This year, World Dairy Expo is honoring four Recognition Award Winners: Dairy Woman of the Year, Deb Reinhart, Gold Star Farms, New Holstein, Wisc.; Industry Person of the Year Steve Larson, Hoard’s Dairyman, Fort Atkinson, Wisc.; Dairyman of the Year, Frank Regan, Regancrest Farms, Waukon, Iowa; International Person of the Year Dr. Juan Debernardi, Juan Debernardi S.R.L., Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Notes about the winners:
Reinhart has a degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia, having worked in the retail fashion industry near Washington DC before becoming a dairy farmer. In addition to raising three sons, she has managed their successful operation through herd improvement, incorporating rotational grazing and building a free-stall barn, not once, but twice after being hit with straight line winds in 2000, and managing animal nutrition and overseeing milk production.
Regancrest Farms’ accomplishments are truly amazing — creating a herd prefix that is one of the most respected in the Holstein cattle industry worldwide. His keen eye for dairy animals led Regan to purchase Snow-N Denises Dellia in 1991 from Bob Snow of Sparta, Wisconsin. This move proved to be historic for the world’s Holstein cattle breed. From this dam Regan produced one of the world’s greatest Holstein sires – Regancrest Elton Durham-ET. Among the top scoring Holstein bulls currently available in the US artificial insemination industry, are 24 Durham sons. In addition, other Regancrest matings have produced 77 Dams of Merit, 121 Excellent animals, 354 cows with over 100,000 pounds of milk lifetime and 11 cows with over 200,000 pounds. Regancrest Farm has exported animals to over five countries and embryos to over 12.
While it is the job of the newsman to report the happenings of the world, this Kansas dairy boy has also helped shape the dialog and policy of an industry which makes the news. Larson and his wife, Leota, have 5 children. He is a Dairy Science Graduate of Kansas State University, receiving a Masters in Dairy Cattle Physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While growing up on a livestock and grain farm in central Kansas, he developed a small herd of registered Holstein cattle. His love for dairy led him to the University where he excelled in dairy judging ranking as the High Individual at the Kansas State Dairy Cattle Judging Contest in 1962. He also honed his leadership skills serving as KSU Agricultural Student Council President and National American Dairy Science Assoc. Student Affiliate officer. He has nearly 40 years with Hoard’s Dairyman.
Born into an Italian family, Debernardi is an industry pioneer who has devoted three decades of his life to the dairy industry. He received a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Buenos Aires University in 1977. He began his affiliation with US artificial insemination organizations in the 1970’s. A modest beginning of 10,000 units of dairy semen imported in 1983 has grown to a half-million units annually. This avid promoter of US genetics has developed Argentina into the third or fourth largest US dairy cattle genetics destination and market.
For more information about the winners, visit the official World Dairy Expo site.