Tennessee Dairy Expo Stories
By
Fran Alt
Dairy Farmers from Tennessee and Kentucky
Blankenship Farms cow wins Tennessee Dairy Expo's First Futurity
The 1999 Tennessee dairy Expo introduced its first ever Futurity, which featured 15 three year-olds. Three years ago when the idea was introduced 89 cows were registered, but time narrowed the field.
The winning cow, Regals Pacesetter Misti belongs to fifteen-year-old high school student David Blankenship of Jackson Tennessee.
Philip Blankenship, David's dad said their farm was a partnership that included his father and brother and his two sons Wesley and David.
Yvonne Clanton, a friend of David's had the honor of showing the winning cow, while Wesley showed the second place winner Regals Patrick Lady. Yvonne is a student at Murray State. When David's cow was announced as the Futurity winner the two quickly exchanged places.
The Blankenships have 60 milking head and traveled 160 miles with 13 of their cows for the Expo. The three cows they entered in the futurity finished 1st, 2nd and 8th.
Meet Ida Mae and Emerson Brady
By Fran Alt
When a young farmer named Emerson Brady met a city girl Ida Mae he knew this was the woman he wanted to be with forever. Emerson enticed Ida Mae to marry him and spend the rest of her life on a dairy farm.
That was four children, three grandchildren and many a dairy-cow ago.
Today Ida Mae and Emerson of Calhoun, Tennessee still share life on a dairy.
They have two sons, Sam and Dick, and two daughters Diane Fetzer and Janice Wiseman. Diane, a schoolteacher, is married to a grain farmer. Janice, who lives near her parents' farm, has two young children, a three-year-old and a six-month-old baby.
Sam and Dick remain in the family farming business. Sam does most of the milking and farm-chores. Dick raises the heifers and also holds a job off the farm.
Dick and his wife Linda have one son Wesley 22, and proud grandparents Ida Mae and Emerson enjoy telling that grandson Wesley won the Premier Breeder award at the National Show in Louisville last year.
Today with their sons helping out at the farm Ida and Emerson have a bit more time on their hands. Emerson enjoys volunteer work -- apropos since the name of their dairy is Volunteer Jersey Farm.
Among other things Emerson is on the board at the local Wood Hospital and is also a member of the All-American Sale Committee.
All four of the Brady children belonged to 4-H and showed cows. Emerson himself started showing cows at the age of four and has never forgotten how good it felt. Ida Mae and Emerson have worked with juniors for many years and are still active. Their town has a Farm City Day where some 6,000 grammar school students converge on a dairy farm and have the opportunity to get up close and personal with farm life. The kids pet and milk cows. Although the affair is not held at the Brady Farm, it is Brady's Volunteer Jerseys that the children get to meet.
The Bradys love showing cows. They go to Florida every February where they show at the Florida State Fair. Emerson smiles and says it's also an excellent time to take a vacation.
The Bradys go to ten shows a year.
Strasser Family
John Strasser can't remember a time I his life when he did not milk cows, while wife Nora was raised in Arkansas and never stepped foot on a dairy until she met John. Nora soon discovered she loved farming and has been helping John with the dairy since the two married in 1966. She says it's only natural for her to take to dairy farming, "because the cows were a part of John".
John and Nora Strasser farm 800 acres on their dairy in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. They milk both Holsteins and Guernseys but only show the Guernseys. Nora says that's because Guernseys have gentler dispositions.
Herd size at the Strasser farm averages 300, with some 100 milkers. The cows are milked in a double six herringbone. Seasonal grazing is supplemented by TMR. The Strassers grow all their own feed and do a TMR of corn, hay and soybeans. They chop grain for silage and make use of both upright and bunker silos.
The two now have five grown children and four grandchildren. Nora says she does less around the farm now that their sons are grown. Two of the Strassers sons, Leo and Toby are partners with their parents on the farm and have taken over many of the farm chores. Still she says, "I help out whenever I can. I guess you can say - I'm the gofer."
A third son, Danny works for Goodyear and is married to Cara June. Daughter RoseMary, an Ag major in college, plans to return home to the farm after graduation. The youngest of the Strassers five children, Brianna, a high school senior, enjoys working with and showing cows.
Leo's wife Sherry is a schoolteacher and they have two children - son Ross 7 and daughter Sydney 4.
Toby and Jenny have two daughters Andie 3 and Dustie four.
Nora has never missed those times when she did not live on the farm. She says, "You don't make a lot of money on a dairy farm, but you have a wonderful life."
Happiness is owning a dairy farm
Last year ADF introduced you to Larry Long of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Then Larry was at the Expo helping his brother Bill, show cows.
We told you Larry had a dream of starting a dairy on his farm and raising Guernseys.
Well this year we ran into Larry again. He was there with his wife Donna and their children, Janna 16, Roe 15 and Matthew 13, and true to his word Larry was showing his own cows!
Larry said he already had 11 Guernseys and number-12 was about to freshen. He also had a huge grin. "If I get a barn, I hope to have 20 to 25 by this time next year."
Kentucky couple shows cows at Tennessee Expo
Fowler and Katie Branstetter of Edmonton, Kentucky milk 40 Guernseys and spread out there farming on 250 acres. The land is on separate farms where the Branstetters grow corn and hay and graze their cows from mid April to mid November.
Emily and Fowler grew up in rural areas but neither was raised on a farm. Fowler, who has been milking for 22 years, says he began with 4H cows as a youngster. Through the 4H program Fowler developed a love for cows, and as soon as he got out of college he started his own dairy business.
Besides running the family dairy, Fowler has a master's degree in ruminant nutrition and works for Monsanto as an area market manager. His job includes visiting dairy farms in Kentucky, Tennessee, Southern Indiana and Ohio, where he provides excellent nutritional analysis and sells BST.
Fowler and Katie have three children, a married daughter Emily Robison and two in college Andrea 20 and Kevin 19. Both Emily and Fowler feel all of their children will remain in the dairy business.