The 2022 Distinguished Young Holstein Breeder was awarded to Nick Kress and Amanda Knoener of Kress-Hill Dairy in Newton. The farm was started in 2010 when they purchased 150 grade cows from area farms. Over the next years they bought Registered Holsteins from various sales and started transitioning their herd to registered cows.
In 2012, they purchased Siemers Destry Sunny-Red-ET from the Siemers Showcase Sale at the Great Northern Sales Arena. This bred heifer went on to forever change Kress-Hill Dairy. Sunny became the foundation of their red and white breeding program. Over the years, she quickly produced many local, state and national level winners and also produced the #1 Red & White PTAT cow, Ms Kress-Hill Saphire-Red-ET.
In 2019, Saphire was named Junior Champion of both the open and junior Red & White shows at World Dairy Expo. She then went on to win Supreme Junior Champion of the Junior Show as well. With their showring success, Kress-Hill has been able to market their animals at numerous sales along with selling countless embryos nationwide.
Over the last few years, the Kress-Hill prefix has won numerous junior champions, group classes and class winners. They also have had numerous All-American and Junior All-American nominations and were named Premier Exhibitor and Breeder at the 2022 International Red & White Show.
Since 2010, they have made changes to the dairy to improve the overall herd. In 2013 they purchased the facilities and 200 acres of land. From there, they immediately began to make updates including using sand bedding in the freestalls for cow comfort and parlor technology updates to have individual cow reports.
Nick and Amanda have two children, Owen and Kendyll, who work side by side with them on the farm. In addition, they also have a few hired employees that help at both the shows and on the farm. Today, their herd is roughly 75 percent registered and they strive to continue improving their herd.