (Master), class winner at Northeast Fall for Elmvue — a cow Krohlow judged as a four-year-old in 2025 and called a “laser cow” with “so much width power and chest.”

Aged Cow — the lactation question, and the banner that got taken back

The deciding factor here is calving dates, and the class carries the most complicated history in the show. Meet the three principals first, then the standoff.

Lo-Pine-Va Lady Crush is a Maverick Crush out of Lo-Pine-VA Aftershock Lilac, EX-96, bred by Terry Perotti, owned by Butlerview. At New York Spring in March, she was in her fourth lactation and fresh since July 2025 — and she won the aged cows, Senior Champion and Grand Champion, with Carscadden saying “today is this gal’s day” and calling her “bagged perfectly.” He described the split over Jeffrey-Way Hardrock Twigs as “splitting straws,” giving Lady Crush the nod on an udder that carried tighter to the body. If she’s still on that same lactation in October, she’ll be roughly 15 months fresh, so the live question is whether Butlerview has recalved her — because a 15-month cow does not carry bloom, and bloom is what Fortier and Krohlow both decide on.

Jeffrey-Way Hardrock Twigs (Hardrock) is the counterweight: Senior and Grand Champion of Mid-East Summer National, HM Grand at Northeast Spring, scored 96 points, second to Kandy Cane in the five-year-olds at Expo last year, for Doeberiener, Bowen, Conroy, Walker and R&F Livestock.

Twigs also carries the one piece of Expo history nobody in this business has forgotten. She was named Grand Champion of the International Holstein Show in 2024 and then removed from the results roughly two months after the show, with the Grand Champion title passing to Oakfield Solomon Footloose and Reserve to Erbacres Snapple Shakira. World Dairy Expo did not state a reason, referring exhibitors to its Showring Policy and Code of Ethics in the Premium Book. She has campaigned successfully since, including that Mid-East Summer Grand this summer. If she walks back into this ring, it’s the first time she has stood in front of an Expo judge since the banner was reassigned, and that is a genuine storyline rather than a footnote.

Pierstein Dempsey Lexi (Dempsey) won the mature cow class with Best Udder at both Quebec Spring and Le Suprême, with Reserve Grand and the Bred & Owned Grand Championship at Le Suprême. Higherground Hancock 860 (Hancock) won with Best Udder, bred and owned, at Midwest Fall for Reserve Grand. Arolene Duhibou Apple Elmay (Apple Crisp) took class, Reserve Senior, and HM Grand at Northeast Fall. Nobland Delta-Lambda Book (Delta-Lambda) won the aged cows and took HM Senior of the open show plus Senior and Grand Champion of the Junior Show at Midwest Summer National for Macie Noble, Lancaster, WI — a junior exhibitor holding a Grand Championship banner on the Coliseum shavings in August. Altona Lea Unix Herminie (Unix), last year’s aged cow winner and HM Senior Champion for Dalton Faris, is unseen in 2026.

Then there’s Kandy Cane. A Sidekick out of Lovhill Diamondback Crunch, from Lovhill Gold Karat EX-93-CAN 3E — a Gold Chip daughter and maternal sister to Lovhill Goldwyn Katrysha EX-96, Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo 2015. Sidekick over Diamondback: the frame-and-dairy-strength cross on top, the udder family underneath, and that combination is precisely what made Krohlow stop walking in Harrisburg in 2024 and again in Hamburg in 2025. Bred by Lovholm Holsteins at Balgonie, Saskatchewan, she made Lovhill the first prefix to win the Expo Holstein Grand twice.

She’s now EX-97. What nobody outside Oakfield Corners knows is where she sits in her lactation.

So here is the standoff, and it’s the most handicappable decision on the card. If Lady Crush rolls in stale — 15 months on the same lactation, milking on frame — and Kandy Cane arrives fresh and in bloom, Krohlow won’t hesitate. He has crowned that cow twice; he decides on texture and seam definition, and bloom against stale is not a close call for anyone, least of all a judge with his history.

But if they both come in late in lactation, showing on heart, rib and frame, the whole thing moves onto ground Krohlow has been unusually explicit about: bone quality, locomotion, and what the back of a rear udder does at the bottom of the seam. That’s the scenario where the cows behind them get in — Twigs at 96 points, or Lexi with two mature-cow Best Udders this season. A mature-cow class decided on hocks, pasterns, and seam definition rather than freshness is exactly how a Reserve Grand becomes a Grand.

Lifetime Production — the class where the Junior Show already voted

Luck-E Merjack Asalia (Merjack), Tessa & Stella Schmocker, Whitewater, WI — class win with Best Udder at Midwest Spring, HM Senior Champion of the open show, Senior and Grand Champion of the Junior Show. She was second in this class at Expo last year. Walk-Le Delta-Lambda Breezy (Delta-Lambda) won at Eastern Fall for Walk-Le Farm, Thomasville, PA — though honesty requires the class size: she was the only lifetime production cow entered, and Asalia’s Midwest Spring class held two. No published reasons exist on Breezy, so the case for her is structural rather than comparative: she is a Delta-Lambda daughter in the one class where the udder has to survive the most lactations, and Delta-Lambda took ten class Best Udders across the fourteen shows tracked here, more than any other sire. If Krohlow discounts an aged cow for edema or stale attachments — and his stated brief asks for texture, symmetry and a visible seam — a Delta-Lambda mammary system is the modern alternative to raw production mass. Milibro Devour Lovely won at Quebec Spring, bred and owned with Best Udder. The one nobody has seen is Peace & Plenty Doc Jubie16-ET (King Doc), who won this class at Expo in 2025 for Showbox Sires and Milk Source Genetics and hasn’t been seen since.

The Bred & Owned Board Is Where The Breeders Are Winning

If the last section made it sound like the buyers own this game, here’s the other half of the ledger — and the two halves depend on each other. Somebody has to breed the cow before anybody can buy her. The Erbsen family sold Shakira as a two-year-old and won a Master Breeder award off what she became; that’s not a cautionary tale, that’s the business working.

But the banner you cannot buy is the one that comes with a cow you bred yourself, and in 2026 the homebreds weren’t just competing on that board — they were taking open championships with it.

Higherground Hancock 860 (Hancock) is the best case. Ashley, Emily, and Roger Meligren of Zumbro Falls, MN bred her, owned her, and won the aged cow class with Best Udder at Midwest Fall — then took Reserve Grand Champion of the open show, Champion Bred & Owned Cow, and Senior and Grand Champion of the Junior Show. One family, one cow, four banners.

Carlan D-Lambda Annita (Delta-Lambda) won Midwest Fall’s Grand Championship outright, bred and owned, for T & K Kohls and R & K Mackinson. Maiden-Kine Chief Cami (Chief) took her class, Senior Champion, HM Grand and Bred & Owned Champion at Eastern Fall for John & Molly Scoville of Lowville, NY. Tex-Stein Unstopabull Lorel (Unstopabull) swept Intermediate Champion, HM Grand, and Champion Bred & Owned Cow at Southern Spring for Gavin Steinberger. Pierstein Dempsey Lexi (Dempsey) won the mature cow class with Best Udder at both Quebec Spring and Le Suprême, taking the Bred & Owned Grand Championship at Le Suprême.

At Ontario Summer, bred-and-owned cows won six of the cow classes outright: Fraeland Beckridge Energy Brie in the summer twos, Ulmar Lambda Dorthe in the spring twos, Kingsway Lambda Scoobie in the senior twos, Kingsway Crushabull Catch Me in the junior threes, Knonaudale Miranda Lambert in the senior threes, and Glitter Girl in the winter yearlings. Sicy Unix Adriene did the same in Quebec, winning the senior three-year-olds at Le Suprême with Best Udder for Ferme Yvon Sicard.

Glitter Girl is the one to watch here, because she’s the rare animal that can win both boards at once — Butlerview bred her, and she has already taken Champion Bred & Owned Heifer plus Junior Champion at the same show.

The Junior Show Is Where Friday’s Upsets Get Rehearsed

Junior Show animals go back into the open ring, and in 2026 the Junior Show repeatedly found cows the open judge had placed mid-pack. If you want a shortlist of animals capable of beating their class order in Madison, this is it.

Four-Hills Pazzle 71530-TW (Pazzle), Sarah Hill, Bristol, VT — Grand Champion of the Northeast Fall Junior Show while standing only HM Intermediate in the open show. Seven-Heaven Haniko Delilah (Haniko), Chloe & Carly Feltmann — 2nd in her open class at Midwest Fall, then Intermediate Champion of the Junior Show. Robeth Doc Penpal (King Doc), Ella Kennett & Sarah Hill — 3rd in the open four-year-olds at Northeast Fall, then Senior and Reserve Grand of the Junior Show. Miss Showtime Hadley (Showtime), George & Lucille Hoffman — 4th in the open senior threes, then HM Grand of the Junior Show. Goodtime-KTT Doc Desiree (King Doc), Kylie Taylor and Trysten Verthein — 2nd in the open five-year-olds at Midwest Fall, then HM Senior and Grand plus Champion Bred & Owned Cow of the Junior Show.

Ms-AOL Alpha Ralpha (Alpha), Hayden Burrus, Friona, TX, is the cleanest illustration of the whole pattern: 3rd in the senior two-year-olds at Southern Spring in March, then a class win, Reserve Intermediate of the open show and Intermediate Champion of the Junior Show at Midwest Spring in May. Same cow, two months, three places.

Luck-E Merjack Asalia (Merjack), Tessa & Stella Schmocker, won the Lifetime Production class with Best Udder at Midwest Spring, took HM Senior of the open show — and Senior and Grand Champion of the Junior Show. In the heifers, JAKKS Arcitect Cupid-Red-ET(Architect), Tenley Chittenden, Whiting, VT was 2nd in the open spring yearlings at Northeast Fall and Junior Champion of the Junior Show.

Master Builds The Frame. Delta-Lambda Builds The Udder.

The sire story isn’t a win count — it’s a division of labor, and the Best Udder sheets prove it.

Golden-Oaks Master-ET owns the heifer rings. Junior Premier Sire at Le Suprême, the Ontario Spring Discovery Show, the Atlantic Summer Classic and the 2025 Expo heifer show. What judges say about his daughters is consistently about skeleton and cleanliness: Krohlow on the Master spring yearling Armcrest Select Bandana — “long and clean” neck, “silky” hide, a “beautiful” rib, more open about the barrel than anything near her. On the Master four-year-old Elm Bend Gapster — a “laser cow” with “so much width power and chest.” Extreme frame, length, clean bone, and enough rump width to carry it. He is the bull you bet Thursday.

Farnear Delta-Lambda-ET owns the milking rings. Premier Sire at Le Suprême, Ontario Spring Discovery, Ontario Summer, and the International Holstein Show in Madison last year. And across the fourteen shows where we have full class results, Delta-Lambda daughters took ten class Best Udders — while Master daughters took one. Konni, Briefless, Di Barbie, Beast, Risky, Dorthe, Scoobie, Lilah, Alibi Lambda, Loa. Add Krohlow’s own read on the Delta-Lambda senior three-year-old Donacin Delta-Lambda Rain, whom he moved to the top on “tightness right at the top of the rear udder attachment” and “veination and quality all the way through her mammary system.” That’s this generation’s udder bull, and at Le Suprême his weight sat in the three- and four-year-old rings — his best daughters are walking into their prime, not out of it.

Behind those two, Walnutlawn Sidekick is the bull tying the whole show together, and the tally puts him second rather than level: six class Best Udders across the same fourteen shows— Blexys Sidekick Blex, Lovhill Sidekick Kahlula, Sandpiper Sidekick Disco, Winright Sidekick Champagne, Knonaudale Miranda Lambert and Winterbay Sidekick Della. His reach is wider than that number, though. He sired Kandy Cane. He sired Legend, who sired Barabas. He is the maternal grandsire on Sadie’s papers through Winright Sidekick Salsa. Three of the four animals at the centre of this preview trace to one bull.

Chief is quietly arriving at the mature end — Maiden-Kine Chief Cami, Jacobs Chief Dina, Genosource Cookie Dough and Kawartha Chief Bailey all carry him, three of those with championship hardware. Architect is the one stepping into the heifer and young-cow rings now: Genosource Class Act, Ms Klinedell Arch Bella, Cookiecutter Arch Raisin, West-Aub Architect Sage, JAKKS Arcitect Cupid-Red. No Architect daughter took a class Best Udder in this dataset yet, which is what you’d expect from a sire whose daughters are still two-year-olds.

One honest note: Alleyoop has exactly one animal in any of these results — a spring calf placed 31st at Expo last year. Whatever he becomes, the 2026 show ring hasn’t shown it.

Beating Butlerview Means Beating Them Three Times

The banner board tells it faster than a results list. Butlerview Farm of Chebanse, Illinois, in various partnerships, was Premier Exhibitor at Expo in 2025; Premier Exhibitor Overall and Premier Breeder & Exhibitor of the Heifer Show at Midwest Spring National; and at Northeast Spring National took Premier Exhibitor of the open show and of the heifer show both.

Underneath that: Grand Champion at Midwest Spring, Grand Champion at Northeast Spring, three Junior Championships, an Intermediate Championship, class wins in eight separate divisions, and a half-interest in the cow who won the BC Spring Show.

And one line that says it better than any banner count: at Expo last October, Butlerview owned first, second, and third in the Winter Senior Two-Year-Old class — Believe, Dominate, and Disco. All three are senior three-year-olds now, and beating that class on Friday means beating one barn three times in a row.

That’s a bench, not a cow. Standing in their way: Grandy, Ferme Jacobs, Blondin, Boulet, JM Valley, Beckridge, Mt Elgin, Westcoast and T & L Cattle out of the north — and Elmvue Farm, who took Grand, Reserve Grand and HM Grand at Northeast Fall in September out of one string.

We Compared Every Class To The Crowd, And We Lost Nine Of Twelve

We launched the Fantasy Exhibitor contest on September 19. Within a day, it had become something we didn’t plan on: an independent read on this exact card, from several hundred people who had to commit to one animal per class rather than admire the whole lineup.

So we ran our cheat sheet against theirs, class by class, and published the result even though it isn’t flattering. Twelve classes line up one-to-one with our table. Through the first day of voting, the crowd picked the same animal as us in three of them.

Every figure in this section is a snapshot as of September 20. Entries stay open until the day before the show, so these shares will move — and the classes where we’re furthest apart are the ones most likely to move.

Class	Our favorite	Where the crowd put her	Their favorite
Spring Calf	Do-N-Joy Major Jax-ET	tied 4th, 9.9%	Petitclerc Airdrop Samantha, 20.0%
Winter Calf	Genosource Mjr Heartatak-ET	2nd, 13.4%	Blacklilly Direct Lala-ET, 16.4%
Fall Calf	Nehls-Donk Best Giddy Up	6th, 6.6%	Oakfield Major July-ET, 16.2%
Summer Yearling	Butlerview Master Shock-ET	3rd, 12.3%	Curr-Vale Detective Adeen-ET, 17.8%
Spring Yearling	Go-Sho Detect Revenge-ET	1st, 19.5%	agreed
Winter Yearling	Butlerview Glitter Girl-ET	1st, 34.2%	agreed
Fall Yearling	Kamps-Rx Abercombi Abella	7th, 4.9%	Our-Favorite Endzone-ET, 22.5%
Junior 3-Year-Old	Crisdhome TStruck Abudahbi	7th, 6.0%	Millen Lambda Amelia, 22.2%
Senior 3-Year-Old	Cedar-Crown Tatoo Amelia	9th, 4.1%	Md-Locustcrest P Zuriniah, 18.6%
4-Year-Old	West-Adub Lambda Sadie	1st, 31.0%	agreed
5-Year-Old	Oby-Crest Victor Aria	3rd, 12.3%	Eixdale Pwrup Alongside, 28.5%
Aged Cow	Lo-Pine-Va Lady Crush	write-in only, ~1%	Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane, 46.6%

Share of Fantasy Exhibitor entries received as of September 20, 2026. Voting remains open until the day before the show.

All three classes where we agree are the ones nobody argues about: Glitter Girl, Revenge, and Sadie are the most-backed animals in the contest and the three most obvious calls in this preview. Everywhere the class is genuinely open, the room went somewhere else.

Two of our misses look like straightforward errors of weighting. We led the spring calves with Jax off a 22-head win and left out Petitclerc Airdrop Samantha, who won the spring heifers at Le Suprême Laitier bred and owned, and Cobequid Tatoo Calypso, who won the spring calves and took HM Junior Champion at the Atlantic Summer Classic. Both are now in that class section. We also had Abella as the fall yearling favorite with Endzone as her threat; the crowd inverted that pairing by more than four to one.

And in three classes the crowd is simply making a different argument than we are.

The crowd is betting on the ghosts, and that’s this whole preview

Look at where the disagreements cluster. In the junior three-year-olds, the senior three-year-olds, the five-year-olds and the aged cows — the four most loaded classes on Friday’s card — the crowd’s pick either hasn’t shown in 2026 or beat our pick in Madison last October:

• Md-Locustcrest P Zuriniah, senior three-year-olds — first at 18.6%, unseen in 2026, HM Intermediate Champion of Expo
• Micheret South Believe, same class — second at 18.4%, unseen in 2026, won her class at Expo with Best Udder

Those two are within two-tenths of a point of each other, and neither has been seen in a ring this year. Our favorite in that class is a 2026 Grand Champion, and she is ninth. A room of show people looked at a class containing three cows who won Grand somewhere this season and put its money on two cows nobody has laid eyes on since October.

It goes on. Crackholm Lambda Cleavage is second in the junior threes at 15.1%, unseen since finishing ahead of Abudahbi at Expo. Echo Glen Master Ivy is third in the senior twos at 10.1%, unseen since winning Junior Champion of the show. Altona Lea Unix Herminie is second in the aged cows at 23.6%. And in the five-year-olds the gap is the strangest on the board: Aria won Grand at Midwest Spring and Reserve Grand at Northeast Spring this year, and finished third at 12.3%, while Eixdale Pwrup Alongside draws 28.5% — even though Aria beat Alongside head-to-head in that Midwest Spring ring, with Alongside standing Reserve behind her. The crowd is backing the cow who lost the only direct comparison either of them has in 2026.

Nobody coordinated that. It’s the same conclusion this preview reached from the results sheets, arrived at independently: silence through a season isn’t decline; it’s a barn pointing at one date. If you only take one thing from this article, take that the market of people who watch these cattle for a living agrees with it.

The bred-and-owned cows nobody is backing

The voting rewards reputation, so the cows carrying real 2026 hardware without a famous prefix are sitting untouched:

• Higherground Hancock 860 — 0.8% of aged cow entries. She won her class with Best Udder, Reserve Grand of the open show, Champion Bred & Owned Cow, and Senior and Grand of the Junior Show at Midwest Fall. Four banners, one family, less than one percent of the room.
• Carlan D-Lambda Annita — 4.4% of senior three-year-olds, having won Midwest Fall’s Grand Championship outright, bred and owned.
• Maiden-Kine Chief Cami — 3.3% of five-year-olds, with a class win, Senior Champion, HM Grand, and Bred & Owned Champion at Eastern Fall.
• Knonaudale Miranda Lambert — 3.3% of senior three-year-olds, a class win with Best Udder, bred and owned.

Every one of those beat a field this year. If the room is backing reputation, that’s where it isn’t looking.

Two cautions on all of it. The contest splits classes differently than Expo does — it runs one Junior Two-Year-Old and one Senior Two-Year-Old class where Krohlow will judge four, so those rows can’t be compared and aren’t in the table above, and it has no Milking Yearling or Lifetime Production class at all. And an entry board is not an entry list: backing an animal doesn’t put her on a trailer, and these are Bullvine readers who chose to play rather than a market with anything at stake.

The Bullvine Bottom Line

Three questions decide Friday.

Does Kandy Cane come, and is she fresh? Krohlow crowned her Grand in Harrisburg in 2024 and in Hamburg in 2025 before Madison ever did. She’s EX-97 now and has been invisible for twelve months. If she arrives carrying bloom, the judge has no learning curve. If she arrives late in lactation, the aged cow class belongs to Lady Crush or Twigs — and Lady Crush has her own lactation question, because she was fresh since July 2025 when she won in March.

Does the four-year-old split go on frame, on quality, or on recency? Jacobs Chief Dina is the complication nobody’s talking about — she won the class and the Grand Championship in this same Coliseum on August 26. Eaton chose quality and made Sadie Reserve Grand of World Dairy Expo. Both cows are 2026 Grand Champions now, in different countries, under different judges, and they have not stood in the same ring since last October. Krohlow is on record wanting a hard-topped, square, free-moving cow and an udder with texture, symmetry, and seam definition. This class is where those two sentences collide.

Do the ghosts show up at all? Ivy in the winter senior twos, Believe and Zuriniah in the senior threes, Cleavage in the junior threes, Tootsie and Angel in the junior twos, Creme Brulee waiting in a class where Krohlow has already tipped his hand. Every one of them beat the field on these shavings a year ago. Silence through an entire season isn’t decline — it’s a barn pointing at one date.

And one thing worth holding onto while you watch him work: Krohlow isn’t only picking a class winner. Whoever he taps Friday morning has to walk back into that Coliseum at 4:00 p.m. for the Parade of Champions and stand for Supreme against the champions out of the Red & White, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn rings. Last year the Holstein winner did exactly that and lost — Kandy Cane took the black-and-white banner and finished Reserve Supreme behind the Red & White champion, Golden-Oaks Temptress-Red.

That back half of the day tends to weigh on a judge, and it weighs in one direction. A mature cow with proven locomotion who has already held up through a long season is a safer thing to send into a 4:00 p.m. lineup than a spectacular young cow eight weeks fresh who might be tired by then. It’s an argument for the aged cows and the four-year-olds over the intermediate end, and it’s an argument that has nothing to do with which animal is better on paper at seven in the morning.

Square frame. Hard top. Walks free front and rear. An udder with texture, symmetry, and a seam you can see from the rail — and enough cow to still look like that nine hours later. It’s the same brief Krohlow used in Harrisburg two years ago on a cow nobody had crowned yet.

Everything above is just the odds.

Think You Can Call It?

With the first day’s entries in, the room already disagrees with us in nine of twelve classes — and voting stays open until the day before the show. Our picks are above with the reasoning shown, and so is every place we’re exposed — the fall yearlings, the junior threes, and a five-year-old carrying a Grand and a Reserve Grand that seven entries in eight walked past.

One of us is going to be wrong on Friday morning. Come be right in public.

New to the shows? The 60-second version

Classes go by birth date, not size — a senior three-year-old was born September 2022 through February 2023, a junior three the following March through August. Heifers haven’t calved; the moment a female milks, she moves to Friday’s cow classes. Banners come in three layers: class winners return for a divisional callout — Junior Champion from the heifers, Intermediate Champion from milking yearling through senior three-year-old, Senior Champion from four-year-old up — and those three stand together for Grand Champion, which is why a second-place cow can still win purple. Best Udder is awarded inside each class, and it’s the best tell in the building: at Le Suprême this year, all three Intermediate finalists arrived carrying Best Udder from their classes. Bred & Owned means the exhibitor bred her themselves.

Methodology

Favorites come from placings at fourteen 2026 Holstein shows with full class results — Atlantic Spring Showcase, Midwest Spring National, Northeast Spring National, Southern Spring National, Ontario Spring Discovery, Quebec Spring, Ontario Summer, Atlantic Summer Classic, Mid-East Summer National, Midwest Summer National, Le Suprême Laitier, Midwest Fall National, Northeast Fall National and Eastern Fall National — plus champion-level results from the BC Holstein Spring Show and Western Spring National, sixteen shows in total.

◆ animals are top-six finishers from the 2025 International Holstein Show, advanced one age bracket under Expo class definitions and checked against all sixteen. It means absent from those shows, not absent from all competition — county, district, state and European shows sit outside this dataset, and our first pass missed West-Adub Lambda Sadie’s April Grand Championship in British Columbia until we checked her pedigree, and missed Micheret South Believe, Axel Havenofear Camy, Petitclerc Airdrop Samantha and Cobequid Tatoo Calypso until we ran this preview against our own readers’ contest entries. Treat every absence as a reporting limit, not a fact about a cow.

Entry-share figures are an interim snapshot of Bullvine Fantasy Exhibitor contest entries received between the September 19, 2026 launch and September 20, reported as a share of all entries received to that point. Voting does not close until the day before the show, so every share quoted here is provisional and will change. Spelling variants and write-ins naming an animal already on the board are merged into that animal. It is a self-selected sample of our own readers, not a prediction market and not a survey. The contest’s internal point values are a game-design mechanic with no relationship to any animal’s market value, and no such figure appears anywhere in this article.

World Dairy Expo does not publish a public Holstein entry list. No animal named in this preview is confirmed entered. Backing an animal in the contest is not evidence she is entered. Lactation, freshness, and classification details are as reported at the show named and may have changed since. Corrections welcome — this piece will be updated as entries and late results confirm.

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