While it was a fairly warm day today, convention goers were treated to a full array of farm tours, Ozark food and tremendous hospitality during the Host Day Tour program.

Groves-View Dairy
The first farm stop for many was to Groves-View, the home of Brad & Todd Graves and their families. Established in 1913, the herd’s most recent BAA in May, 2012 was 108%. The herd is mainly Holstein, but they do also work with a number of Brown Swiss.

Groves-Vu Blitz Lassie (EX-93 2E) from Groves-Vu Nation Lotus (EX-94 4E GMD-DOM).

At left is Dixie-Lee Jons Morty Aurene (EX-92 2E) and Groves-View TD Peach (2E-E91).

We’re not in Pennsylvania anymore! Ray McMillan and Dave Bitler catch up.

The calm before the storm – members of the Polk County (WI) dairy bowl team enjoy a day off from studying.

Dick Wright (NY), Reid Hoover (PA) and Dean Jackson (PA) talk things over with Lonnie Groves.

Robthom Holsteins has been a family-owned business for the Thomsons for over 100 years, and today there are still four generations working on the farm together. To date, they have bred over 380 Excellent cows and over 10 Gold Medal Sires.

Another feature at the Robthom farm stop was a full sale lineup for the “You’re It Tag Sale” that runs through July 1.

Robthom has received the Progressive Breeders Registry award for 56 consecutive years. It’s a must-stop herd that’s extremely close to Springfield.

The original sign from today’s “College of the Ozarks” was the School of the Ozarks and after a renaming, this early sign was moved to Point Lookout on campus.

The tour goers enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch featuring several Ozark specialities in the beautiful Agricultural Center building.

Chapel on the campus of College of the Ozarks

Jim & Kelly Rickert of Wisconsin enjoy the view at Point Lookout

The Tractor Museum featured a large number of impeccably restored tractors including this 1949 Ford 8N.

Beautiful milking parlor on the campus. All of the buildings used for the dairy herd have been built in the last 25 years. As of April, 2012, the school now offers a dairy science degree.

Sixty cow freestall barn had plenty of fans running on a warm day in southern Missouri.

The original Holstein herd was run under the ownership of W. Alton Jones.

Following College of the Ozarks, all of the tour goers met at the Branson Belle Showboat. The large paddleboat circumnavigates Table Rock Lake while passengers enjoy dinner and a show.

Keystone State visitors Nina & Jim Burdette and Steve and Chrissy Wood take their turn at the front railing.

Learning from the captain in the pilot house!

The Branson Belle was a very enjoyable way to wrap up the day’s tour!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 10:15 pm by kknutsen and is filed under 2012 National Convention, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.