It's more than just an expo to us

I still get nervous every time I put on my white show pants to take an entry into the show ring at the World Dairy Expo.

Whether it’s a cow that has seen the colored shavings at the Madison show before or — like this year — it’s a 7-month old rookie named Sexy Fern taking her first lap, exhibiting cattle at the largest dairy show in the world still gets the butterflies going in my stomach.

You’d think by now that feeling would have subsided. This year’s show is the 16th in a row that I’ve attended. I’m just 30 years old, so that means for more than half my life I have spent the first days of October at the World Dairy Expo. Fortunately, most of those years I’ve had cattle good enough to compete for the All-American honors that are unofficially awarded at the show. And I can confidently say I still approach the five-day dairy extravaganza with the same wonder, awe and excitement that I did when I was just a teenage boy taking a 900-mile trip from Pennsylvania to Madison via cattle truck and trailer.

World Dairy Expo with its trade show, cattle competition, dairy youth events and forage Super Bowl is so many things to so many people, but the one emotion that binds us all together is passion. It’s a passion for their customers that drives our clients to invest the time and money to put their best foot forward at the show. It’s a passion for showing cows that drives dairy farmers to squeeze months of preparing cattle into their already packed days.

And it’s a passion for both client service and the industry that keeps us all going through the long nights and early mornings (not to mention the “Expo cold” we’ll all have next week) that are a part of World Dairy Expo.

As for me, World Dairy Expo is still all about a passion for the same things that drew me to Madison in the first place — the cows and the people. Exhibiting at World Dairy Expo is a lifelong goal for many people, and capturing a win at the show is a once in a lifetime experience. I’m drawn to get back into the ring every year and recapture that feeling I’ve been fortunate enough to experience once before. And I’m drawn to be ringside to watch others experience the same overwhelming “there is no way your day could ever get any better” tears of winning at World Dairy Expo. My friend and fellow Bader Rutter colleague David Jordan got to experience that feeling this year in the Jersey show, and I couldn’t be happier for him. Check out a video of his reaction to the win below.

In the cattle showing business, we say that plans for 2012 World Dairy Expo begin the day the show is over. I know I am already looking forward to it!

Comments

[Halley | Postcard Printing]

If you're really passionate about something, you'd really be thinking that exhibits like this one is more than just an exhibit. It's about sharing your passion to other people and simply learning.