Junior Spotlight
2024 Hellenbrand Lasting Legacy Award
We are excited to announce the winner and finalists of the 2024 Hellenbrand Lasting Legacy Award!
We surprised Wesley Winch from Fennimore, WI in his SWTC animal science class to announce he was chosen as this year’s recipient of a December Brown Swiss heifer calf from the 2017 WDE Brown Swiss Grand Champion Top Acres Supreme Wizard. The heifer is owned and bred by Wayne and Connie Sliker, Top Acres in St. Paris, OH.
Pictured are: Ryan Weigel, Wesley Winch, Linda Hellenbrand 
Wesley is currently a senior at Fennimore High School, and is taking animal science classes at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. He also works as a hoof trimmer apprentice, and at his family’s Winch’s Pine Grove Farm in Fennimore, WI where the calf will reside. Wesley will be expertly guided by his designated mentor, Ryan Weigel, from Platteville, WI. Ryan is an Animal Science instructor at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College.
This year’s runner up was Mattea Quigley from Hastings, MN. The three finalists, Taryn Burns, Whiting, VT; Alex Roe, Monticello, WI, and Shelby Swanson, Hutchinson, MN. Each received a monetary award in recognition of their accomplishments. We thank all who applied this year and encourage you to reapply beginning October 1, 2024 for the 2025 award – a Red & White heifer from a WDE R & W Grand Champion owned by Milk Source LLC, Kaukauna, WI.
The Hellenbrand Lasting Legacy Award (HLLA) will be 50% ownership in a calf, born from a recent World Dairy Expo breed champion. An aspiring and deserving high school student will have the opportunity to own, develop and show a valuable dairy calf. The award will conclude with the calf’s consignment to the World Classic Sale at World Dairy Expo. The awardee will receive half of the proceeds from the sale or, if the awardee chooses to retain the calf, the HLLA Board will help find a buyer willing to donate the calf back to the awardee. The 2024 HLLA will be a Brown Swiss calf out of Top Acres Supreme Wizard, the 2017 WDE Brown Swiss Grand Champion. Subsequent awards will be selected from other dairy breeds on a rotational basis.
The purpose of the award is to continue the legacy of Mike Hellenbrand and honor the work of Mike and his wife, Linda. This award is meant to present an opportunity to an interested and motivated high school student that might not otherwise be available. By participating in the experience of raising a dairy calf from a previous World Dairy Expo champion, nurturing her genetic potential, and presenting her in the show ring, it is hoped that the winning individual will become a working partner in raising, showing, breeding and promoting an animal with valuable breed-leading genetics.