Kueffner Named Distinguished Cattle Breeder
National Dairy Shrine has named Ernest W. Kueffner, Boonsboro, Md., as the 2022 Distinguished Dairy Cattle Breeder.
Over the past five decades, Kueffner has built a successful career and profitable business breeding, showing, buying, and selling dairy cattle. He was the first exhibitor to earn Supreme honors with two breeds at World Dairy Expo (1996 Jersey and 2001 Holstein) and first exhibitor to show three different breed champions at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (RAWF).
Today he owns Kueffner Holsteins and Jerseys and South Mountain Jerseys with his wife, Terri Packard, and operates the business with the motto, “Breeding for Perfection.”
Kueffner grew up in Wisconsin, where his family established and operated Fullpail Sale Barn in Hartford, a business he would eventually acquire. He got his feet wet in cattle merchandising here, managing all aspects of the business, and even cried sales alongside his father. Though they sold primarily commercial cattle, he got a taste for registered genetics and began attending World Dairy Expo in his teens to see the best of the best.
Kueffner sold his farms, and sale business, in the Badger State in the early 1980s and headed to North Carolina to manage a pair of dairies for Buttke Dairy Enterprises. He built up another herd of his own that was dispersed in 1996 through the highly successful Kueffner 24 Karat Sale. A year later, he moved to Maryland and established another dairy.
Over the years, Kueffner earned a reputation for having an eye for show winners and breeding high quality cattle. Among the first animals sent abroad were a group of Holstein heifers to Hungary and Spain. Later exports earned champion laurels in national Holstein and Jersey shows in Brazil.
One of the most impactful moves for the Kueffner-Packard team came in 2004, when they relocated to Litchfield, Conn., to manage Arethusa Farms. Legend says herd owners, George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis, caught the show bug shortly after they purchased the farm in 2001. When they stood behind Kueffner’s Champion and Reserve Champion Holsteins at the RAWF, the New York City businessmen wanted to learn why and asked them to come work for Arethusa.
Kueffner and Packard brought with them their cows and breeding and marketing prowess. In that group of cows was the star of the 2002 Kueffner show string, a cow today known the world over by her first name, “Veronica”.
Kueffner purchased Huronia Centurion Veronica 20J from Bridon Farms Inc., Paris, Ont., as a senior two-year-old in June 2002, pregnant with a bull calf subsequently named Vindication. Though he became a widely used sire, his fame never rivaled that of his dam. For Kueffner, she was Intermediate Champion and Reserve Grand Champion at the breed’s three most prestigious shows—the Central National Jersey Show, the All American Jersey Show and the RAWF—in 2002. He sold half interest to Michael and Julie Duckettt, Rudolph, Wis., in 2003 and then brought her to Arethusa in 2004. When she calved in August that year, the owners of Arethusa were warming up to the idea of having a Jersey and “Veronica” became part of the Arethusa herd.
Over her career, “Veronica” won four Supreme or Reserve Supreme Champion titles and a dozen Grand or Reserve Grand Champion titles. She was equally prolific as a donor dam for Arethusa and a breed influencer through 110 registered progeny and thousands of other descendants. She was Jersey Canada’s inaugural Cow of the Year in 2011 and winner of the Jersey Journal Great Cow Contest in 2015.
By developing “Veronica” and several other key cow families, Kueffner and Packard helped Arethusa become a powerhouse in the purebred dairy community. The farm was the site of several sales during this time. The first, Global Glamour, was managed by the pair along with partners from Ontario and the United Kingdom. This elite sale, which averaged $96,000 on 40 lots, included a choice of three “Veronica” daughters.
In late 2012, the couple left Arethusa and returned to Maryland to operate the present 48-acre farm in historic Boonsboro. The house and barn were built in 1860 on land just six miles from the Antietam National Battlefield. The house is rumored to have been used as a hospital during the Civil War. The barn was remodeled to include four large box stalls and eight tie stalls. The couple keep 35-40 head on the farm.
Kueffner has been fruitful in his vocation, in part, by adhering to a long-held conviction, “To be successful in the dairy business, whether showing, selling, or marketing milk, the cows have to come first.” A message that has been displayed in every barn over the years is a daily reminder of this conviction: Every cow in this barn is a lady. Please treat her as such.
In the breeding program, Kueffner focuses on developing cows with excellent mammary systems, correct feet and legs and breed character and style. He mates cows individually to primarily improve type in the next generation. He studies pedigrees and, ideally, evaluates a bull’s milking daughters in person before using him as a service sire. The effort has resulted in more than 600 Excellent Jersey and Holstein cows and bulls in the U.S. and Canada across his career – with 33 of them appraising 95 points or higher.
Outside “Veronica,” Kueffner has developed several other Jersey bloodlines as well. A key purchase was Marynole Excite Rosey. Though “Rosey” has an impressive show resume, her influence is largely through her descendants. Among her 56 registered progeny is South Mountain Voltage Radiant. She won the 2018 National Jersey Jug Futurity, has been Intermediate and Reserve Intermediate Champion of the All American Jersey Show, and is now being developed by Misty Meadow Dairy of Tillamook, Ore.
His years of marketing experience and industry connections have kept Kueffner active in sale arenas. Shortly after returning to Maryland, he managed the Day at the Derby sales with Norm Nabholz and Jeff Butler. The May 2014 edition posted an average of $38,659 on 90 lots and struck off a genomic Holstein lot for $350,000. The trio teamed again the following year for the second edition, which averaged $18,285.
In June 2014, Kueffner and Packard offered from the top of the herd at their own Determine Your Destiny Sale. Fifty-seven lots sold for an average of $9,167. The high seller was Arethusa HG Victoria-ET, a “Veronica” granddaughter that sold for $93,000.
In September 2016, the two hosted the Kueffner Kows Sale. The Jersey average of $13,421 on 34 lots was a historical high for the breed at the time. Rivendale Farms of Burgettstown, Pa., invested in the two high sellers: Chilli Premier Cinema-ET, a granddaughter of two-time National Grand Champion, Pleasant Nook F Prize Circus, at $185,000, and South Mountain Santanas Spirit-ET, a maternal sister to South Mountain Voltage Spice, Supreme Champion of the 2011 World Dairy Expo Junior Show, at $65,000. “Cinema” is the dam of the popular sire, Elliotts Regency Casino-ET, and “Spirit” was tapped Intermediate Champion of the RAWF in 2017.
Impactful cows in the Holstein breed include Butz-Butler Gold Barbara-ET, Grand Champion of the 2019 International Holstein Show, and Tri-Day Ashlyn-ET, Supreme Champion of the 2001 World Dairy Expo. A member of the “Apple” family, Ernest-Anthony Aleeza, is the former #1 heifer for type. Another well-known foundation cow is C Alanvale Inspiration Tina, Reserve Grand Champion of the 1996 International Holstein Show. She continues to influence the show ring 30 years after her purchase – Tina descendants were Junior Champion Red & White Holstein (and Reserve Supreme Champion heifer) and Reserve Senior Champion & Honorable Mention Grand Champion Holstein at the recent World Dairy Expo.
It is all in a day’s work for Kueffner, who notes, “I have had the honor to own some of the best-known show cows in the business. ‘Ashlyn,’ ‘Tina’ and ‘Veronica’ are household names to breeders around the world. But the biggest thrill for me is that they proved to be tremendous brood cows who continue to have an impact many generations later.”
Though he enjoys breeding and developing his own cattle, Kueffner’s greatest joy comes from providing foundation-quality genetics for other cattle breeders across the world. “I am thrilled when I hear about daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters excelling for these breeders.”
A testament to Kueffner’s passion for the business and fellow breeders is seen in his volunteer work with World Dairy Expo. He currently sits on the board and has served on the exhibitor and over-bagging committees. He also co-chaired the building committee that oversaw the design and construction of the new cattle pavilions at Expo. Kueffner has also served on the All American Jersey Show Committee.
He received the A.C. “Whitie” Thompson Memorial Award from World Dairy Expo in 2002. He was honored with this Distinguished Dairy Cattle Breeder award at the National Dairy Shrine’s annual banquet held in conjunction with Expo in Madison, Wis., in October.
