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A world of dairy at Rock County's doorstep

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World Dairy Expo 2009

Scenes from the World Dairy Expo at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

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MADISON — It’s like taking a world tour without ever leaving the barn.

Vendors from around the world hawk a mind-boggling array of wares.

Everywhere you turn, you hear conversations in different languages.

And if you’re lucky, you can get a grilled cheese sandwich or some freshly baked cookies from Grandma.

It’s the World Dairy Expo, and it’s going on through Saturday at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. For a couple of Walworth County dairy farmers, it’s a family vacation they look forward to every year.

Jim Versweyveld and his 13-year-old son, Luke, were getting ready Wednesday afternoon to compete in the International Milking Shorthorn show.

“It’s a 4-H project gone wild,” Versweyveld said of the family’s 15-cow hobby farm in Walworth County’s Richmond Township.

The Versweyvelds only brought two cows—Celebrity and Cabaret—to the show this year. This is the fourth time they’ve competed at the Expo. It’s not an every-year event because the competition is so tough, Versweyveld said.

“If you place even in the middle of the pack at Expo, it’s a big accomplishment,” said Versweyveld, who didn’t know his results before press time. “This is where it’s at.”

More than 2,500 dairy cattle are competing in this year’s Expo. For visitors who might be more familiar with a county fair show, the international event looks a lot different. The show ring is in the Coliseum, where roller derby matches and rock concerts often take place. The ring is decorated with fall flowers and sprinkled with dyed-green sawdust. Organ music plays, and large banners listing the names of former Expo supreme champions hang from the ceiling.

Audience members in the nosebleed section can watch the show on a Jumbotron.

Back in the barns where cattle are tied, families decorate displays with fountains, flowers, strings of lights and professional pictures of their cattle.

The Versweyveld family’s small display was modest compared to some. They did manage to have a bit of excitement in the barn this year, though. Celebrity on Tuesday gave birth to a bull calf. He napped Wednesday afternoon in a “crib” made of hay bales.

The family chose the red and white spotted Milking Shorthorn breed because the cattle are smaller and more mild-mannered than the more popular Holsteins, he said. Also, the competition is a little lighter than in some of the other breeds. That makes it a little more fun for the kids, he said.

The family also competes at the Walworth County Fair and the McHenry County Fair in Illinois.

It’s handy for local farmers that the Expo is in Madison. If it were out of state, the family might be less likely to take the drive to compete, said Versweyveld, who works at Lab Safety Supply in Janesville.

“I take a week off to come to this,” he said.

Versweyveld isn’t alone.

The Expo is a family vacation for the Moyer family of Whitewater, too. Pauline Schmidt has missed few Expos since 1973 when her parents, Dorothy and Perry Moyer, made their World Dairy Expo debut with the Ayrshire cattle from their Moy-Ayr Farm south of Whitewater in Richmond Township.

Dorothy and Perry don’t show any more. But they both were enjoying the atmosphere of the barn Wednesday afternoon. Dorothy was making grilled cheese sandwiches and pushing homemade oatmeal cookies on guests.

The Moyer family has a history of great success at the show and are the only Ayrshire breeders to have won the “premier breeder” award 14 times.

But aside from the joy of tough competition, Schmidt said she enjoys seeing the old friends she runs into every year at the show.

“This is our favorite show to come to,” Schmidt said. “We get to catch up with friends of ours from Maryland and New York … just about every state. So many, and we only get to see them once a year, here.”

Janesville company has recognized face at expo

The Janesville office is small for now.

But it’s a world headquarters for a company that’s internationally known.

Waikato Milking Systems U.S.A., 2301 Kettering St., Janesville, is one of hundreds on display this week at the World Dairy Expo in Madison. The annual event includes a dairy cattle show and an agricultural industry trade-show that is crammed with brightly colored booths where vendors display cattle feed, animal health products and farm implements.

One booth was selling a “stress-free dairy laundry system.” Another touted the benefits of membership in the National Hay Association.

Waikato is a New Zealand based company that makes milking parlors and parts for dairy farms. The company provides services to farms of all sizes: from those who place milkers manually on one cow at a time to those who milk using completely computerized 80-cow parlors, said General Manager Jeff Ponkauskas.

The company already has about 50 percent of the market share in New Zealand, and they’re looking to follow their customers who are moving in waves to the United States, Ponkauskas said.

In New Zealand, farmers commonly feed their cattle primarily on pasture all year round. But it’s a small country with a population of 4 million, Ponkauskas said. Many farmers are looking to move to the United States where they can buy land at what they consider an affordable price, he said.

Locating the company’s U.S. headquarters in America’s Dairyland was a no-brainer, he said.

“It was an easy decision to come to Janesville, because it was where the people live that we want to draw from,” Ponkauskas said.

Waikato Milking Systems started operating in Janesville in the fall of 2008. The office and warehouse employs four people today but expects to add assembly and manufacturing jobs in the future, Ponkauskas said.

This is the first time Waikato has had a booth at the Expo, and salesmen Wednesday afternoon were enjoying the chance to meet dozens of potential customers, Ponkauskas said. Times are tough in the dairy industry, but that makes it more important than ever to get the company’s name out in front of potential customers, he said.

“There were a lot of projects people wanted to do before the economy turned,” Ponkauskas said. “Those still need to get done.

“It doesn’t cost them anything to look, and we hope to be ready for them when they want to grow.”