World Dairy Expo 2025 wrap up
Supreme WDE 2025
Legends, Long Shots & Lessons: Madison Expo Moments Every Kiwi Farmer Will Feel
For New Zealand dairymen, the pinnacle of the show world globally – World Dairy Expo 2025 – is never only about the show ring.
It is also, as always, also about gut, grit, and the kind of hope that makes you get up again, when everything on the farm — and in your head — says “stay down”.
This year, Madison pulsed with more than pedigrees and PR. It pulsed with questions our best producers ask every season: Does experience still count? Do the little guys actually have a shot? Can heart, not hype, rewrite the narrative? The answer, in ring after ring, was “yes”.
It was also about the genetics that will take our global industry forward. And, this year’s show included a 16-year-old Holstein with 11 calves that was still competitive at the biggest show in the world. Lexis Shottle Sofia finished fourth in the Lifetime Production Class of 10 entries, in a breed show that included 468-head.
Isn’t that what this industry is all about?
The 16-year-old Shottle daughter who has had 11 calves, Lexis Shottle Sofia, travelled from Canada to the USA to compete in the Lifetime Production Class.
Holstein: When Giants Fall, a New Banner Rises
You could feel the tension as 468 Holsteins stomped up their own small earthquakes. For Alicia and Jonathan Lamb of Oakfield, NY, the winning moment came when Lovhill Sidekick Kandy Cane claimed Grand Champion, dethroning the reigning black-and-white queen, Jeffrey-Way Hard Rock Twigs.
No dynasty lasts forever— not in our pasture – not in theirs. Kandy Cane’s win was a shot of hope for every breeder willing to look past last year’s “sure thing” and believe in their own barn’s future.
Ayrshire: Where Instinct Outshines Indexes
If you’ve ever picked a cow because “she just has it,” you’d have felt at home ringside when B-Wil Kingsire Willow, for Budjon Farms and Peter Vail, was crowned. It wasn’t genetics or algorithms. It was the kind of gut call that made you proud to work stock before spreadsheets.
Guernsey: Lovely and the Quiet Courage
You want quiet inspiration? Watch Kadence Fames Lovely from Springhill and Millborne Farms take the Guernsey championship. There was nothing pre-ordained here—just unbreakable bonds, a touch of grace, and the kind of underdog story that reminds us why we care.
Brown Swiss: Age Isn’t a Liability
Then there was Iroquois Acres Jong Cali, a 10-year-old Brown Swiss whose seventh lactation didn’t just put her in the winner’s photo, it put tradition and experience back in the conversation. For owner Brian Pacheco, for every Kiwi clinging to that grand old cow who’s fed your family for years, this was your moment. Age, patience, and partnership—all with a ribbon that said “not done yet.”
Jersey: The End of a Dynasty
You didn’t have to be a Jersey tragic to feel the weight when Stoney Point Joel Bailey’s three-year Supreme reign ended. Vierra Dairy Farms had ridden her talent to new heights. And, she again won Grand Champion Jersey. But Expo has a funny way of telling us that every story, no matter how glorious, gets a new twist.
Milking Shorthorn: The World’s Biggest Stage, the Smallest Barn
America’s new Milking Shorthorn queen walked out of Emily Fisher’s 18-cow shed in New Hampshire—and straight into Expo history. It was hard to tell whose tears mattered more: Emily’s, or every small farmer watching and thinking, “That could be us.”
Red & White: The Underdog Reigns
No ring brought the roof down like the Supreme when Golden-Oaks Temptres-Red-ET, a Red & White underdog, toppled icons and left to a wall of noise. That moment—the chorus of disbelief and joy—wasn’t just for her crew. It was for the underdog in all of us, on farms everywhere.
The Strength That Refuses to Break
Madison might blanket its champions in colored shavings, but the real trophies walk back out into weathered yards and drafty sheds, same as ever. I watched the handshake between Clark Woodmansee III (Klussendorf Award) and Matt Sloan (Klussendorf-MacKenzie) and saw something pure: Legacies aren’t built in headlines. They’re carried by quiet hands, hard winters, and parents who remind their kids, “Next year, you show them.”
If you took anything from this year’s Expo, let it be this: Never trust a ledger or a fancy website to measure the size of a farmer’s heart — or a cow’s chance. Dynasties end, favourites fall, underdogs get their day.
Sometimes, the story that changes everything starts in the most ordinary paddock, with an ordinary cow, raised by the kind of people who never, ever give up.
See you—mud and caffeine and all—somewhere between the paddock and the next big ring.
If you’d like to see the photos of the breed champions and The Bullvine’s final coverage, click here: https://www.thebullvine.com/news/world-dairy-expo-final-day-chaos-bailey-dethroned-red-white-reigns-468-holsteins-make-history/