This article was featured in our Fall issue, written by Julie Ashton.
The Brown Swiss breed has always had a remarkable track record of list-topping sires hailing from show-type pedigrees. Throughout the years, some of the biggest sire names in the breed have a foundation dam that was a National show winner or multiple All-American award winner.
Charles and Nancy Voelker of Perryville, Missouri enjoyed showing cattle, but also recognized the financial need to put milk in the bulk tank and structured their breeding program to those goals. One of the cows that really put them on the map has also brought their prefix to the attention of many other breeders through the sons that the cow family has now put into A.I.
Voelkers Miguel Candid ‘4E-94’ won the 5-year-old class at Madison, and was named All-American 5-Year-Old in 2009 – the same year she made her biggest production record of 33,090M 5.1% 1,673F 3.6% 1,189P. A high index cow for her day, her offspring were in demand from the start and she was mated to Top Acres C Wonderment. A resulting son, Voelkers Wonderment Chilli Pepper has been a popular A.I. sire since 2013. A Wonderment daughter, Voelkers Wndrmt Carabella ‘E-90’ has records to 32,000M and is the dam of the Webster Ridge TD son, Voelkers TD Carter.
Carter is a culmination of the Voelkers breeding plan that focuses on show type and udder composite along with increased milk production and high net merit (+200 or more). He entered AI with New Generation Genetics and they started selling semen from him in April of 2011. By August, 2015 he was ranked the #1 Type bull and has held that position for 13 consecutive proof runs through the current August 2019 run!
His first offspring nominated for All-American Rockstar Carter Fergie, a junior 2-year-old in 2014. His All-American nomination pace has accelerated since then. In 2018, he sired a breed-leading 10 All-American nominations and was the Premier Sire of the Heifer Show at the International Brown Swiss Show.
His daughter, Wind Mill Carter Snow Angel, twice All-American and the Reserve Junior Champion of the show was a contributor to that Premier Sire banner. He also sired the Reserve Grand Champion of the Junior Show – Jenlar Carter Waltz, a Very Good-89 2-year-old.
Sires from show-winning pedigrees siring show winners may not be a big shocker, but more interesting is his impressive production proof numbers: +1226M +37F +26P. His type proof has stayed consistently at +1.4T or +1.5T since his daughters began calving. To date, he has sired 34 EX cows and 41 EX udders with another 175 daughters scored VG – a total of 397 scored for an average daughter score of 84.7. Known for dairy size and strength as well as outstanding mammary systems, his type numbers look secure for several runs to come as his daughters continue to enter the system.
Show Daughters:
- Jenlar Carter Waltz ETV ‘V89’ – Nominated All-American Junior 2-Year-Old 2018
- Voelkers Carter Rachel ‘E90’ – Reserve All-American Junior 3-Year-Old 2019
- Wind Mill Carter Snow Angel – All-American Spring Yearling 2018; All-American Spring Calf 2017
- Bradner 4G Carter Triumph – All-American Winter Calf 2018
- All Glo Carter Popsicle – Reserve All-American Fall Calf 2018
- Brown Heaven Carter Tutti – Reserve All-American Summer Yearling 2018