BRIGHTON — After five years of sitting on the sidelines, Canadian dairy breeders have left American cattlemen in awe at the 2008 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

"Where you been the last five years?" a mystified Yankee drawled.

"Practising," responded a laconic owner Andrew Vander Meulen.

Andrew’s wife, Jennifer, describes the champion as "an extremely balanced cow with a tremendous mammary system."

In an earlier Ontario show, a judge announced: "She’s as big as a truck but walks like a cat."

This is the first year since BSE closed the border in 2003 that Canadian cattle have competed in the international competition. More than 200 Canadian cattle from seven provinces competed in a field of 2,657. The international show, included about five exhibitors from eastern Ontario, including Brian Enright, of Winchester.

This year’s grand champion Jersey is owned by Jim and Elizabeth Livock, of Avonlea Genetics and Andrew and Jennifer (Livocks’s daughter) Vander Meulen, as well as Cybil Fisher, of Wisconsin. The Livock family moved to Brighton eight years ago after development crowded them off their Oakville farm.

Made Me Giggle was bred on Alexvale Farm in Milton and bought by Avonlea at the Sale of Stars at the Royal.

Made Me Giggle was also named senior champion female and grand champion female at the Central National Jersey Show on October 1. There were 429 entries in the Jersey Show.

Genetics accounts for 50 per cent of Avonlea Genetics’ income; the farm sells embryos to 16 different countries and hosts high-end jersey sales. The 2006 Jersey elite sale on their farm averaged just under $6,000. Avonlea has won grand champion at three Ontario shows this year, and has bred 80 All Canadian cows in the last 10 years.

The farm has won two master breeder awards, an enormous achievement since only one award is given a year and a farm may win only once in 20 years.

"Our passion is brown cows," Jennifer says.

The other Canadian to dominate at this year’s World Dairy Expo was eastern Quebec farmer, Pierre Boulet, who is also known in eastern Ontario circles for competing in shows like the Kemptville Classic Holstein Show. Boulet’s seven-year-old Holstein Thrulane James Rose, an Excellent 97 point cow, was named World Dairy Expo’s Supreme Champion 2008.

World Dairy Expo is North America’s top show.