Eight individuals have been nominated to serve in leadership positions of the national Jersey organizations, seven for the American Jersey Cattle Association and one for the National All-Jersey Inc. Board of Directors. Results of the elections will be announced during the meetings of the organizations the last weekend of June.
All active members shown on the membership books of the Association on the date 50 days prior to the Annual Meeting (May 5, 2023) are eligible to vote for AJCA President and Directors. Persons eligible to vote for NAJ Directors (by district) are producer members, those who pay fees as established by the Board of Directors, and honorary members shown on the membership records of the corporation 60 days prior to the Annual Meeting (April 24, 2023).
The notice of the annual meeting and the official ballot and proxy will be mailed to all members eligible to vote not less than 30 days before the meetings.
AJCA President
Alan Chittenden
Alan Chittenden, Schodack Landing, N.Y., has been nominated for President of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA). He is currently serving his first term as President. Prior to this he served two terms as Director of the Second District from 2017-2020.
Chittenden operates Dutch Hollow Farm LLC, a Registered Jersey herd of 900 milking cows and 700 replacement heifers, with his family. Partners in the family business are Alan and his brothers, Brian and Nathan, their parents, Paul and Melanie. Members of the next generation began working into the partnership this year. Alan manages the dairy herd and is the fourth generation to breed Registered Jerseys. The Chittendens farm about 2,000 acres of land at Dutch Hollow Farm.
Dutch Hollow Farm has been enrolled on REAP since 1997 and contributed to Project Equity since 1977. The 2022 lactation average of the 851-cow herd is 19,580 lbs. milk, 1,109 lbs. fat and 7752 lbs. protein (m.e.). Dutch Hollow Farm ranks among the top 100 REAP herds in the nation for genetic merit with a herd average Jersey Performance Index of +42 (April 2023) on 930 cows.
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 several regional Jersey sales 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 eleven 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 graduated from Cornell University in 2017. She and her husband, Quade, married in June 2021 and gave birth to their first child, Jackson Kirk, in November 2022. 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 will graduate from Cornell University this spring with a major in dairy science.
AJCA Director Nominee – Fourth District
Rebecca Ferry
Rebecca “Becky” Ferry, Johnstown, N.Y., has been nominated to serve as Director from the Second District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA). She is serving her first term as Director having been elected to the position in 2020. She serves on the AJCA Development and IT and Identification Committees.
Becky owns and operates Dreamroad Jerseys LLC with her sister, Sandra Scott, in Johnstown. The two earned the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder award in 2013 and assumed ownership of the 300-acre farm in 2016 from their parents.
The 80-cow herd is enrolled on REAP. It has a 2022 lactation average of 17,706 lbs. milk, 840 lbs. fat and 654 lbs. protein (m.e.).
With the November 2022 herd appraisal, the herd includes 29 Excellent and 36 Very Good cows and has a herd average final score of 87.8%. Dreamroad Jerseys LLC is a contract advertiser in the Jersey Journal.
Becky, a third-generation Jersey breeder, was born and raised on the farm and got her first calf at the age of three. Descendants of the heifer are in the herd today, many appraised Excellent. A granddaughter, Dreamroad Lester Carly, twice appraised Excellent-95%, lived to be almost 20 years old and placed in the AJCA Leading Living Lifetime Production Contest several times.
At an early age, Becky became involved with the farm, doing chores alongside her sisters and parents, showing and joining 4-H.
When she was nine, Becky was involved in a farm accident in which she lost her legs and incurred spinal fusion of her back. Her first question to her father upon waking in the hospital, “Can I show my cows?” Though the doctors weren’t certain, Becky was. Twelve months after her accident, she showed a very special cow, Cowbell Royal Cassidy, Excellent-94%, in The All American Jersey Show. “Cassidy” was not just inspiration and best friend to Becky. She brought happiness to the entire family, who had been through a lot. A champion in and out of the ring, “Cassidy” earned purple banners at county, regional and state shows and walked the green shavings in Louisville many times in the open and junior shows and the National Jersey Jug Futurity. As a fall calf, she placed fourth and as a four-year-old, she stood sixth at The All American Jersey Show.
Becky has developed the “Cassidy” cow family at Dreamroad Jerseys, LLC as well. She is the first in a line that now includes fourth-generation Excellents, 94-point cows, and an Excellent-96% granddaughter, Dreamroad TBone Clumsy. Becky also consigned a granddaughter to the All American Jersey Sale.
Becky earned an agricultural business degree from the State University of New York-Morrisville and an animal science degree with a concentration in finance from Cornell University. She worked as a farm loan officer for the Farm Service Agency for 15 years. In that capacity, she worked with many different farmers, gaining a broader perspective about agriculture. Becky has also worked for a capital investment company that purchased farmland and leased acreage to organic farmers. She is now the agricultural economic development coordinator for Montgomery County. She helps farmers find funding for diversification and organizes educational events for the public.
On the farm, Becky is responsible for merchandising animals, financial records, advertising and marketing the farm store, campsites, and events held on the farm. She also plans crop rotations for the 300 acres that the family farms. Becky is involved with coaching county quiz bowl teams. This year she served as vice president of the Young Cooperatives Board for Agri-Mark.
As a youth, Becky was very involved with Jersey programs. She won the National Jersey Youth Achievement Contest in 2002 and served as a junior member on the planning committee for The All American. She was crowned the New York Jersey Queen and held offices in the state junior Jersey club.
She is a former co-secretary and vice president for the New York Jersey Cattle Club and served on several committees as well. She has co-chaired the New York State Sale Committee for many years and the was co-chair for the AJCA-NAJ Annual Meetings hosted by the state in 2019. Dreamroad Jerseys, LLC also regularly consigns and purchases animals from the National Heifer Sale, the All American Jersey Sale and the New York State Sale.
AJCA Director Nominee – Sixth District
Ted DeMent
Ted DeMent, Kenney, Ill., has been nominated to serve as Director from the Sixth District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA).
Ted and his family own and operate DeMents Jerseys, a 260-acre dairy farm established by his parents, Don and Shirley DeMent, in 1955. Ted and his two siblings were all raised on the farm and involved with the growing Jersey operation in their youth. The DeMents raised and milked a 50-cow Registered Jersey herd in a tie stall barn and bred with a focus on a desirable balance of type and production. Since 2012, most of the milking herd (25-30 cows) has been housed and milked with the Registered Jersey herd at Kilgus Dairy in Tremont, Ill. The DeMents milk several cows at the home farm to feed calves and the family.
Though he “officially” began showing in 4-H when he was eight, Ted was helping his older sisters with the show string and on the halter much earlier.
His all-time favorite cow is s show cow from the early years, Jim Dandy Justin Gladys, who topped the five-year-old class at The All American Jersey Show in 1994.
Ted was active in 4-H and FFA with show projects. He earned his FFA Star Farmer and was a member of FFA teams that judged dairy cattle and dairy products. He received an associate degree from Lincoln Community College. He has an undergraduate degree in agriculture production from Illinois State University and was a member of the university’s dairy judging team.
For six years, Ted was an appraiser for the AJCA. He then headed back home to farm with his family. In 2009, he and his wife, Cheryl, assumed management of the dairy. In 2012, they partnered with Kilgus Dairy of Tremont, Ill., to raise some of their heifers at the DeMent farm, an arrangement that continues today. DeMents Jerseys is enrolled on REAP and uses JerseyTags for permanent identification. With the latest herd appraisal in September 2022, the herd includes 10 Excellent and 10 Very Good cows and has a herd average final score of 88.1%. DeMents Jerseys supports Jersey Marketing Service (JMS) through routine consignments to and purchases from JMS-managed sales.
Ted and Cheryl received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 2005. Ted was named winner of the Max Gordon Recognition Award in 2021.
The DeMents have attended the Illinois State Fair every year since 1948 and earned banners for both Premier Breeder and Premier Exhibitor many times. They showed the Supreme Champion of the show in 2010 and the Supreme Champion of the Land of Lincoln division in 2022. They have also been regular exhibitors at county fairs, World Dairy Expo and The All American Jersey Show.
Ted has served on each of the four All American committees—open show, junior show, futurity, and sale—and chaired both the open show and sale committees. He will be general chair of the All American in 2025. He served two terms on the AJCA Type Advisory Committee (one term as chair) and was president of both the Illinois Jersey Cattle Club and the Illinois Purebred Dairy Cattle Association. He has been on the AllBreed Access All-American panel for Ayrshire, Guernsey, Jersey, and Milking Shorthorn breeds and represents the Jersey breed on the exhibitor committee for World Dairy Expo.
He judged the All American Jersey Show in 2000, 2008, and 2021. He also was the official for the All American Junior Jersey Show in 2011 and the National Jersey Jug Futurity in 2002 and 2016. Ted has judged many other Jersey shows and national shows for other breeds as well.
Ted has worked with herds of all sizes—large to small—through his work as an appraiser and has personal experience managing a small herd. He has interacted with dairy farmers across the country and thus gained perspective on a range of viewpoints and an understanding of values and concerns. He hopes to help develop the Jersey cow and Jersey industry in a way that utilizes new and future technology while also remembering the past.
AJCA Director Nominee – Sixth District
Ethan Haywood
AJCA Director Nominee
Ethan Haywood
Ethan Haywood, Hastings, Mich., has been nominated to serve as Director of the Sixth District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA).
Ethan is a sixth-generation dairy producer at Sand Creek Dairy LLC in Hastings and farms alongside his grandfather, Larry, father, Luke, and brother, Austin. As a day-to-day manager and owner partner, Ethan focuses on progressive advancement of their Registered Jersey genetics through genomic testing, IVF embryo transfer, and mindful sire selection and matings.
Sand Creek Dairy is enrolled on REAP and breeds cattle using the prefix Sandcreeks. The dairy ranks eighth in the nation for genetic merit with a herd average Jersey Performance Index (JPI) of +72 (April 2023) on 323 cows. Under Ethan’s guidance, the dairy currently owns 44 females ranked among the top 1.5% for GJPI. Twenty-six bulls have been sent to A.I. since the Haywoods began focusing on genetic development. Live bulls have also been exported to Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Nepal.
Sand Creek Dairy also ranks nationally for milk production for the second consecutive year. Currently the dairy is seventh for actual milk, sixth for fat, fifth for protein and fourth for cheese yield production with a 2022 herd average of 22,543 lbs. milk, 1,131 lbs. fat, 851 lbs. protein, and 2,906 lbs. cheese yield on 260 lactations.
Ethan has broadly supported Jersey programs and youth as a member of the JPI Advisory Committee and the All American Sale Committee and through regular consignments to the All American Jersey Sale, Pot O’Gold Sale, and National Heifer Sale.
He currently chairs the advisory committee for Central Star DHIA and is an active member of the Jersey sire committee for Select Sires Inc. Ethan is a director of the Michigan Jersey Cattle Club (MJCC) and Michigan Holstein Association and recently completed service with the United Dairy Industry of Michigan and is a former dairy advisory committee member of Michigan Farm Bureau.
Ethan received the Young Jersey Breeder Award from the MJCC in 2022.
Prior to returning home to Sand Creek Dairy, he earned an animal science degree from Michigan State University (MSU). He was a member of the team that won the National Dairy Challenge in 2018 and competed for MSU on the dairy judging team as well. He was president of FarmHouse Fraternity, state vice president for FFA, and an officer with the MSU Dairy Club.
Though there have been many standouts, Ethan is especially proud of Sandcreeks Critic Chipster-P-ET, Excellent-93%. With a balance of function type, production (27,930 lbs. milk, 1,466 lbs. fat and 1,049 lbs. protein at 6-2) and genomic value, she has been a building block of the heifer program at Sand Creek Dairy.
The Haywood family is focused on breeding more like her, long-lasting, functional cows who push the production ceiling while also proving their worth by transmitting exceptional genetics to their progeny and subsequent generations.
Ethan would like to represent his district as an AJCA Director to encourage the growth and improvement of the breed. Supporting programs that improve and increase the breeding, registering, and scoring of Jersey cattle will be key to growing our place within the dairy industry of the future!
AJCA Director Nominee – Eighth District
Tim Klaustermeier
Tim Klaustermeier, Glencoe, Minn., has been nominated to serve as Director from the Eighth District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA).
Tim established Prairie Harbour Jerseys in Glencoe in May 2000 with the purchase of a single cow, Long Distance Lester Babe, Excellent-92%. He uses Jersey genetics from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand in the breeding program, with a focus on improving longevity, fertility, health, and pounds of protein.
Registered Jerseys have also been developed in partnership with the Chris Sukalski Family as Reiland Prairie and Robert Boltman of Harmony Corners as Harmony Harbour to capitalize on merchandising opportunities. The Prairie Harbour herd and partnership animals are enrolled on REAP and milked at Reiland Farms in Leroy, Minn.
The combined herds have a 2022 actual herd average of 19,408 lbs. milk, 1,009 lbs. fat and 712 lbs. protein on 56 cows. Reiland Prairie animals are included in the Stephanie, Joseph and Kenric Sukalski herd, which ranked among the top 10 in the nation for actual milk or fat production among herds with 40-79 cows from 2018-2021.
With the latest appraisal, the Reiland Prairie herd includes 13 Excellent and 49 Very Good cows and has an appraisal average of 85.2%. Over the years, Prairie Harbour has bred 19 Excellent cows, including Prairie Harbour Academy Bell, Excellent-93%.
Prairie Harbour Jerseys has contracted 27 bulls for A.I. service and bred or developed 13 cows that have ranked among the top 1.5% for genetic merit. Several have ranked among the top 200 for genetic merit, including Unique Jace Belle-ET, Excellent-90%, a member of the Duncan Belle cow family who also ranked as Canada’s #1 cow for Lifetime Profit Index in August 2013. Prairie Harbour has bred three cows that won the state’s contest for high dollar value cow.
Another production and genetic standout is Prairie Harbour Legion Jopai, Excellent-90%, winner of the 2009 President’s Trophy. She won the award with a 4-4 record of 1,433 lbs. protein on an m.e. basis. Actual production is 34,630 lbs. milk, 1,713 lbs. fat and 1,369 lbs. protein.
Klaustermeier served on the All American Jersey Sale Committee from 2003-2006 and has been a sale sponsor as well. He contributed to the AJCC Research Foundation and national youth programs through consignments to the all-donation National Heifer Sales in 2005 and 2011. Prairie Harbour Jerseys also sponsors a high protein award at the Jersey show held during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
Tim is president of the Minnesota Jersey Cattle Club and recently received the Minnesota Purebred Dairy Cattle Association’s 2023 Distinguished Breeder Award. He has also served on the executive board of the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council and attended the Jersey Technology Conference hosted by Brentwood Farms in Orland, Calif., in 2009.
He worked with Allied Genetic Resources on a beef on dairy project that researched the viability of Jersey bull calves for veal and Jersey heifers for commercial beef. Results showed there is opportunity in the veal market. All heifers graded Choice or higher and were profitable as beef animals.
Klaustermeier was general manager of Full Circle Jerseys of Dalhart, Texas, from 2006-2009. He helped the dairy design and construct facilities, develop budgets and standard operating procedures and source more than 3,000 Jersey cattle.
Before he milked cows for a living, Tim had a successful 15-year career in the swine industry. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was manager of the New Hampton Swine Test Station in New Hampton, Iowa, and then the Minnesota Swine Test Station in New Ulm, Minn. He wrapped up the career in technical support for Super Sweet Feeds as swine project manager for a five-state area.
He served the swine industry as director of the National Swine Improvement Federation from 1991-1993, helping to establish the initial guidelines for the industry’s ultrasound protocol.
Klaustermeier will bring diverse agriculture experience to the board through his work in the dairy and swine industries over the past four decades. He hopes his insight of the swine industry, which was comprised largely of registered stock breeders in the 1970s and is now nearly extinct due to vertical integration, will help the Jersey breed bring in additional people and expand its market to remain viable three, six and 20 years from now.
AJCA Director Nominee – Eighth District
John Maxwell
John Maxwell, Donahue, Iowa, has been nominated to serve as Director of the Eighth District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA). He is serving his first term as Director having been elected to the position in 2020. He currently serves on the AJCA’s Finance and Development Committees.
Maxwell owns and operates Cinnamon Ridge Dairy with his family in Scott County, his family has farmed in the county for five generations. The home farm on which he grew up was designated as a Century Farm in 2010.
Cinnamon Ridge Dairy is enrolled on REAP and a contract advertiser with the Jersey Journal.
The 190-cow herd has ranked among the top 10 herds in the nation for production each of the past four years and today ranks first for all measures of actual production with a 2022 herd average of 26,390 lbs. milk, 1,242 lbs. fat and 975 lbs. protein. The dairy also tops its peers nationally for m.e. milk and protein production. Seventeen members of the milking string produced 305-day records ranked among the top 10 in the nation for milk, fat, protein, or cheese yield for 2022. The fully genotyped herd ranks among the top 25% in the nation for genetic merit with a herd average JPI of +34 (April 2023) on 238 cows.
Cows from the Cinnamon Ridge Dairy also won the President’s Trophy in 2018 (Cinnamon Ridge Plus Partridge {6}), 2020 (Cinnamon Ridge Method Bulgaria), and 2022 (Cinnamon Ridge Nitro Noble-ET).
John graduated from the University of Iowa in 1984. He purchased acreage and established Cinnamon Ridge Dairy in 1989. He started the dairy with construction of a 40-cow tie stall barn, then grew and developed the facilities over the years. His daughter, Amy, returned to the farm in 2012 and the Maxwells began milking cows with four Lely robots.
Today the farm also raises Jersey beef steers and a cow-calf beef herd, operates a wean-to-finish hog operation, and grows corn and soybeans. Since 2013, Cinnamon Ridge Dairy has been making cheese on the farm as well, a venture managed by John’s brother, Edwin.
In 1997, John was named National Outstanding Young Farmer. This prompted a proposal from John Deere for farm tours to highlight equipment and practices. The agri-tourism business has grown to the point where Cinnamon Ridge now hosts more than 7,000 visitors each year—2,000 international farmers, 2,000 domestic groups and 3,000 school age children. Tours for international guests often include a meal and live band.
Tours aim to educate visitors on practices of a modern dairy and row crop operation. Cinnamon Ridge has hosted agricultural events, such as farm-to-table dinners and lunch-on-the-farm, and been a campaign stop for political candidates.
Cinnamon Ridge also sells goods in an on-farm store, including cheese, beef, pork, eggs, and baked goods.
John received the AJCA Young Jersey Breeder Award in 1997 and won the state soybean yield contest in 1993. More recently, Maxwell was honored with the Iowa Ag Leader Award in Education and Promotion (2015), the Iowa Farm Environmental Award (2017), the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award (2019), the Soil Health Partnership Exceptional Educator Award (2019), The Wergin Good Neighbor Award (2021). Cinnamon Ridge Dairy was a virtual farm tour during World Dairy Expo in 2013.
John currently is supervisor for Scott County and fire commissioner for the Donahue Volunteer Fire Department. He sits boards for the Emergency Management Association, Bi-State, Visit Quad Cities, and North Scott School, which he also served as president.
He is a past president of DHIA and the Outstanding Young Farmers Organization and sat on boards for Dairyland Jersey Sires Inc., the Iowa State University Extension Council, and River Valley Cooperative. He served the River Development Authority, a non-profit organization to review and award monetary grants to service organizations that help the less fortunate, and the United Methodist Church in Eldridge as lay leader and member of the finance and building committees.
John and his wife, Joan, have a family of five adult children and six grandchildren.
John looks forward to continuing to work with members he represents to unify opinions, needs, and values, as well as develop cohesive association programs and services to advance the Jersey breed.
AJCA Director Nominee – Eleventh District
Cornell Kasbergen
Cornell Kasbergen, Tulare, Calif., has been nominated to serve as Director from the Eleventh District of the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA). He is serving his first term as Director having been elected to the position in 2020. He serves on the AJCA Finance and Breed Improvement Committees and the Jersey Performance Index Advisory Committee.
Kasbergen and his wife, Teri, and son and daughter-in-law, Case and Allison, own and operate Rancho Teresita Dairy in Tulare. Also known as Kash-In Jerseys, the dairy consists of 1,800 acres of farmland, 3,600 Jerseys and 1,400 Holsteins.
The herd is enrolled on REAP and has a 2022 lactation average (m.e.) of 21,154 lbs. milk, 1,071 lbs. fat and 806 lbs. protein on 2,397 cows. Actual production is 19,278 lbs. milk, 975 lbs. fat and 729 lbs. protein.
With the May 2023 genetic evaluations, 28 heifers rank on the list of the Top 500 Females for GJPI. Rancho Teresita Dairy is home to 207 Excellent cows; most are homebred.
Kasbergen’s journey in the dairy industry began at a young age growing up on his family’s dairy farm in southern California. His endeavor with Jerseys began in March 2011 with the purchase of a tremendous genetic foundation, the Jars of Clay herd from the Quist family of Fresno, Calif. Kasbergen enrolled the herd in REAP from the onset and undertook an extensive in-vitro fertilization (IVF) program using the Quist cattle and several key purchases from Brentwood Farms of Orland, Calif. Initially, cows were flushed at the Trans Ova facility in Iowa, but now are flushed at a satellite facility established at Rancho Teresita.
The IVF program helped the Kasbergens build a superior genetic base from which to market Registered Jersey genetics. Kash-In Jerseys has sent more than 40 bulls to A.I. organizations, including Kash-In Slugger-P-ET who was syndicated at The All American Jersey Sale in 2015 for $120,000, a breed record for bulls at the time.
Kash-In has also consigned high selling females to sales managed by Jersey Marketing Service. Their consignment to the 2013 All American Jersey Sale, Kash-In Fastrack 40806-P, was the high-selling female, struck off for $35,000 to River Valley Farm, Tremont, Ill.
Kash-In has enjoyed success in state and national show rings as well. In 2017, the Kasbergens exhibited River Valley Excitation Flawless-ET at the International Jersey Show and The All American Jersey Show, where she earned top honors as a milking yearling in both rings. Kash-In received All American honors in 2018 and 2019 as well with Billings Impression Backstage-ET (junior three-year-old) and Norse Star Balin Layla (junior two-year-old), respectively. In 2022, the partnership of Kash-In and Carly and Rebecca Shaw won the National Jersey Jug Futurity with Budjon-Vail Jordan C Shaneese-ET. Kash-In also topped the four-year-old class with DC Comerica Sasscee. More recently, “Sasscee” was Grand Champion at the Western Spring National Jersey Show in April 2023.
The Kasbergens hosted the Kash-In on Valentine’s Day sale in February 2018 to offer some of their best genetics and show animals, along with elite individuals from guest consignors. With an average of $12,545.08 on 61 Jersey lots, the sale was the second high-averaging sale for the year and now ranks as fifth high in breed history. A highlight was the sale of “Flawless” to Misty Meadow Dairy of Tillamook, Ore., for $169,000. For her new owners, she was named 2019 Reserve National Grand Champion. In March 2023, Kash-In Jerseys co-hosted the highly successful Decades of Dupat sale with the Wickstrom family at their farm in Hilmar, Calif. The 99 Jersey lots averaged $10,829.29 and grossed more than $1 million.
Kasbergen currently chairs the Milk Producers Council and has served on the board of Land O’Lakes for 22 years. He also chaired the audit committee for Land O’Lakes and represented the organization on the National Milk Producers Federation board. He served on other boards as well, including National Dairy Challenge, Southern Counties DHIA, Tulare DHIA, and Valley Milk LLC. He was a member of the dairy committee for the Agriculture Council of California and the milk producer review board for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He served on the California Dairy Environmental Justice Fund and the Tulare County Environmental Health Committee.
Cornell has experienced the Jersey cow’s tremendous efficiency first-hand and believes her future and that of her association looks bright. He hopes his lifetime of dairy industry experience will be an asset to the AJCA board and its membership.
NAJ Director Nominee – District 1
Jason L. Cast
Jason L. Cast, Beaver Crossing, Neb., has been nominated to serve as District 1 Director for National All-Jersey Inc. (NAJ). He is currently completing his second term as Director, having been elected to the position in 2015 and 2019.
Cast owns and operates JJC Jerseys with his wife, Jodi, and their six children, Garrett, 17, quadruplets, Grant, Olivia, Ben and Alex, 15, and Henry, 7. The milking herd is 200 Registered Jersey cows and a few registered Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Holstein and Milking Shorthorn cows. All replacement heifers are raised on the farm as well.
JJC Jerseys has been enrolled on REAP and contributed to Project Equity since June 2013. The Registered Jersey herd has a 2022 lactation average of 17,783 lbs. milk, 851 lbs. fat and 684 lbs. protein (m.e.). With the December 2022 appraisal, the herd includes 14 Excellent and 157 Very Good cows and has a final score average of 83.7%.
Jason has been involved with the family business his entire life. The dairy herd was established by his father with 14 Holsteins in 1969. The first Jerseys were added in 1985. The herd was half Jersey and half Holstein until Jason opted to phase out the black and whites in favor of the high-component brown cow. The herd has been primarily Jersey since 2009. Jason purchased the dairy from his father in October 2013.
The Casts bought key foundation animals from consignment sales such as the Deep South Sale, the Kentucky National Sale and the Summer Hummer Sale and privately from Aspen Grove Jerseys, Morristown, Tenn.; Lisa Caya, Darlington, Wis.; Covington Jerseys, Leon, Iowa; Her-Man Jerseys, Chester, S.C.; Hixson Dairy Farm, Scottdale, Pa.; and Avonlea Genetics Inc. in Brighton, Ont.
Jason strives for a balanced breeding program that combines functional type and milk production and also focuses on the traits udder depth and teat placement.
Cows are housed in a freestall barn bedded with sand and milked in a double-nine parallel parlor. Special needs cows and show animals are housed in a bedded-pack barn. The farmstead is situated on 20 acres and all feed is purchased. Milk is sold to Dairy Farmers of America.
Cast has been a routine exhibitor at shows in Nebraska and Kansas. At the Nebraska State Fair, the Casts took home banners for Supreme Champion heifer with a homebred Jersey in 2022 and a Brown Swiss in 2018. They also won Supreme Champion cow in 2018 and showed the Grand, Reserve or Junior Champion five additional times. In the youth show, a member of the milking string at JJC Jerseys earned the Supreme Champion banner of the 2013 show and the Reserve Supreme Champion banner of the 2014 show.
Cast is past president of the local DHIA board and the Interbreed Dairy Council of Nebraska and sat on the board of the Nebraska State Dairyman’s Association. He is a lifetime member of the National Dairy Shrine and received the Philip E. Cole Memorial Young Dairyman Award from the Nebraska State Dairy Association in 2003. He worked on the sale fitting crew for Jersey Marketing Service in the early to mid-1990s.
In his youth, he was an active member of 4-H and FFA and is now taking an active role in the organizations again as his children and nephews become involved with youth projects.
Cast graduated from Southeast Community College in Milford, Neb., with a degree in welding in 1992. He is a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and his local Knights of Columbus chapter.
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