A little welcome speech from the USA Brown Swiss Associations New Youth Ambassador!
HELLO BROWN SWISS BREEDERS,
My name is Grant Voelker, your 2014-2015 National Brown Swiss Youth Ambassador. I am 19 years old, son of Charles and Nancy Voelker of Perryville, Missouri. I am the youngest of five children. I have two sisters, Katie Hill and Suzanne Schamburg, and two brothers Chad and Dayne. Our dairy farm has been in our family for three generations starting with registered Brown Swiss. I hope to be the fourth generation with the dairy when I graduate from the University of Missouri, where I’m majoring in Agriculture Education. I have been very involved in our farm since I was 8 years old. Some of the roles I had were helping with feeding baby calves, cleaning barns, feeding heifers, milking chores, and I currently do some of the A.I. breeding as well. My family is very big in showing our cattle at county, state, and national shows. At the age of 9, I became a National Junior Brown Swiss Member. I have been very involved as a junior member by attending conventions with my family and participating in the junior activities. I purchased my first Brown Swiss cow at the age of 14 at the National Brown Swiss Convention in Missouri. Since that time my herd has grown and I currently own 15. I was very active in FFA in high school, earning Area Dairy Production Efficiency Award. I was part of the state 4-H Dairy Judging Team and won numerous showmanship awards. I have developed many life skills and new friendships while working and showing Brown Swiss cattle.
I’m very excited about this next year and serving as Ambassador. I plan to reach out to as many new people as possible discussing the Big Brown Cow and promoting our great organization. I plan to attend the All-American Dairy Show, World Dairy Expo, NAILE, and the Southwest National Shows. I hope I get to connect with as many juniors as possible this year!
Grant Voelker [email protected]