Ohio Holstein MVP Fall Tour & Sale: A Most Valuable Experience

Ohio Holstein MVP FALL TOUR & SALE

A Most Valuable Experience!

Allison Ryan welcomed the crowd to MVP Dairy and gave an overview of the farm. The youngest attendee, Samantha Miley, enjoyed lunch at MVP Dairy with her father, Jason Miley.

Ohio Holstein Association annually plans a fall tour designed as a service to our members to promote breed improvement. Saturday, October 23 was the date of this year’s event and MVP Dairy, LLC of Celina, Ohio was our gracious and impressive host farm. MVP Dairy is a joint venture of the VanTilburg and McCarty families, a stateof-the-art dairy facility opened in 2019 and currently miliking 3,600 cows in an 80-stall rotary parlor.

The day’s activities were based out of MVP Dairy’s outstanding Dairy Learning Center headed by Allison Ryan, Director of Marketing and Communications. The center is open to the public for tours and walks visitors through the entire farm to table process of milk production. It is a well thought out and laid out facility that creatively promotes dairy and agriculture to the general public. As visitors arrived and toured the center, they viewed milking from the observation deck and were treated to bus tours of the barns. As visitors enjoyed a delicious catered lunch, Scott Higgins of ADA Mideast updated the crowd on dairy promotion and Ohio Dairy Producer Association efforts. Thanks to Scott and Indian Creek Creamery for sponsoring the milk for lunch! Brief talks by General Manager Brock Peters and Allison Ryan followed, providing additional insight on the dairy’s operation and vision.

The final activity of the day was the sale, small in quantity but outstanding quality, averaging $10,085 on ten lots. High seller was Lot #1, Pine-Tree 8418 Fort 9107-ET, a 6/2021 Fortnite daughter sporting a strong genomic evaluation including +1062NM$ and +3001GTPI. Consigned by Pine Tree Dairy of Rittman, Ohio, she commanded $40,000 and was purchased by Melarry Farms, Rice, MN. Managed by the Ohio Holstein Association and broadcast by CowBuyer (Chad Griffith), big thanks to auctioneer Randall Kiko and pedigree reader Jeff Ziegler for announcing and calling the lots.

Thanks again to everyone who made the day a success. The Breed Improvement Committee of the Ohio Holstein Association strives to annually make the fall tour an informative promotion of the many different kinds of dairies and breeding operations present throughout the state. If you have suggestions for next year’s event, please contact chair Paul Haskins, 419.618.4028 or phaskins17199@gmail.com.

Jeff Ziegler read pedigrees while Randall Kiko called the online Sale that averaged $10,085. Fall Tour attendees enjoyed lunch before the online sale began.