Editor’s Note: Celebrating the life and legacy of Katie Coyne. We sat down for an interview with Katie Coyne and her daughter Kelly Reynolds at World Dairy Expo last year. Katie was able to review and put the final touches on the article prior to passing away on May 1, 2025. The impact Katie has had on both World Dairy Expo and the global dairy industry will live on for generations to come. To preserve her words and respect the story she told, this article appears exactly as Katie last saw it.
Dedication, resilience, optimism and fortitude are the makings of a true leader and role model. These are also a few of the words that describe one of dairy’s most dedicated leaders: Katie Coyne.
From showing with her family at World Dairy Expo in the ’70s to spending entire weeks in the ring leading cattle for others, to nurturing a passion for dairy among her own children and those in her home county, Coyne’s energy and excitement for dairy has spread across the U.S. and Canada and has taken root in each of the many youth she has worked with.
Expo Showmanship
“When I was a kid, we always showed, and showmanship was our big thing,” Coyne recalls. “We were so fortunate that my dad was really into showing, and then in the early ’80s here at Expo, I showed tons of cattle for people. I literally wore white pants for five days in a row and was in the ring the whole time — and that kept going.”
A few years down the road, Coyne played an integral role in the earliest forms of the showmanship contest at World Dairy Expo. When the contest was first established, she would bring kids from her county to participate, and that evolved to being part of the committee.
“And then one year, Ted Halbach asked me to just take it over, and I did that as superintendent for 20 years,” Coyne says. Under her leadership, the contest grew into an international competition. The fitting contest grew right along with it, becoming a standalone event with age and gender divisions.
Expanded Impact: Mill Wheel Show Clinics
Coyne’s leadership and success with the World Dairy Expo contests only speaks to a small part of her dedication to growth for dairy youth.
“There comes a time in the show industry, where you kind of need to figure out what your next role is going to be, especially for an older woman,” she says. “I just thought that this was my skill: teaching showmanship. I had fit cattle for years and years, so I could teach kids the basics of fitting, and then every single point of showmanship. So, I just kind of took that idea and ran with it.”
Coyne began traveling the country, sharing her wisdom through Mill Wheel Show Clinics. Since 2018, thousands of kids have benefited from the showing techniques she has taught. And while the kids learn to conduct themselves and their animals according to the PDCA guidelines in the showring, greater lessons are at play.
“I’m going to teach you how to show cattle today,” Coyne tells the kids. “But this isn’t about showing cattle. This is about learning how to present yourself, stand up straight, look people in the eye. You know the dedication it takes to keep going and persevering at whatever you’re doing.”
There are three important takeaways Coyne wants to leave with each group.
“One, you’ve got to make your heifer look as good as she can. Two, you have to know the rules, and three, you have to have fun while doing it,” she says.
There’s so much in the showring that’s beyond the showman’s control, but as a judge, Coyne says she’s looking for the one who stays calm, cool and collected no matter what’s going on.
“It’s how you handle the situation you’re given. We get to learn it in the showring, and then apply it to real life,” Coyne says. “That’s the thing about having fun: A lot of times I’ll tell kids if you’re just going to get so nervous and worked up, you’ve got to decide if this is really something you love to do, or you’re just trying to get in there to win.
She adds, “Because you’re not going to win every time, and that’s how life is, too.”
A Family Legacy
Part of Coyne’s success with Mill Wheel Show Clinics can be attributed to the admirable example set by her own daughters in the showring.
“A big thing in our family is ‘keep your head in the ring,’” says Coyne’s daughter, Kelly Reynolds. “I was fortunate to love showing, and I think my sister was in the top 10 here several times. I’ve won intermediate and senior showmanship here, too. And through our success, I think that helped grow the business, and it’s also why other kids would ask us to help them.”
As an international judge and showman for both showmanship and type shows, Reynolds inherited her mother’s passion.
“I love when you have a really tough class where a lot of kids are doing very well,” she says. “And even when it’s not a tough class, I always tell kids, every time you walk into the ring, it’s an opportunity to learn something, either about how you’re showing or what your heifer needs. I’ve been fortunate to judge some really great contests.”
In 2024, Coyne served as one of the judges for the showmanship contest finals.
“It was so much fun. My whole family was there. Everyone in our family is really involved here at Expo as cattle exhibitors, commercial exhibitors, my brother and his two kids help with the judging contest and stuff,” she says. “I believe there were five or six youth out there in the supreme class who have been to a clinic at some point, some of them a while ago and some recently, so that was kind of fun, too.”
The lessons in dedication, resilience, optimism and fortitude that Coyne has committed to teaching her family and the greater dairy community have made a profound impact. She has gone far more than the extra mile for dairy youth, and these are characteristics that will continue to shine across the dairy industry — both inside and outside of the showring for years to come.
