Illini Dairy Club Pipeline

1998-1999

Illinois State Fair

The Illini Dairy Club had yet another successful year at the Illinois State Fair. Nearly 7000 people, young and old alike, tried their hand at the club’s major fundraiser, the Milk-A-Cow booth. Each person that was successful, and even those who were not, were presented with a button that read, "I milked a cow at Illinois State Fair" and received a carton of milk donated by Prairie Farms. Many club members worked long hours washing and milking to help make the booth successful.

Dairy club members that participated were Molly Birchen, Kelly Smith, Erin Johnson, Jen Landheer, Stephanie Millburg, Dave Koehn, Chad Bremmer, Jake Meier, Heather Dalenberg, Carrie Drendel, Mike Gunderson, Amy Meyer, Bethany Burrow, Cindy Boston, Carrie Muehling, and Jim Brix. Special thanks to Jeff Boldt and Jake Meier for doing so much of the fitting for the university and to Tyler Zindras and Bobby McCleary for helping keep things in order. A very special thanks goes to Gene McCoy for his supervision and expertise at taking pictures of sleeping club members.

Another of our projects for the ten days we stayed was to keep the show string in line. This year we took two Ayshires, two Holsteins, and six Jerseys. The Ayrshire cow placed second in her senior two-year-old class and was second in the futurity. The Holsteins and Jerseys placed in the middle of their classes, and a Jersey was made honorable mention in a production division.

The Illini Dairy Club held their annual Fall Call Out on Tuesday, September 15, 1998 at 6:00 p.m. in the Stock Pavilion. Many faculty from the college and the Animal Sciences Department greeted new faces as well as current members with complimentary ice cream and cookies.

The business portion of the meeting proceeded with a chance for members and advisors to introduce themselves. Officers stood to explain their role I the club in addition to each describing events for the upcoming year. Following this, President Stephanie Millburg and current officers outlined the goals of the club for the next couple of months. Finally, the club was addressed by the keynote speaker for the evening, Dean Olson, Assistant Dean for the College of ACES. He focused on the importance of participation in clubs and remaining active as possible.

The meeting was then adjourned and a game of volleyball was set up for all those interested. This year’s Fall Call Out was well attended and served a s a great introduction to a new year with the Illini Dairy Club.

With the smell of cow manure and musty hay in the air, members of the Illini Dairy Club participated in the 2nd Annual Cow Olympiad on October 13 held at the University of Illinois Dairy Farm. The first task of the night was to choose team names. Team one was "The No Goats", team two "The Studs", team three "The Bebers", and team four "The Udder Delights".

The first event was the cow milking contest. The object of this event was to see which team count fill the styrofoam cup full of milk the fastest. After a minute into the contest a member of the No Goats shouted, "We're done". The cow then tipped the milk. The No Goats finished in last place, and the winning team was The Bebers followed by the Studs and The Udder Delights.

The next event was the wheelbarrow race. In this event each team divided into pairs and one person pushed while the other rode down. The Studs pulled out the win. The third event was the straw bale toss. In this event the team to throw the bale the furthest won. This prize went to Udder Delights.

The final event of the night was the butter toss. This is just like an egg toss, only with butter. The Studs claimed victory in this event along with the overall victory as well.

In the end, everyone ended up a winner because everyone got to know each other better, have some fun, and celebrate with a glass of ice-cold milk.

Involving more students than ever before, the 1998 University of Illinois Judging Team was comprised of 18 participants. Coached by Gene McCoy and Dr. David Miller, team members practiced several workouts at top herds throughout Illinois. It was a very busy semester as students competed in four regional contest and one national contest.

The first contest, sponsored by Accelerated Genetics and held in Viroqua, Wisconsin on September 230 was judged by the 12 junior members divided into three separate teams. Highly successful, the first place team for reasons, placings and overall was David Jordan, Bryan Wilson, Bill Seyller and Jason Meier from Illinois. The top individual overall, winning Guernseys, Holsteins, and Jerseys and first place reasons was David Jordan, Bryan Wilson placed 2nd in Brown Swiss, 2nd in Guernseys, 3rd in reasons and was 2nd individual overall. Bill Seyller placed 5th in Aryshires and Bryan Marcoot placed 4th in Milking Shorthorns. Other participants in the contest included Heather Dalenberg, Molita Birchen, David Koehn, Ethan Heizmann, Cheryl Frericks, Erin Johnson and Stephanie Millburg.

While the juniors were competing in Viroqua, the senior team traveled to the eastern states to compete in the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts and to the Pennsylvania All American Contest in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As a team at the Eastern States, they placed 2nd in Ayrshires, 3rd in Brown Swiss, 1st in Jerseys, 3rd in Milking Shorthorns and 1st in reasons. Team members were Christie Butler, Noah Litherland, Zach Janssen and Jeff Boldt. As individuals, Noah Litherland was 1st in reasons and 3rd individual overall. Zach Janssen was 4th in reasons. The team placed 3rd overall. The following Monday, Christie Butler, Zach Janssen, Noah Litherland and Becky Zimmerman competed in Harrisburg. As a team they ranked 2nd in Ayrshires, 2nd in Brown Swiss and 1st in Jerseys. They were 5th overall. Zach Janssen was 3rd in Brown Swiss and Christie Butler was 4th individual overall.

The next event was the much anticipated National Collegiate Contest held in conjunction with World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin on September 29. Team members consisted of Zach Janssen, Christie Butler, Becky Zimmerman and Jeff Boldt. The team finished 10th out of 23 in reasons and 9th overall. Zach Janssen was 5th in Guernseys. Christie Butler was 13th in Guernseys and 19th in Milking Shorthorns.

The final contest of the year was held in Louisville, Kentucky on November 8 at the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE). Participants included Becky Zimmerman, Jeff Boldt, Bill Seyller and Bryan Wilson. As a team they were 8th in Ayrshires, 4th in Brown Swiss, 10th in Guernseys and 11th in Holsteins and Jerseys. Becky Zimmerman was 9th individual in Holsteins, 22nd in reasons and 15th overall. Bill Seyller was 23rd in reasons, 9th in Ayrshires and 10th in Brown Swiss and Jeff Boldt was 10th in Ayrshires.

Sophomore Mike Gunderson did not compete this year, but participated in workouts and traveled with the team to Viroqua. Special thanks to Ronell Boldt for accompany the team to Viroqua and scoring reasons.

Coachs McCoy and Miller wish to thank the many breeders who made cattle available to the students, Robert and Vera Howard for their continued financial support of the judging team jackets, Rock-I Farm for providing travel costs and those organizations which help sponsor University of Illinois students with a sincere interest in the dairy cattle industry.

1999 brought yet another exciting Mid-West ADSA-SAD convention. This year we traveled to Kansas State University, this year's host school. We had the pleasure of traveling with the Michigan State University Dairy Club on the Illini Swallow tour bus. We left Urbana on Thursday, February 11, 1999. We made it out of town just in time, as a big thunderstorm was rolling in. The first leg of the trip was met by high winds and pounding rain. That evening we stayed in Missouri.

On Friday we traveled to Farmlands Feed where we were guided on a tour of their research facilities. The next stop on the trip was Meyer Dairies. This was a new expansion herd with the potential of around 1000 cows. Mr. Meyer shoed us around the farm and offered us milk and crackers. We had a very informative question and answer session with him on the completion of the tour.

At 5:30 we finally made it Kansas State for the dairy bowl registration. The contest followed. The Junior Team, consisting of Mike Gunderson, Kelly Smith, Amy Meyer and Angie Haag won this year's contest for the University of Illinois. Also representing Illinois was the Senior team of Jason Meier, Zach Janssen, Bryan Marcoot, and Molly Birchen. The night was concluded by a dance mixer.

On the following day we had the business meeting. Major points of the meeting included election of officers. Molly Birchen was the Illinois candidate this year. Gene McCoy was elected as the new Midwest ADSA-SAD second year advisor. Following the meeting, we had buffet submarine sandwiches for lunch.

We toured the K-State animal research facilities that afternoon. In addition we go the chance to tour Fort Riley where the horse guard performed for us.

That evening we had the awards banquet. The new officers were inducted. The out going officers included Jason Meier as 1998-99 secretary/treasurer. After the banquet, the dairy club was represented in a skit contest in which we placed second. The skit was a spin off of the Jerry Springer Show and related back to the dairy industry. Rounding out the night was yet another dance. Early, too early, the next morning we loaded the bus and headed straight home. Fun was had by all the club members who attended.

Why won’t it come out? Will the cow kick me? Can I pet the cow? Look, Mom, I'm milking a cow! These were some common expressions heard by members of the Illini Dairy Club during ACES Open House on March 5 and 6.

Members of the Illini Dairy Club took turns teaching each new milker the proper technique that is necessary to get the milk to come out just right. While some were as young as three or four, others were well into adult years. Although some milkers were timid at first, they quickly got the hang of things.

The purpose of the Milk-A-Cow booth at the ACES Open House is to give people a hands-on-experience with the dairy industry. Hopefully, as a result of milking a cow, they have a better understanding of where their milk comes from when they buy it at the store. The booth also serves as a fundraising activity for the club. After new buttons were purchased, a profit of around $300 was made.

The club display and copies of the Pipeline were also on display. A new handout about cows at the University of Illinois was passed out to milkers in addition to a milk chug and a "I milked a cow at ACES Open House" button.

The Illini Dairy Club would like to thank Dean's for donating the milk chugs that were given to each milker. Erin Johnson and Amy Meyer served as chairmen for the ACES Open House Exhibit.