National Dairy Conventions bring hundreds to tour local dairy operations

A pair of National Dairy Conventions held last week brought busloads totaling several hundred visitors to a pair of Waukon area family dairy farms Thursday, June 26. The National Holstein Convention held in Dubuque June 24-28 featured a "Cream of the Crop" bus tour the morning of June 26 that included a stop at Regancrest, the Regan family dairy operation located northeast of Waukon on Highway 9. As depicted in the photos at left above, a half dozen charter buses and several private vehicles transported just shy of 500 people to tour the Regancrest operation. "We feel things went very well," said Sheri Danhof of Regancrest about the tour that involved the single largest group hosted by the facility in just an hour-plus timeframe. "It was an opportunity for people to see not only the genetics of our animals but also how our facility operates, so that they know that it is truly the genetics of our animals that allows them to produce like they do and not some specialized treatment. We're very happy with how it all fell into place, from the help we had from family members and employees in preparing for the event, right on through to the weather and how the tour played out. We heard some very positive comments."
Later that same June 26 afternoon, as evident in the photos at right above, a trio of charter buses and some private vehicles transported approximately 250 attendees of the American Guernsey Convention being held in La Crosse, WI June 25-28 this year to the Prairie Moon Guernseys dairy operation located west of Waukon on Old Highway 9 and owned by the Frank and Carol Sivesind family. "A lot of the people attending were familiar with our cattle from the showing we do at the State Fair and Dairy Expos, but this was an opportunity for them to see our entire herd and operation," explained Dan Sivesind of Prairie Moon Guernseys. "It's also a rarity for a dairy operation to have a 100% Guernsey herd nowadays, so I feel that was intriguing to many of those who came. We were honored to be asked to host such a tour, this was our first tour on a national level - and there were even some international interests from Canada and Australia. It was a great day to showcase the dairy industry in northeast Iowa."