The Swiss of Swissconsin

During the National Convention, farm tours were be held and attendees had the opportunity to visit Brown Swiss operations located near the convention location.

Horseshoe Hill Brown Swiss is home to Norm, Joyce and Nick Uglow.  Located 40 miles west of the National Convention site, the farm consists of 45 Brown and 15 Holstein cows along 64 head of young stock. The most recent September 2012 classification includes 13 EX, 24 VG and 5 GP.The Uglows’ breeding philosophy has been to select for functional type and manage for production. They choose bulls from solid cow families and also try to communicate with the people who see a lot of daughters from particular bulls to discover what patterns are expressed.

A majority of the herd can be traced back to three cows: Sunburst Dotson Frances, 4E-90, Little Cobb Mort Kebler, 2E-91, and R Hart Sensation Roxy, 2E-90. Frances has 61 descendants of Horseshoe Hill animals that trace back to her, including 12 Excellent daughters and granddaughters. Kebler, a Mortimer daughter out of Little Cobb Phet Kansas (EX-92), produced four Excellent daughters and is the dam of Horseshoe Hill Pilot Kegger at Select Sires. The most recognized cow with the Horseshoe Hill prefix is Horseshoe Hill Va Snowball OCS, the 2007 All-American junior 2-year old, intermediate champion and honorable mention grand champion at the 2007 International Brown Swiss Show at World Dairy Expo.

Sunshine Genetics is an embryo production center owned by veterinarians, Dr. Dan Hornickel, Dr. Chris Keim and Dr. Greg Schueller. With over 3 decades of ET experience, the farm specializes in housing and caring for elite donors owned by breeders from all over the world.

Four full-time staff members are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the business. Their knowledge, experience, and attention to detail help to maximize embryo and milk production. Jeff Boldt and Danny Weidner are responsible for the milking, mixing of feed ingredients and feeding, cleaning and heat detection. Karen March handles the donor health documents, accounts receivables, donor scheduling, heat detection and baby calf raising. Stacey Hennemanis responsible for much of the communication with clients, semen inventory, ET data entry, embryo inventory and the website.

Many prominent Brown Swiss cows have been developed in this herd. Through embryo technology, they have had a major impact worldwide. In the early years at Sunshine, Top Acres Elegant Starlite, Mort Matt Tammy, Wind Mill Emory Maria, Harder Prelude Lucy, Arnola Possibly Priscilla, Mort Simon Tanya, and their many ET daughters were an important part of our embryo program. Later, Top Acres Present ET and Genesis Even Victoria were developed here. Currently, 2 ‘Excellent’ daughters and several granddaughters of Timberline Jetway Toni, a 4X All American, are favorites. Milk and Honey Tonis Tessa (M) EX91 Res All American 4 Yr Old is owned with the Groves family of Billings, Missouri. Many of the Sun-Made ET calves born here have developed into high profile sires and foundation cows worldwide.

Cozy Nook Farm is honored to be included on the tour schedule for the 2013 Brown Swiss convention. The dairy has been home to Tom and Joan Oberhaus since 1985. Son, Charlie, joined their operation in 1992. Until 1985, the herd was comprised of all Guernsey cows, until Tom brought the first four Brown Swiss with him when he and Joan were married.Cozy Nook is a production-minded herd and the Oberhauses look forward to showing visitors a variety of young cows sired by Driver, Berretta, Torch, Brookings, Brooklyn, St. Nick and Joel. The most popular cow family at Cozy Nook is the T’s, with Cozy Nook Pronto Twylight 2E-92 and 2012 Wisconsin cow of the Year, being the leader. She comes from a long line of high-producing cows and has passed those traits on to her offspring. She has 9 sons and grandsons in A.I. She has 6 milking daughters in our herd and a number of daughters and granddaughters.

Cozy Nook is located in a very urban area of Wisconsin near Milwaukee. In the fall, Tom, Joan and Charlie sell pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds and squash, and 1,500 Christmas trees in December. Nearly 1,000 school kids visit the farm for tours every year and 4-H has given them the opportunity to share the dairy experience with about 15 non-farm kids each year for the past 12 years. These youth, who start with no dairy experience, develop a passion for working with cows and many are now pursuing careers in agriculture.