AJ Quist Memorial Young Breeder

AJ Quist Memorial Young Breeder of the Year

The A.J. Quist Memorial Young Breeder Award is given annually to member of the CA State Holstein Association who had been a successful breeder of Registered Holsteins and a productive member of our industry. Nominees are select and voted on by a committee that is made up of the 10 most recent honorees.

This year’s honoree is Curtis Vanden Berge of Bakersfield. Curtis began adding registered Holsteins to his family’s 3,000 cow Holstein herd about 10 years ago with the hope of advancing the genetic potential for the herd as a whole. His ancestors started dairying in the 1950’s in Southern California. By 2004, his parents had built the herd up to milking 1,500 cows at two locations. It was at this time they relocated their dairy operation and family to the current location in Bakersfield and had the opportunity to double their herd size to 3,000 cows. Although registered Holsteins have not been a part of their operation for a long period of time, use of top genetics and appreciation for quality dairy cows was one thing that had been passed down from his predecessors. One of his earliest and possible most prolific investment came in February 2015 at the Airosa Dairy Extravaganza Sale, a Halogen daughter bred by Seagull Bay Dairy in Idaho. Seagull-Bay Halogen 516ET was 9 months old at the time of the sale and almost exactly a year to the date of that sale her first of 24 offspring was born. It was this first daughter Vanden-Berge Drsopn 431-ET that would lead to the most exciting of over 100 descendants to date of this purchase. Doorsopen 431 went on to score VG-85 and her first daughter born was VandenBerge Lmda Daphne-ET VG-87. It is her daughter Vanden-Berge Trpc Daphne-ET that is currently one of only four females in the breed at 2866 GTPI and greater then 2.98 PTAT. She has garnered a lot of AI and embryo interests along with IVF Sessions being sold from her. Another way that Curtis would add registered cows to the herd was by attending herd sales or dispersals of registered breeders and purchasing individual or group lots. He used these opportunities to select individuals with deep pedigrees that had high production and attention was always given to confirmation of the cows themselves. He attended the Gen-Ace Milking Herd Dispersal in 2016 and selected a number of deep-pedigreed animals, one of which was a Guthrie daughter scored EX-90 at the time. She quickly became a herd favorite because of her high production and ease of doing so with a beautiful udder. Gen-Ace Guthrie Minnie 6804-ET would go on to score EX94 and so far, has produced 5 VG and EX daughters. One of which, Vanden-Berge Minnie 775, was consigned to a sale and has been classified EX-92 for her new owners.

Curtis purchased Midas-Touch Hot Harper-ET as a young calf in an online auction in December 2017. She is a Hotline out of a VG-85 Rubicon then Cookiecutter Ssire Has-ET VG-87. At the time, she was +2742G +2.77T. Curtis flushed her and to date, all of her offspring are over +2700G and up to +2.56T. Vanden-Berge Nows Harper-ET was released by Select Sires in December 2020 and has been a popular choice for breeders in the last few months. Harper is +2930G with a whopping +119 pound of fat. His Renegade A2A2 full brother, Harpoon, is at Revolution Genetics and has a very complete profile at +2772G +600NM +2.23T.

By paying close attention to detail, IVF and embryo transfer has been used successfully to expand the Vanden Berge registered herd and produce genetics that have been productive and extremely marketable.

Other accomplishments include: consigning the high seller at the California State Convention, breeding and developing over 50 females that trace back to the famous Lindy Sheen’s of Ocean-View, and breeding or owing 13 Excellent and 100 VG cows. In 2020 his herd was honored with the Progressive Genetics Herd Award by HAUSA with an average CTPI of 2460, which ranked 3rd in California. The most recent milestone has been having a top 50 GTPI Female in the Breed born at his farm, from an embryo that was purchased. She is Ms BGP Captain McEnroe-ET. She is +3056 GTPI and 915 NM$ and traces back to the View-Home Mrdian Iowa-ET (VG-86 DOM) family that has produced numerous high GTPI males and females. With Curtis, every investment, every mating, every decision is made with advancement in mind. Improvement is always at the forefront and always the goal. It is because of these principles that this high ranking calf will certainly be used to advance not only their herd but continue to put the Vanden-Berge prefix on the map as an elite genetic herd of registered Holsteins. In addition to Curtis’ success with his own herd, he also shares his passion for breeding Holsteins with young dairy enthusiasts in his community by providing numerous project heifers for junior to exhibit at the Kern County Fair each year. Curtis married his wife Stacey in 2012 and they have 3 children – Case, Tessa and Payton - that he also enjoys sharing is love of cows with. Case and Tessa are made their showring debut at the 2021 State Show’s PeeWee Showmanship contest. Curtis also serves as an At-Large Director for the California Holstein Association.

Congratulations to Curtis Vanden Berge, the 2021 AJ Quist Memorial Young Breeder!

Matthew Evangelo, center, presents Curtis Vanden Berge, left, the AJ Quist Memorial Young Breeder of the Year Award. Picutred is Vanden-Berge Lmda Daphne-ET (VG-87) who is the dam of Trpc DaphneET, who has quickly become an elite individual for Curtis, being one of only four cows in the breed that is +2866G and over +2.98T!

1958 Chris Rasmussen 1959 E.E. Freeman 1960 Frank L. Pellissiar 1961 Earl & Marguarite Graham 1962 Hubert Kidd 1963 Frank & Adelia Hopkins 1964 Mark L. Borrer 1965 Max Herzog 1966 Frank S. Corda 1967 Wesley N. Sawyer 1968 James Reed 1969 Joe Trindade, Jr. 1970 Leo Hedegard 1971 Harold Schmidt 1972 Wallace Lindskoog 1973 Walter D. Ranney 1974 Henry Sterk 1975 Alvin Quist 1976 Hugh D. Good 1977 Harmon B. Toone 1978 Robert Selkirk 1979 Roy Boone 1980 Allen Johnson 1981 Frank Muthner 1982 Tom A. Nunes, Jr. 1983 Amelio Curti 1984 Kip Herzog 1985 Doug Maddox 1986 Joe Duarte 1987 Wilbur E. Gomes 1988 John Wackerman 1989 Anton Betschart 1990 Marvin Nunes 1991 Tom Sawyer 1992 Paul Rollin 1993 Emilio & Alvin Groppetti 1994 Frank Santos 1995 Dan Ranney 1996 Joe Airosa 1997 Paulo Bro Holsteins 1998 George & Mimi Nunes 1999 Bill & Giovanna Zinn 2000 Louis Aufdemaur 2001 Art & Connie Avrit 2002 Ed & Bettie Bracco 2003 Bernard & Frieda Souza 2004 Gilbert & Linda Teixeira 2005 Bill & Libby Clark 2006 Leo & Louie Durrer 2007 Hank & Carolyn Van Exel 2008 Ed, Bill & Jim Genasci 2009 Jack Lerch & Larry Gerber 2010 Dennis & Kirsten Areias 2011 George & Dora McClelland 2012 Joey Airosa 2014 Ron Pietersma 2015 Frank & Carol Borba 2016 Pat & Steve Maddox 2017 Dino & Dante Migliazzo 2018 Mike & Denise Mulas 2019 Ken Melvold 2020 Duane & Dale Matheron

Past Junior Breeder Award Winners

1957 Melvin George 1957 Alvin Quist 1958 Maurice & Lindsey Ketscher 1959 Wackerman Brothers 1960 Bill & Libby Clark 1961 Norman & Freda Lucas 1962 Louis Aufdermaur, Jr. 1963 Bernard Souza, Jr. 1964 Doug Maddoz 1965 Tom Nunes 1966 Art Avrit 1967 Tom Sawyer 1968 Paul Rollin 1969 Kip Herzog 1970 Louis Calcagno 1971 George Nunes 1972 Stanley Gomes 1973 Andy Hurtgen 1974 Mike Martin 1975 Vic Gouveia, Jr. 1976 Tony Bos 1977 Gilbert Teixeira 1978 Dino Ortega 1979 Joe Viera 1980 Dan Ranney 1981 Louie Jr. & Leo Durrer 1982 Ralph Grossi 1983 Bill Genasci 1984 James Quist 1985 John Honnette 1986 Frank Borba 1987 George McClelland 1988 Hank Van Exel 1989 Ken & Kathy Elliot 1990 Leo Langerwerf 1991 Dennis Areias 1992 Leroy Rocha 1993 Chris Hellwinkel 1994 George & Kelly Morasci 1995 Dino Migliazzo 1996 Joey Airosa 1997 Patrick Maddox 1998 Mike Mulas 1999 Joey Fernandes 2000 Chris & Agnes Sawyer 2001 Donald Rollin 2002 Tony DeMello 2003 Tony Borba 2004 Bill & Jennifer Silva 2005 Chris & Ellen Durrer 2006 Tara Davis 2007 Ryan Matheron 2008 Jon & Tami Tollenaar 2009 Robert Teixeira 2010 Lucas Deniz 2011 Jana McClelland 2012 Natalie Silva 2013 Matthew & Lauren Evangelo 2014 Stephen Mast 2015 Lindsey Nunes 2016 Manuel Silveira III 2017 Adam & Lacey Van Exel 2018 Aaron Matheron 2019 Mike Santos 2020 Vincent Migliazzo