East Central/Select Sires held their annual awards banquet on June 2, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza in Madison, Wis. The evening consisted of a social hour, dinner, a message from the board of directors and presentation of the performance and service awards.

Jay Ludeman of Lake Mills took home top honors by being named Area Sales Manager (ASM) of the Year. He was also honored for earning the highest Area Direct Herd Unit Percent Increase, Area Diversified Product Volume and Area Diversified Product Percent Increase. Ludeman provides artificial insemination services and offers semen and product sales to dairy and beef producers in parts of Jefferson, Rock, Walworth, Green and Dane counties and supervises seven Member Service Representatives in his region.

Runner-up ASM of the Year was Region A headed by Brian Kelroy and Eric Westphal. Region A was awarded for having the highest Area Direct Herd Unit Volume, Area Total Unit Volume and SMS Volume. Kelroy of Marshall is an ASM with East Central/Select Sires and offers semen and product sales to dairy and beef producers. Westphal of Eden is a Select Mating Service (SMS) Evaluator.

Kurt Barnes of Kiel was honored with the Member Service Representative (MSR) of the Year Award. Barnes received several awards that contributed to him winning the MSR of the Year, including Area Direct Herd Unit Volume, SMS Volume and Area Contribution. In addition, he was honored for reaching his 130,000 first services milestone. Barnes provides artificial insemination services and offers semen and product sales to dairy and beef producers in Fond du Lac County.

Doug Rake of Freedom received the Runner-up MSR of the Year Award. He was also honored at the banquet for earning a 90,000 services certificate. Rake provides artificial insemination services and offers semen and product sales to dairy and beef producers in parts of Sauk County.

The Outstanding Effort Awards are given to employees who go above and beyond the call of duty every day. The Outstanding Effort Award for an MSR was presented to Matt Staner of Platteville. Scott Nelson of South Wayne received the Outstanding Effort Award for Relief MSRs. The Outstanding Effort Award for Other Employees was presented to Eric Westphal of Eden.

Ranking first in other categories of sales and service were:

• Steve Kacuba, Beaver Dam
  o Personal Total Service Volume
  o Area Total Service Volume
  o Accounts Receivable

• Matt Staner, Platteville
  o Personal Total Service Percent Increase
  o Area Total Service Percent Increase
  o Accounts Receivable
  o Area Direct Herd Unit Percent Increase
  o Area Total Unit Percent Increase
  o Personal Diversified Product Percent Increase

• Dave Hahn, Campbellsport
  o Personal Diversified Product Volume
  o Area Total Unit Volume

• Tom Budde, Beaver Dam
  o Semen Blend

• Loren Polkinghorn, Dodgeville
  o Semen Blend Percent Increase

• Glen Stewart, Lomira
  o Personal Total Unit Volume
  o Accounts Receivable

• Kevin Cox, Sparta
  o Personal Total Unit Percent Increase
  o Area Total Unit Percent Increase

Awards for total lifetime first-service inseminations were also presented. They were:

• 170,000
  o Tom Budde, Beaver Dam

• 150,000
  o Howie Minnema, Fond du Lac
  o Dave Hahn, Cambellsport

• 140,000
  o Bob Boatman, Darlington

• 130,000
  o Kurt Barnes, Kiel

• 100,000
  o Steve Kacuba, Beaver Dam

• 90,000
  o Doug Rake, Freedom
  o Chris Meyer, Loganville
  o Kevin Farnsworth, Deerfield

• 80,000
  o Dale Griebenow, Watertown
  o Steve Otteson, Arlington

• 70,000
  o Road Alton, Monroe

• 60,000
  o Glen Kottke, Fond du Lac
  o Dan Potterton, Mineral Point
  o Brian Immel, Cambellsport

• 50,000
  o Eric Gudex, Oakfield
  o Aaron McMillan, Oshkosh
  o Nate Watson, Elkhorn
  o Roger Belling, Fond du Lac

• 40,000
  o Sandy Hoppmann, Wilton

• 30,000
  o Casey Degnitz, Fredonia
  o Jim Membler, Pickett

• 20,000
  o Ryan Besaw, Omro
  o Bill Daentl, Portage

• 10,000
  o Jim Suddeth, Stoughton
  o Zach Warnes, Spring Green
  o Don Bahr, Platteville

Recognition was also given to employees for length of service milestones:

• 30 years
  o Frank Blahnik, Cuba City
  o Kevin Farnsworth, Deerfield

• 25 years
  o Bryan Witt, Browntown

• 20 years
  o Dan Potterton, Mineral Point
  o Dan Reilly, La Valle
  o Kurt Barnes, Kiel
  o Darwin Clifton, Potosi
  o Kim Smith, Waupun

• 15 years
  o Kitty Richter, Waupun

• 10 years
  o Loren Polkinghorn, Dodgeville
  o Phil Dieter, Middleton

• 5 years
  o Wayne Dieter, Platteville
  o Bill Daentl, Portage
  o Eric Westphal, Eden

East Central/Select Sires is a professional, artificial breeding cooperatives serving dairy and livestock producers in southern Wisconsin. As a member-owner of Select Sires located near Plain City, Ohio, East Central/Select Sires helps make up the largest Artificial Insemination (A.I.) cooperative in the world. They provide highly fertile semen as well as excellence in service and programs to achieve its basic objective of supplying livestock breeders with America's best genetics at a reasonable price.

6.08.2012