Two families think of the cost of exhibiting in Madison as an investment, not an expense
| Kelli Cull, of Budjon Farms, Lomira, Wis., brings two dozen Holsteins and Jerseys to Expo each year. |
No doubt about it. Bringing an entire string of topflight dairy cattle for a weeklong stay at the world’s premier dairy cattle show requires a tremendous commitment of time, energy and, yes, money on the part of exhibitors.
Kelli Cull, co-owner of Budjon Farms, near Lomira, Wis., starts planning for the next year’s Expo immediately after the current show is finished. The pace of planning and organizing usually begins picking up in early August.
“For two solid months, it just consumes us,” says Kelli, who serves as spokesperson for a family management team that also includes her husband, Tom, and Tom’s parents, John and Mary Cull.
The Culls milk 80 Holsteins and Jerseys. “There are just so many details to keep track of—how you’re going to get all the animals and feed to Madison, what kinds of things you’ll want to do for the barn display, how you’re going to feed the crew, and on and on. It’s a lot of work,” Kelli says.
Planning for Expo is also a year-round undertaking for Guernsey and Brown Swiss exhibitors John and Bonnie Ayars, of Land of Living Farm and New View Swiss Farm, near Mechanicsburg, Ohio.
“You find yourself thinking about it every day of the year,” says John, who notes that the couple has been exhibiting cattle at Expo since the late 1970s. “Some detail is always crawling into your mind: What animals will be suitable for the show? What will we need for our barn display? Did I make the hotel reservation? There’s always something you’re trying to get nailed down.”
| Planning for Expo is a year-round undertaking for John and Bonnie Ayars, who raise registered Guernseys and Brown Swiss near Mechanicsburg, Ohio. |
Budgeting is a major part of the planning process for both families. The Ayarses point to cattle transportation as one of their biggest costs. John and another driver transport their show string in a farm-owned semi truck. A farm pickup pulls a trailer loaded with hay, bedding, barn display materials and other gear. The trip from the farm to Madison typically takes nine to 10 hours.
“We used to do just pickups and trailers, but it would take four or five trailers to get all the animals and everything else up here,” John explains. “Having our own 18-wheeler and driving it ourselves is a big plus on the expense side of things.”
While the Culls’ Budjon Farms is just an hour and 15 minutes’ drive from Madison, fuel costs still add up. “It takes us four to five trips with pickup trucks and trailers to get all the animals, feed, bedding and tack to the Expo grounds,” Kelli says.
Labor is another big-ticket budget item. Last year, the Ayarses brought an eight-person crew to look after the 15 Guernsey and Brown Swiss cattle they took to Expo. Four crew members were volunteers and four were paid employees. “Each paid worker gets $150 per day plus room and board,” John says. “Over the course of a week to 10 days, it’s a pretty significant cost.”
To handle the two dozen or so Holsteins and Jerseys they bring to Expo each year, the Culls have a crew of around 15 people. Along with family members and farm employees, the crew includes Joel Kietzman (a partner in Budjon’s Elegance cow family), a public-relations person and a top-notch cattle fitter brought in from Australia just for Expo. “To bring him [the fitter] over here for the week is in the $3,000 to $3,500 range by the time you figure in his fee, flight, hotel and food,” Kelli says. “It’s a major expense, but he’s worth every penny of it.”
Lodging and food expenses can also add up quickly over the course of the week. To help hold the line on lodging costs, the Culls house their crew in two multibedroom apartments located just five minutes from the Expo grounds.
“We think we have the best deal in Madison,” Kelli says, noting that the family pays less than $2,000 total for the apartments for the week. “If we had to rent seven or eight hotel rooms, we’d be spending at least half that in a single night. We sign the contracts on the apartments a year in advance.”
Kelli adds that, for several years, the Culls made use of a catering service to provide an evening meal for the entire crew. Last year, though, a change in the labor force freed up Kelli and crew member Perry Phend to prepare and serve a breakfast and dinner each day.
“Everyone is on their own for lunch because of our crazy schedule during the day,” Kelli explains. “But there are always leftovers and fixings for sandwiches in our fridge if someone wants those. We saved $1,200 doing it this way versus hiring the caterer or taking everybody out to eat.”
Even so, Kelli says, the food and beverage tab for the week approached $2,000. “The barn is such a social place and we usually end up with a few other people joining us for meals. “We’ll be grilling something. Somebody we know will come up, and we’ll hand them a plate and something to drink.”
The Ayarses prefer to “splurge a bit” on lodging, reserving three rooms for the week at the Clarion Inn on the Expo grounds. “We see it as kind of an extravagance, but we like being close to the barns and all of the activities going on around the grounds,” says Bonnie, who also attends Expo as an adviser for the Ohio State University collegiate and 4-H dairy cattle judging teams. “The days at the show can get kind of long. It’s nice being able to just walk back to the hotel when you’re all done for the day and put your feet up.”
A variety of other expenses also comes into play. Kelli Cull says she’s learned over the years to include an “unexpected” category in her budget. “We’ve had cows get sick while we were in Madison, and we’ve had to go to the [University of Wisconsin] veterinary school,” she says. “It might not sound like a big deal. But that can cost $500 to $1,000 or more, depending on how sick the animal gets.”
Money for promotional and advertising materials—including ferns and other decorations for the barn display, farm advertising brochures, and coffee cups, jackets and T-shirts carrying the farm logo—is also factored into the budget.
“Being at World Dairy Expo sets the tone for our marketing program for the entire year,” Bonnie says. “This is our big chance to reach potential customers.”
The Ayarses figure that by the time they add in miscellaneous costs like veterinary expenses, cattle photography and a few Expo souvenirs, they’ll have spent between $10,000 and $12,000 for the week. “It generally works out to somewhere around $1,000 per head,” John says. “What we’ve observed over the years is that everybody has their own way of doing it. Some people will spend huge dollars. Others will take more of a camp-out approach and spend very little. We figure we’re somewhere right in the middle of the pack.”
Even so, the Ayarses are quick to point out that they have no qualms about the expenses associated with exhibiting at Expo. “This is the biggest and best dairy cattle show in the entire U.S.,” John says. “There’s nothing close to it. This is where you have to be if you want people to see that your cattle are among the very best.”
Kelli Cull offers a similar assessment. “About 40% of our yearly income at the farm comes from
selling genetics,” she says. “In this business, it’s all about getting people to believe in your cattle. The best way to get them to believe is to have those cattle on display at an event like World Dairy Expo and make sure they’re looking their absolute best.
“We don’t think of the money we spend here as an expense,” she adds. “It’s an investment. You have to spend money to make money.”
