11-year-old Holstein owner ranks ninth in nation
Evan Strack, 11, doesn’t need to talk much about his registered Holsteins. The awards he’s won for their highquality milk say enough.
This past summer, the sixth-grader at Colby Middle School earned two “Cream of the Crop National Awards” from Holstein Association USA. He was notified in June of the awards his cows earned.
“I was just really excited,” he said.
The awards earned him an invitation to the National Holstein Convention in Pennsylvania; unfortunately, he and his family were too busy with their latest crop of hay to make the trip in late June.
As a junior member of Holstein Association, Evan gets his cows’ milk tested on a monthly basis by the association. The ranking is based on the milk’s combined fat and protein content.
“They take the total pounds of protein and the total pounds of fat produced in one lactation, add them together, and you get your ranking that way,” his father, Robert, explains.
One of Evan’s cows, Princess, ranked ninth in the nation among all of the Junior Holstein members. Another cow, a daughter of Princess named Poppy, ranked 40th in the nation. The top 10 ranking earned him the invite to the national convention.
Besides raising and caring for the animals, the young dairyman also plays a crucial role in developing their genetic profile.
Evan does the sire selection for all of his own Holsteins, so when it’s time for artificial insemination, his father brings in the list of all the available bulls and lets Evan pick.
“So, these are the result of his own selections,” he said.
The original Holstein in Evan’s miniature herd, Queen, was purchased by his grandfather, Wil Strack, at the lastever Marathon County Holstein sale held in Athens. The calf he purchased was part of the fundraising effort for the Tiffany Langteau Memorial Calf Grant.
From Queen came Princess, and from Princess came Poppy and others, including Poppacy, Possum and Poppop.
“They’re all P’s,” Robert said.
Although Evan will often devote a lot of thought and consideration to the breeding of his Holsteins, other times he’ll add a cow to his collection based solely on a whim. That was the case with “Silly,” a cow he bought from his parents when she was still just an awkward calf.
“She was running around in her pen, and she has kind of goofy eyes,” his dad recalls. “Right away he named her ‘Silly’ and said ‘I want to buy that one.’” When asked what it takes to raise a good Holstein, Evan says its all about providing the right food and the right care.
“Making sure where it lives and rests is in nice condition,” he said. “Making sure it doesn’t get sick, and if it does get sick, you take good care of them and get them better.”
The Stracks currently milk 115 Holsteins, with another 115 young stock at their New Day Dairy east of Abbotsford.
Just about every member of the Strack family has their own animals somewhere on the farm. Evan’s older brother, Manny, owns a couple of goats and cows, and within the herd are cows owned by his grandfather and his aunt, Leah Haas.
“By the time it’s all said and done, when you go through and count them, there’s not many left that are mine,” Robert says, laughing. “Everybody’s got their thing.”
The tradition of owning Holsteins goes back at least three generations in the family, with Evan’s grandfather having been a member of the national association for over 50 years.
One of their most prized Holsteins is Arugula. Purchased at the Purple Ribbon Classic Sale, she is the granddaughter to “one of most world’s most famous cows,” named Africa, Robert said. Arugula is mother to America.
Robert said the Stracks are committed Holstein owners, and he’s proud to see his son carrying on the tradition.
“As a dairy breed, for us they’ve been the most productive,” he said. “We actually have one Jersey in the herd, and we’ve had other breeds in the past, but the Holsteins have been the most productive and kind of fit our system, sizewise.”
