Larry Wolfe to Retire from USJersey in December

After 36 years of service to the national Jersey organizations, Larry Wolfe has announced he will retire effective December 31, 2022.
Over the past three-plus decades, he worked on a team, now called information technology, whose duties changed more quickly and broadly than perhaps any other and stepped up to the plate when a job needed to be done. Though he retires from the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA) as a computer programmer, he also served as interim manager of the IT department from September 2017 until March 2022, when Philip Cleary was promoted to IT manager.

Working largely behind the scenes, Larry helped to maintain the Registered Jersey database and develop many of the tools and reports breeders use to manage their herds. He was also a valuable resource to staff, creating many of the programs they use daily to enter data, process orders, and assist breeders. For many years, he clerked the All American Jersey Show.

Larry brought a unique and much-needed perspective to his work—stellar computer programing and data management skills coupled with hands-on, practical cow knowledge and down-to-earth common sense. This skillset gave him insight to notice when something looked “off” in a dataset or genetic evaluation and needed to be re-run or double-checked.

Though he would be the last to broadcast his own laurels, Larry played a vital role in adopting technology at the Jersey organizations and developing tools Jersey breeders use on the farm to manage their cattle.

“Larry is a humble man who helped make a lot of good things happen for Jersey breeders without drawing attention to himself,” commented AJCA Executive Secretary Neal Smith.

Larry was born into a family that raised Registered Brown Swiss at White Haven Farm in Chebanse, Ill. The second child and eldest son of 12 siblings, he held his own when it came to chores and was active in 4-H and FFA. His early loves were beautiful show cows, and he became a master at presenting them for the ring.

After he graduated from high school, he split his time between the home farm and Kankakee Community College, where he studied agriculture production and management. He was secretary of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and judged on the dairy team. In 1971, he was high individual in reasons and the Holstein and Guernsey breeds at the national post-secondary contest.

His first career position was assistant herdsman for Ray Will Farm in Herscher, Ill. Nineteen months later, he headed to Newberry, S.C., where he managed a pair of prominent Registered Jersey herds in the mid-to-late 1970s, first at the nationally prominent Headspring Farm and then at Senn-Sational Jerseys. While here, he was charged with the care and fitting of the Newberry County show string at the 1977 All American Jersey Show. He also helped with the cattle sales hosted by Newberry County and earned his first wages from the national Jersey organizations as a fitter for the sale manager, Jersey Marketing Service (JMS).

Larry gained genetics experience in the late 1970s that proved invaluable to his employment with Jersey. He was the bull herdsman for Illini Sire Service, a custom collection facility, in Cornell, Ill. He assisted with collection and freezing of semen, instructed on-farm A.I. training classes, and became better acquainted with the progeny proving process, from beginning to end. He was also herdsman for Tri-D Acres, a 250-cow Registered Holstein herd in Auburn, Ill. Among his responsibilities were care of the 40 elite cows managed in box stalls.
He first pursued computer programming while he was managing a third Jersey farm in Newberry—Bush River Jerseys. He worked for “Doc” Malnati and his family for more than four years, caring for cows by day and driving an hour to attend Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood at night.
While the progressive herd owners at Bush River, Headspring and Senn-Sational led him down the Jersey path, another proved to be more impactful on bringing him to the home offices of the American Jersey Cattle Club (AJCC)—his future wife, Cari Weinberg. The Jersey girl from New Jersey was an area representative for the Southeast and the two crossed paths at the North Carolina State Fair.

They wed in 1983 and then moved to Raleigh, N.C., to enable Cari to work on an AJCC appraisal project at North Carolina State University and Larry to pursue his associates degree in business computer programing at Wake Technical College.

In 1985, a life changing opportunity arose for Larry when John Clay, with the Dairy Records Processing Center (DRPC) in Raleigh, recognized this “diamond in the rough” and found him a part-time position. Alas, Larry found his niche: a career that combined his data analysis and programing skills with dairy industry experience.

While with the DRPC, he got his feet wet developing programs that brought information from the database to the farm computer. Among the programs he helped to develop were a least-cost ration analysis and a gateway for download of DRPC data.

In 1987, the Wolfes moved to Reynoldsburg, Ohio, where Larry became a computer programmer for the AJCC and Cari became the JMS coordinator. The two worked together at company headquarters for 35 years, until Cari’s retirement as director of research and genetic program development in June 2022.

Outside the office, Larry has also been very active in the community. He has sung in church choirs from childhood. For more than 45 years, he has sung with a barbershop quartet. He now fills the baritone role with the Buckeye Blend, an acapella group in high demand at tailgates, fundraisers, and private events, and known for their parity of all things Buckeye. A testimony to this passion is print of Norman Rockwell’s “Barbershop Quartet,” a rarity in Larry’s simple and sparsely decorated office space.

He also has been a donor with the American Red Cross for many years, now donating blood through apheresis.
Larry shares his love of music with Cari, a former Sweet Adeline, and their daughter, Rebecca, who earned a degree in musical theatre from Kent State and is now a merchandiser for a company that specializes in Broadway events in New York City.