The Meeker County Holstein Club hosted the 2017 annual Minnesota All-Breeds Dairy Convention March 3-4 at Jackpot Junction Hotel and Casino is Morton, Minn. Around 150 people were in attendance throughout the convention.
On Friday morning before the official kick off of convention the Minnesota Holstein Association (MHA) held its board of directors meeting to discuss upcoming events and tackle current issues in the association.
The convention officially started on Friday afternoon with the annual Minnesota Purebred Dairy Cattle Association meeting. They had a great turn out of people filled with great ideas on how to improve the youth, state fair, legislative and All-Breeds Convention committees. Following the meeting was the annual PDCA awards luncheon where they recognized Elwin, Norma & Adam Brands, Cory & Kristen Salz, and Dr. Kim & Katie Olson as the 2016 Distinguished Breeders.
After the awards dinner there was a round table discussion that included John Vander Wal from Newalta Dairy, Arnie and Kris Gruenes from T-Spruce, Sam & Anne Appleby from Manitoba, Canada and Dr. Ashley Swenson from Midwest Embryo Transfer. The round table discussion involved, going after your dreams and what inspired them in their journey.
Saturday morning kicked off with all of the individual breed meetings as well as the MHA committee meetings. There was a great turnout for MHA committee meetings and some of the topics of discussion were about increasing membership as well as how to improve the publication.
Minnesota Holstein Association hosted our Annual Meeting on Saturday afternoon. During the meeting committee reports were given by committee chairs. Resolutions were read and new resolutions were discussed. Nominations were held and Christopher Schulze from Ruthton, Minnesota became the newest addition to the Minnesota Holstein Board of Directors. Patti Schaefer, Tim Stender, Matt Timmer and Andy Steinhagen were all re-elected for another three year term on the board.
The MHA Board of directors met at the conclusion of the annual meeting to elect officers for the upcoming year. The executive board includes President John Vander Wal, Vice President Andy Steinhagen along with Directors Keith Mahoney, Patti Schaefer, Kris Gruenes, Tracy Schaefer and Matt Timmer.
The All Breed’s banquet wrapped up the convention Saturday night. Scott Gottschalk gave a motivational speech recapping his near death experiences and how that has led him to be an author and professional speaker. We then moved into the awards portion of the night, in which Lane Johnson presented the Longtime Meritorious Service Award to Robert Sheehan. John Vander Wal presented the Distinguished Service Award to Russ Thyen for his 9 years of serving on the Minnesota Holstein Association Board. Tracy Schaefer presented a plaque to the Beranek family and thanked them for hosting the 2016 Minnesota Holstein Association Field Day. Andy Steinhagen wrapped up the awards by congratulating the Sheehan family for their success at World Dairy Expo. Andy also recognized Dave Pierson for serving as president of the National Dairy Shrine, David Kjome who was inducted into the National Dairy Shrine Hall of Fame and the Minnesota 4-H and University of MN dairy judging teams for all their judging success in 2016.
Source: Minnesota Holstein Association
Photo Credit: Minnesota Holstein Association
