NY Master Breeder Award Winner

NY Holstein Master Breeders encourage excellence for herds

By Ann Hinch

WADDINGTON, N.Y. — Breeding for better cows “started as a parttime hobby,” said David King, coowner of Midas-Touch Genetics/ AOT. “It was for the kids, to breed better show calves.

“I wanted my kids to be able to have a chance to learn how to raise and work with really nice cattle,” he explained, adding he and wife LouAnne started with a couple cows – and their genetics business built from there.

The New York Holstein Association will honor the couple with its 2021 Master Breeder award in January.

The Kings have bred 15 Excellent and 79 Very Good cows with the Midas-Touch prefix and had animals in the champion circle at World Dairy Expo more than once. Notable animals include MidasTouch Jedi Jangle, Miss Champion Mitzi-ET, Regancrest Chanel, GenI-Beq Snowman Akilaiane and Ellbank Cherry Coke.

In addition, Midas-Touch has 170 animals on the Holstein USA Locator List and is co-breeder of the #1 proven bull, AOT Silver Helix. Genomic families include Habitan, Supersire Has and Seagull-Bay S Jillian.

David and LouAnne met at Cornell University; he grew up on Kings-Ransom Farm and she, at Mapleview Dairy. David became a nutrition and ag consultant, while LouAnne worked for extension and Farm Credit. In 1995 they bought their own farm, but she also continues to work as co-owner of Mapleview, while he is with HoltzNelson Dairy Consultants.

In 1998 the Kings went into business as Midas-Touch Genetics, and about eight years ago David and AOT owner Tom Kugler started a partnership when they wanted to buy the same heifer, Cookie-Cutter Supersire Has. She is the dam of AOT Silver Helix. Midas-Touch/AOT now has an extensive IVF program with many partner herds.

King and Kugler purchase and consign at every state-sponsored sale and encourage other breeders to do the same, trying to give farms not in the Registered Holstein business a chance to get in on quality genetics through embryo transfer partnerships.

“We have a wicked passion for what we’re doing,” David noted. “We just love good cows and we want to make better cows, and we want others to share that passion.”

He credits his Uncle Bill for teaching him about bulls and his father, Edgar, whose work away from Kings-Ransom as state deputy commissioner of Agriculture & Markets gave his son freedom to breed cows and observe the results of his dairy genetics.

In addition to picking good cows, LouAnne said, “David has the most creative ads in all of New York,” referring to his 2015 scheduling of a tag sale the day after their daughter Sara’s marriage to dairy farmer Matthew Bull.

David dryly noted “Vows & Cows” was an effort to come up with a way to pay for the wedding, asserting, “Everybody loved it.”

The couple are also parents to Kristin, Laurie and Jennifer, and have three grandchildren with two more on the way. David serves as an Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority board member, while LouAnne is a Farm Credit East Board director; both are members of the St. Lawrence County Holstein Club.

“I’m kind of stunned,” he said of the award. “I feel a little weird because I don’t milk; but I probably breed more than others do.”

Outstanding Young Breeder credits passion for award

By Ann Hinch

powerhouse; he prefers to just tend his herd and keep his 100-acre operation small but superb.

“I love cows,” the newly-named 2021 New York Holstein Association Outstanding Young Breeder said. “I would spend all my time in the barn with cows if I could.” They are his hobby, his livelihood and his passion. “This is my place – I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Hoefle, soon to be 33, bought Appleridge Farm in Fonda with his wife, Amy, 35, in 2016, after renting a farm in New Jersey for four years. She grew up on a dairy farm; he didn’t, but did work for various types of farmers. “Once I started working, it was just what I liked doing … milking cows, and everything about it.”

Both earned ag degrees at Delaware Valley College and are the parents of Jacob, 4, and Weston, almost 2, with a girl soon. Hoefle serves on the Farm Credit East Customer Service Council, is a New York Farm Bureau and OHM Holstein Club member and Alpha Gamma Rho-Beta Psi alumnus.

Their herd is 80 Registered Holstein cows and 80 heifers, with a minimal number of steers they raise to sell custom-cut beef at their farm stand along with pork, eggs and sweet corn as supplemental income to their DFA milk sales.

They kept the Appleridge name from the previous landowner but started with their own Hope-Hill animals and added cows purchased from Richland, Pa., producer Malcolm Sonnen to improved their genetics. “I give him a lot of credit for selling me those cows and starting my herd,” Hoefle noted.

Sonnen Springs Marley EX-90 is one such cow, with more than 200,000 pounds lifetime production. Her daughters have potential to be quality milkers, but are not the stars of the farm. Still, Marley represents something to work toward in developing his herd – “That’s pretty lofty, but she exemplifies the kind of cow I want to breed.”

Gold-Bar Aftershock Jena-TW left behind quality cows as well. Hope-Hill Aaron Twister is VG cow that has produced the most progeny