AJCA and NAJ Directors to be Elected

Dutch Hollow Farm has been enrolled on REAP since 1997 and contributed to Project Equity since 1977. The 2021 lactation average of the 749-cow herd was 20,705 lbs. milk, 1,113 lbs. fat and 791 lbs. protein (m.e.). Following the April 2022 genetic evaluations, Dutch Hollow Farm ranks among the top REAP herds in the nation for Jersey Performance Index (JPI) with a herd average JPI of +48. More than half the milking herd is genotyped.

An active flushing program at Dutch Hollow Farm has allowed the Chittendens to multiply the best cow families and create marketing opportunities for the farm’s genetics. More than 90 bulls bred by Dutch Hollow Farm have been sampled through A.I. organizations, including Dutch Hollow Berretta Choice-P, Dutch Hollow Oliver-P, Dutch Hollow Clearvision-ET, and Dutch Hollow Lexicon.
Dutch Hollow Farm regularly consigns animals to The All American Jersey Sale, the National Heifer Sale and the Pot O’Gold Sale and supports the New York Spring Sale, the New York State Sale and the New England Jersey Sale with consignments.

Dutch Hollow Farm uses JerseyTags to permanently identify the herd, has been a contract advertiser in the Jersey Journal since 1980 and hosts a website on JerseySites.com. Dutch Hollow Farm sponsors the Best Bred and Owned awards at the All American Junior Jersey Show each year.

The dairy is a member of Agri-Mark, which owns the “Cabot” and “McCadam” brand names. Milk from Dutch Hollow Farm is also used by fellow Jersey breeders High Lawn Farm, Lenox, Mass. and Mapleline Farm, Hadley, Mass., to supplement their Queen of Quality® bottling programs. Milk is also sold to Four Fat Fowl, Stephentown, N.Y., and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, New York City, which produces Dutch Hollow Dulcet, a Jack-style cheese made exclusively from the farm’s milk. Dutch Hollow Farm joined with 11 other dairy farms in the Hudson Valley to market milk under the “Hudson Valley Fresh” label as well.

Alan graduated from Cornell University in 1990 with a degree in dairy science. He was a member of the dairy judging team and was seventh-high individual overall in the contest held during World Dairy Expo in 1988. He won the National Jersey Youth Achievement Contest in 1988. He and his wife, Donna, received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 2000. Dutch Hollow Farm LLC received the AJCA Master Breeder Award in 2012.

Chittenden currently is a director for the New England Jersey Breeders Association and has also served the organization as president. He chaired and was a member of the AJCA Type Advisory Committee and is a former director for New England Jersey Sires Inc. Chittenden has been a 4-H leader and county dairy judging coach for more than two decades.

Alan and Donna have three children: Emily, Maxwell, and Lydia. Emily and her husband, Quade, were married in June of 2021 and are expecting their first child this fall. Maxwell graduated from the State University of New York at Cobleskill in 2020 with a degree in agriculture mechanics. Emily, Quade, and Maxwell all became partners in the farm this year. Lydia is currently a junior at Cornell University majoring in dairy science.

Albright Jerseys has an actual 2021 lactation average of 19,337 lbs. milk, 907 lbs. fat and 697 lbs. protein. The herd ranks nationally for milk and protein among similar sized herds. As well, Albright Jerseys currently ranks #40 in the nation for genetic merit with a herd average Jersey Performance Index of +43.

Albright grew up on the family farm, which has been milking Jerseys since 1947. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in agriculture education in 2000 and earned a master’s degree in human and community resource development three years later. He taught agricultural education at Crestview High School from 2001 to 2018 and then returned to the family dairy to farm full time.

The herd was expanded from 340 cows in 2012 to its present size of 600 cows by capitalizing on the Jersey breed’s internal growth advantages. During the time, the Albrights nearly doubled production per cow as well by focusing on the basics of cow comfort, feed quality, reproduction and protocol consistency.

To manage the expansion, the Albrights undertook several facility upgrades, including construction of a new maternity and special needs area, flush system and pair of six-row free stall barns. Most recently, the Albrights completed a retro-fit of their barns to accommodate robotic milkers and constructed a new milk house. The herd is currently milked by nine Lely A4 robotic milkers.
Cows are fed a partial mixed ration prepared with a pair of twin-screw vertical mixers. The milking cow ration includes corn silage, wheatlage, bag haylage and high-moisture corn. Feed is pushed in front of the cows on an hourly basis by a Juno feed pusher.

The Albrights have consigned animals to the Pot O’Gold Sale, the Ohio Spring Classic, the Ohio Fall Production Sale, and the Buckeye Classic Sale. They consigned the high seller at the 2020 National Heifer Sale, AJ Chief 4611, purchased by Sexing Technologies of Navasota, Texas, for $42,000. Half of the proceeds from the sale of their consignment to the 2017 Ohio Spring Classic were donated to help fund the annual meetings of the national Jersey organizations, hosted by Ohio in Canton in 2018.

Joel received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 2016 and currently serves on the All American Sale Committee. He sat on the Ohio FFA Board of Trustees and chaired the organization’s proficiency award program from 2015-2017. During his 17-year tenure as Crestview FFA advisor, the chapter had 94 state degree and 43 American degree recipients. Joel has also served FFA as assistant coordinator for career development events.

Albright Jerseys was a tour stop for the International Conference of the World Jersey Cattle Bureau held in conjunction with the AJCA-National All-Jersey Inc. Annual Meetings in 2017 and will host Jersey Youth Academy this year. The dairy was also virtual farm tour for World Dairy Expo in 2018.

Donna owns and operates D & D Jerseys with her husband, Dan Stock, and daughters, Emalee and Erica. The REAP herd ranks among the top 10 in the nation for all measures of actual and m.e. production. The 2021 lactation average (m.e.) of 24,868 lbs. milk, 1,231 lbs. fat and 883 lbs. protein ranks fifth for milk and protein and seventh for fat. Six cows in the herd produced Hall of Fame records for actual cheese yield production in 2021 and nine made Honor Roll records for m.e. cheese yield production. The top producer, Norse Star Lemonhead 4963-ET, Excellent-90%, made a 305-day record of 31,770 lbs. milk, 1,235 lbs. fat and 979 lbs. protein at 4-7.

D & D Jerseys ranks #33 in the nation for genetic merit with a herd average Jersey Performance Index of +46. Ninety-six percent of the milking string has been genotyped. Seven cows and three heifers rank on the top genetic lists. The herd includes 11 Excellents and 54 Very Goods and has an appraisal average of 82.6%.

Donna grew up on Phillips Jersey Farm in Clayton, Ill., and got her first 4-H calf when she was eight years old. She is proud of the fact that half of the current D & D Jerseys herd traces back to that calf or members of her father’s herd.

After finishing her veterinary degree from the University of Illinois in 1993, Donna moved to Wisconsin to practice veterinary medicine. It was here she met Dan and married him in 1997. Their mutual love for farming—her for cows and him for tractors—was a match made in heaven, leading to the establishment of D & D Jerseys with a core group of cows from her herd and some purchased from her father. Lots of bull calves the first few years forced the purchase of several other animals that would become foundation animals for the herd along with Donna’s initial Jerseys.
The couple purchased their current farm in 1999, began construction of a free-stall barn and parlor in 2001 and were officially milking in October 2002. They market milk to cheese maker BelGioisio.

D & D Jerseys regularly consigns to leading Jersey sales, including the All American Jersey Sale, the National Heifer Sale and the Pot O’Gold Sale. D & D has also been a long-time supporter of the Wisconsin State Sale, consigning the historical high seller of the series, JX Dodan LH Avon Trefoil {3}-ET, a heifer owned in partnership with Lloyd Heinz of Shawano, Wis., in 2017. She sold for $44,000 to Sexing Technologies of Navasota, Texas.

Donna served her four, four-year term as director of the Wisconsin Jersey Breeders Association. She has served the organization as president and vice president as well. She is a member of Farm Bureau, the Manitowoc County Dairy Promoters and the Manitowoc County Forage Council. She has also sat on the All American Sale Committee. She is an avid supporter of the 4-H program, working with her local county judging team and providing calves for local youth to exhibit at the fair.

Donna and Dan received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 2005.

D & D Jerseys hosted the Manitowoc County Breakfast on the Farm in 2014, welcoming more than 5,000 people for breakfast and farm tours.

Milk from the herd is processed at an on-farm creamery using the All-Jersey® label as Garry’s Meadow Fresh All-Jersey Milk Products. Non-homogenized, low-heat pasteurized milk is processed in glass bottles as fluid milk and sold as whipping cream, half and half and eggnog as well. Products are sold in retail outlets and farmer’s markets in western Oregon, including Whole Foods, New Seasons Market and Roth’s Fresh Markets.

Garry is a former president of the Oregon Jersey Cattle Club and the Clackamas County Jersey Cattle Club and served multiple terms on boards for the Oregon Holstein Association and the Willamette Dairy Herd Improvement Association. He was chair of the Oregon State Jersey Sale and the Western National Jersey Sale for several years and chaired the 1996 National Heifer Sale as well. Garry currently chairs the sale committee for the Western Junior Jersey Spring Show and Sale.

Hansen was general chair of the 2010 AJCA-National All-Jersey Inc. Annual Meetings and is a member of the planning committee for the annual meetings to be hosted by his home state in Portland in 2022. He has served on the Jersey Jug Committee since 2016.

He competed in dairy judging at the collegiate level and continued the passion as the official for shows in six states across the country. Among the highlights was serving as associate for The All American Junior Jersey Show in 1996. He also enjoys the show ring on the other end of the halter, as a routine exhibitor at The All American Jersey Show, the Western National and World Dairy Expo.
Garry, a third-generation Jersey breeder, grew up and farmed initially with his family at Cascadia Farm in Mulino. He established Lady Lane Farm in May 1992 on acreage that neighbors his home farm. He currently owns 58 acres and rents an additional 120 acres for feed production.

Lady Lane Creamery was established with processing equipment purchased from a dairy in Vancouver that was no longer in operation. The first milk was bottled in May 2009, so the dairy has now celebrated a decade of production.

Garry received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 1996. His dedication to the Jersey breed is pure, as seen in his herd of cows. His most notable genetics hail from the “K” cow family, which includes multiple generations of Excellents. Among the standouts is the highest appraised cow in the herd, Lady Lane CVE Kassie, Excellent-95%. The fifth-generation Excellent has a top record over 21,400 lbs. milk and 18 registered progeny to date, including heifers by Chilli Action Colton-ET and Steinhauers Iatola Applejack.

In the breeding program, Garry is focusing on A2/A2 milk when appropriate, nearing levels of 75% of herd matings to bulls that test positive for A2/A2 beta casein.

Hansen cries auctions in his spare time, graduating from Western College of Auctioneering in 1993. He has been an auctioneer for scholarship fundraising events for the Oregon Dairy Women for more than 20 years, combining his skill with another one of his passions—dairy youth.

In addition to his home herd, Tyler breeds a small herd of Jerseys in California using his grandfather’s prefix, Boyd, and ships milk to Hilmar Cheese. The herd descends from his own animals and purchases from Heartland Jerseys and Windhaven Jerseys. Four members of the milking herd, all Very Good-80% or better, rank on the Top 1.5% GJPI cow list.

As general manager of Jerseyland Sires of Hilmar, Tyler makes all mating decisions for the company’s Primus herd of females. Thirty-seven Primus-bred heifers rank among the top 1.5% for GJPI, including JX Primus Tucker Catalina 60269 {5}-ET (#2), and an additional 28 Primus-bred cows rank among the top 1.5% for GJPI. The herd is enrolled on REAP as well.

Boyd has supported Jersey youth programs through consignments to both the National Heifer Sale and the Pot O’Gold Sale. He has also consigned embryos to the All American Jersey Sale.
Since 2009, he has served on various All American committees, previously chairing the Futurity Committee. He also organized the pre-meeting farm tour for the 2016 AJCA-National All-Jersey Inc. Annual Meetings.

Boyd was a member of the inaugural class of Jersey Youth Academy and a peer leader for the second class. He won the 2008 National Jersey Youth Achievement Contest and received the Jack C. Nisbet Memorial Scholarship, the Reuben Cowles Youth Award, and the Paul Jackson Memorial Scholarship as well. In addition, he earned national-level scholarships from DFA and DHIA and received a Klussendorf Scholarship.

Tyler received his first Registered Jerseys at three weeks-of-age, when his grandparents dispersed the herd. As a youth, he worked alongside his family on their 300-acre farm in east Tennessee, working with the cattle and hay crops, showing in local, regional and national shows, and developing a passion for genetics. He helped the family reach goals to place bulls in stud with purchases by Select Sires, Genex, and Semex from the “H” family, which traces to Boyd Top Brass Samson Heidi, purchased by his grandfather in utero from Mayfield Dairy.

Boyd is especially proud of breeding the herd’s highest-appraised female, Boyd-Lee Artist Ashley, Excellent-94%. She traces to herd matriarch, Samuel’s Mademoiselle, who was purchased by his grandfather in 1933 and descends from Favorite of the Elms, imported directly from the Isle of Jersey in 1872. “Ashley” daughters are on both farms, in California and Tennessee.

Boyd earned degrees in ecology, evolution and organismal biology from Vanderbilt University in 2011 and in dairy science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2013. He was a member of Vanderbilt student government and the Virginia Tech dairy judging and dairy challenge teams and belonged to a number of agriculture and biology honors fraternities. He served on the steering committee for Southeast DFA Young Cooperators and was third vice president of the National American Dairy Science Association (ADSA)-Student Affiliate Division board.

Tyler was a dairy genetics intern for Genex and a marketing assistant for World Wide Sires, Visalia, Calif., following graduation. He has volunteered as an academy coach and judge for the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge Academy and is a member of ADSA, National Dairy Shrine, and the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists.

John is the sixth generation to breed Jersey cows, following in the footsteps of his ancestors who immigrated from Switzerland in 1842. He grew up on the farm in Greenville and assumed management duties of the herd at the age of 17, when his father took a job off the farm, to preserve the farm and Jersey heritage. John and his father, Forrest, and brother, Roger, operated the farm as a partnership from 1980-2000. When the partnership was dissolved, John downsized the herd and began to intensively, rotationally graze the herd. Today, John and his wife, Linda, and daughters, Amy and Beth, operate the farm and creamery.

The creamery was built in 2010 to provide a viable financial opportunity for Amy and Beth to return to the farm. The Marcoots made their first wheels of cheese in March 2010 and opened the farm on the store three months later. They make several varieties of artisan cheese, from mild, fresh cheeses to harder, aged cheeses, which are sold with Jersey beef at the farm store. Cheese is also sold at retail outlets across the Midwest and through a mail order business.

As the cheese business has grown, herd size and management has changed. Herd size has grown from 65 cows in 2000 to 110 today. Since 2017, the herd has been milked with a pair of Lely robotic milkers. The Marcoots sold 54,000 lbs. of cheese in 2014 and anticipate selling about 120,000 lbs. this year.

Marcoot Jersey Creamery also operates an outreach program that includes a “Cheesefest” in June, a fall fest in October and other events, like beer/wine tastings and a “Graze in the Grass” dinner. Among these events and regular farm tours, the creamery and dairy are visited by more than 20,000 people each year.

John has been secretary/treasurer of the Illinois Jersey Cattle Club for the past 20 years and served the organization as president and vice president as well. He was co-chair and financial/registration chair of the 2015 AJCA-NAJ Annual Meeting hosted by Illinois in Peoria in 2015. The Marcoots hosted the Illinois State Sale at the farm for four years.

John has been a 4-H leader for 27 years and sat on the board of the Bond County Community Unit School District 2. He is a member of Farm Bureau and Greenville First United Methodist Church, where he has served on numerous committees.

John and Linda were married in 1980 and received the AJCC Young Jersey Breeder award in 1988. Amy and Beth followed in their parents’ footsteps, and the pair were honored with the same award in 2018.

John and Beth co-manage the herd while Amy manages the creamery. Linda, a registered dietician, works off the farm but lends a hand where needed. The Marcoots have two other daughters as well: Brittany and her family live in Des Moines, Iowa, while Brooke and her family reside in Coffeen, Ill. In addition, John and Linda are grandparents to 10 grandchildren.