Wall of Fame Person: Ben Dibble

established genetic superstar that was even more sought after than before for the most modern branch of this exploding family.

Meanwhile, back at Opsal’s Ridge the embryos that came with Felisse were implanted. Felisse had also had a natural calf by Blok Brothers Eagle Vision. Mark Towns had left being a Holstein Classifier to take a sire Analyst job with Landmark Genetics of Watertown. Mark offered Troy heifer mating contracts on the Eagle vision by Shen-Val LM Formation and De-Su Opsal Ethan Fiona by Parker Aero Wade. Troy preferred Fiona and liked the bull Formation more than Wade, so Mark and Troy agreed to switch the matings. A flush of Fiona x Formation resulted in three bulls. By the time these calves were born in November of 1997 the sire analyst had changed as well as the company had become Alta Genetics. Jay Jauquet was the Sire Analyst who chose Finley to go to Alta. About this time another hurdle had arrived for this mating. Genetic recessives CVM and Blad had come into the picture. Fiona was positive for both. However, to the great fortune of Opsal Finley, he passed both test screenings for the recessives, so Finley made his way to Watertown for Alta.

Upon reaching proven sire status graduating to active AI lineup status, brisk semen sales yielded great results all over the world but especially back home here in Wisconsin. Of the 10,220 daughters scored in 3,893 herds the highest scored daughter was right back where you would suspect in Blue Mounds at the Opsals. Opsal Finley Sage-ET led the way scoring EX-94. There have been 131 Excellent and 958 VG daughters of Finley to date. On the production side, 17,702 daughters in 5,907 herds yielded 1,238 cows making more than 100,000 pounds of milk. Wargo Acres Cashmere VG-87 GMD for the Carncross family at Lodi lead the way with 274,900 pounds of milk lifetime. Alta Genetics’ records show there were over 180,000 units of Finley sold. These impressive statistics lead to Finley being promoted to Gold Medal Sire in January of 2008. Interesting to note, this made him the sixth consecutive generation to achieve Gold Medal status.

There have been several daughters of Finley make their mark on the Holstein breed as well. Finley is known to stamp great rumps and great fore udders with many of those traits shining through the cow PineTree Finley Minnie EX-91. She sold in excess of $50,000 to Quality Holsteins in Woodbridge, Ontario. Among Minnie’s seven sons, PineTree Sid exemplifies these traits really well. National show winner RiVal-Re Finley Carol sold for $100,000 in the Arethusa Global Glamour sale for Ernest Kueffner and Paul Knier. The third dam of Doorman is sired by Finley so plenty of his legacy is still right with us today.

Congratulations to the Opsal family on the success of this great sire. presented by Willis Gunst

Wall of Fame Person

Ben Dibble

Ben Dibble had many attributes. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, an outstanding farmer, Holstein leader, breeder, and showman. Ben Dibble in his prime farmed during an era that preceded herd-mate comparisons, predicted difference, cow indexes and genomics. Striving for success was all about promoting your bloodlines by word of mouth, advertising in breed magazines, production testing, classifying and showing at local, state, and national shows. Ben Dibble excelled in all of these avenues. Back then, institutional herds dominated the showring. Ben fought for the little guy and wanted a more level playing field. Ben wanted improved supervision of milk testing and less politics in HFAA affairs. As chairman of the Special Youth Committee of HFAA, Ben pushed hard for a Junior All-American program and it became a reality in 1951. Ben was a very outspoken man with strong convictions. One on one, or in a public forum he could think on his feet and articulate his thoughts without using notes

This is an excerpt from Maurice Prescott’s 1960 edition of the Holstein Friesian History. “Ben’s father, R.A. Dibble moved to Pewaukee around 1918. He kept a small herd of grade Holsteins and a family of four bright youngsters. Ben was quite active in 4-H as a youth and had a few registered animals as a result of his club work. The turning point in Ben’s career came when Whitie Thompson took him over to Fort Atkinson to see Roy Hetts’ herd, John Hetts’ herd, Carl Will’s herd, Roy Draeger’s herd and others working with Crescent Beauty bloodlines. Ben had the nucleus of a good purebred herd by 1936 and he has been in the thick of the open class competition ever since, late years showing with Allen Hetts and taking their winners to Waterloo.” This is an excerpt from the 1990 publication of the Wisconsin Holstein History edited By Elmo Wendorf Jr. “By the 1940s Ben’s herd had the phenomenal classification average of 88.6 on 14 head, including five Excellent cows. On Thanksgiving Day, 1943 Ben and Doris Dibble were married. Ben always gave much credit to Doris for their success. They were now in Delevan where they continued to build their herd on a picturesque farm overlooking Lake Camus and the city. Ben and Doris had three children, Art, Allan and Ruthie. Ben developed several outstanding cow families resulting in three home-bred Gold Medal Sires. Ben also had the distinct honor of owning Wisconsin’s first 4E 96-point cow. Talgoa Crescent Beauty Fayne, affectionately known as “Black Beauty”. The Dibble herd also had an illustrious show career. Perhaps one of his proudest moments was when Dibble Crescent Model was named the Grand Champion Bull at Waterloo in 1958. Ben exhibited for the first time at the Milwaukee State Fair in 1931. In August of 1981, Ben’s young grandson Scott led his show calf into the ring marking the Dibble’s 50 consecutive years of showing at the Wisconsin State Fair.”

All Dibble kids three pursued careers involving dairy farming and agribusiness, with the late Art Dibble taking over the Dibble herd. “Not one to sit idly by, Ben remained active in the Holstein business until his death on March 25th, 1984.”