A sweet, curious Surprise

SLEEPY EYE, Minn. — As the leaves fall and the temperature drops, young cattle enthusiasts can anticipate Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway.

This year, one of the calves youths can win is Olmar Rocket Surprise, provided by Brian and Jill Nelson of Olmar Farms near Sleepy Eye.

“She is very sweet,” Jill Nelson said. “Her pen is right next to the water fountain, so she gets pet a lot more than the other calves, so she is already spoiled. When we got her out of the pen, she was spunky and curious.”

Surprise has 11 generations of Excellent or Very Good cows behind her dam, Olmar Helix Sansi. Sansi herself was classified a Good Plus as a two-year-old. Surprise is sired by Terra-Linda Rocket-ET.

Nelson said Surprise should be a nice project calf to show, and also a productive cow a young person can develop and breed.

Surprise and her herd mates are bred according to the Nelson herd motto: Find your future herd here. When considering genetics, Nelson said she pays attention to what would be a good addition to other farms if they were to buy an animal.

“We have sold many animals for farm expansions and people come back and say, ‘The best decision we ever made was buying cows from you guys,’ because it is a good foundation for their herd,” Nelson said. “Hopefully this calf will (do the same) for somebody.”

Surprise’s family was welcomed to Olmar farms in the early 1990s when Nelson’s dad bought embryos from Regancrest Holsteins LLC.

“We got to be good friends with the Regans from Waukon, Iowa,” Nelson said. “We always really admired (their cattle) when we competed against them, so my dad bought in.”

Besides watching Surprise’s relatives be shown, the Nelsons also experienced showing them once they started breeding them into the herd.

Surprise is the seventh generation of this cow family born at Olmar Farms to carry the Olmar prefix. Though many have been show-worthy Nelson said, opportunities to exhibit them have not always presented themselves.

“There are others that could have been shown in the past,” Nelson said. “We just didn’t have enough people to show (them all). They have been a nice addition to the herd though.”

All matings are made with a focus on production and type.

“(This family has) been a nice addition to the herd,” Nelson said. “We don’t give up (production or type) to get the other. I don’t like cows that don’t milk, and I don’t like (non-show) cows.”

A well-rounded cow with functional type, production and longevity is what Nelson aims for.

“I want real results in every area,” Nelson said. “That has always been a part of breeding a registered herd, paying close attention to genetics, family lines and much more than what the paper shows.”

Nelson’s grandpa was the first person in the family to start registering their animals about 80 years ago. It is a practice Nelson has continued.

“The information we get from the Holstein Association is valuable to us,” Nelson said. “It helps us diversify and we enjoy the registered business.”

The herd at Olmar Farms has 130 registered Holsteins milked in a double-8 herringbone parlor. The rolling herd average is around 30,000 pounds milk with tests of 4.0% butterfat and 3.2%-3.3% protein. Nelson is the fifth generation on the farm.

“I’m excited to be a part of (Dairy Star’s Great Christmas Giveaway) and I hope a lot of kids sign up,” Nelson said.