Hart Communications

Category: dairy industry

  • Look Back with Fondness

    Look Back with Fondness


    By Melissa Hart

    On the cover of the recent Michigan Dairy Cattle News is a
    photo of the Wolverine Purebred Livestock Sales Pavilion, a massive sales arena
    that sat on Grand River between Williamston and Okemos in the 1950s and
    60s.  This same photo was on the cover of
    the 1955 Holstein Michigander, the predecessor of the Michigan-Indiana Holstein
    News and the Michigan Dairy Cattle News.


    I put that photo on the cover because it harkened back to a
    time when the Registered Holstein business was thriving in Michigan.  There were sales in every corner of the state
    and Michigan Holstien genetics were sought after by breeders from across the
    country.

    The Wolverine Sales Pavilion was built by Clarence B. Smith
    after World War II who came north from Kentucky as an auto worker.  His love for cattle led him to manage Baynewood
    owned by E.M. Bayne at Romeo, MI. There he developed the great Royal Ormsby,
    the 141st cow of the breed to produce over 1000 pounds of fat in one
    year.  He presented her and her son at
    the 1929 Royal Brentwood Sale where Winterthur Farms bought mother and son.
    They paid $6300 for the cow and $10,100 for the calf – and added an important
    link in their breeding program. Later Smith managed a Guernsey herd at
    Pinconning, Michigan.

    This auction hotspot served as a hub to not only monthly
    sales, but special sales throughout the year. 
    The Wolverine Classic, the Michigan Holstein State Spring Sale and many
    herds were dispersed through here including the Rayulmn herd.

    In their January 1955 ad they touted that Michigan Holsteins
    had three nominations for All-Americans, nine grand champions, five senior
    champions, 14 junior champions, 62 first place winners and 102 other winnings
    across the country.             The
    Wolverine Sales Pavilion was the hotbed of registered livestock that flowed
    through from around the Midwest. 

    From that cover of the magazine, I had two gentlemen contact
    me to let me know what they bought from that auction site.  One bought a Registered Holstein bull that he
    used in his herd and the other bought a heifer and spouted off her full name,
    in amazement that he could remember something as obscure as that from a half
    century ago but struggled to remember recent history.

    In the 1950s and beyond the Michigan Holstein Association enjoyed
    a bountiful membership full of people who shared a passion for Holstein
    genetics. They had classes of 50 and 60 animals at their State Black &
    White show often held at McCurdy Park in Corunna and the district shows were
    active with hundreds of head being shown.               

    The complexion of the Holstein business has
    changed in Michigan, and while the old days seem like good ones, keep in mind
    that today will be the yesterday we long for tomorrow. Live in the moment and
    drink up the feeling of being present so when you look back it will be with
    fondness, not regret.   

  • Green Meadow Farms: “Where the Latch String is Always Out”

    Green Meadow Farms: “Where the Latch String is Always Out”

     Green Meadow Farms turns 100 years old this year and, in
    their generosity, they invited everyone to the farm to celebrate. As they prepared
    for this day of celebration cleaning up the old barns and pulling out their
    historical photos and memorials of milestones, they discovered an entire side
    of Merle Green they had never seen before.

    According to a feature in the Michigan Dairy Cattle News, Merle
    Green was the organization’s founding father, purchasing the original farm at
    18 years old with co-signing from his father, who owned a lumberyard. He joined
    the Holstein Association in 1919 at the age of 14, buying his first heifer calf
    at 13 when the transaction – including calf shipment – was made through the
    mail. As they sifted through records, photos, and transactions, they found
    letters written by Merle for all of his livestock pursuits.

    On his Greendale Stock Farm letterhead, a 14-year-old Merle
    Green wrote a letter to M.J. Prince in Bloomer, Wisconsin trying to sell a choice
    boar of the litter of his Duroc Jersey Hogs. 
    He enclosed a pedigree of the hogs and said the mother to these boars was
    the best brood sow that he had ever owned, and he would sell a pick of the
    boars for $45.

    Did this young Merle Green have any idea of the legacy he
    would leave in his wake?  Did he know
    that Greendale Stock Farm now known as Green Meadow Farms would host a century
    celebration where his efforts would be displayed, and his hard work and
    tenacity admired? When he was applying for a lifetime membership to the
    Holstein-Friesian Association of American on February 13, 1919, did he know
    that Green Meadow Farms would be the largest Registered Holstein Herd in the
    country?

    As a teenager Merle had no idea he would have two sons,
    Duane and Velmar who would take the leadership of the farm, have a record-holding
    cow named Green Meadow Lily Pabst, be one of the first farms in the country to
    install a methane digester while exhibiting champion cattle from Michigan to Tennessee
    to Tulsa and every state in between.

    I’m sure Merle never envisioned a governor who would celebrate
    his accomplishments, a herd sire flown in from California or thousands of
    visitors descending on his brick tie-stall barns to witness firsthand the
    fruits of his decades of labor.

    People like Merle take one step at a time as they move toward
    their dream of owning a farm complete with champion livestock. They aren’t inhibited
    by fear of failure.  They are not limited
    by their age nor are they concerned with social norms.

    When I visited with Velmar at the centennial celebration, he
    said there should always be something going, you can’t just stay the same as he
    pointed to a piece of equipment that was the beginning of a new biodigester
    with carbon credit technology. They will be one of three farms in Michigan to
    install this new biodigester.

    As the farm continues into the next century under the
    leadership of Craig and Darcy Green, they will lead the way in adopting new
    technology while remembering the value in exhibiting cattle, merchandising genetics,
    and serving the industry on local boards and state associations. 

    Green Meadow Farms: “Where the Latch String is Always Out”