When Zachary Damrow first moved to Idaho, youth involvement in the dairy show industry was very minimal – and over the years, it continued to decline. After he and his wife had their two children, Callen and Dawson, Damrow felt inspired to ensure there would be something meaningful for them to be a part of.
He found himself asking what he could do to help make dairy youth programs available by the time his kids were old enough to show. Utah had much better participation in doing youth activities at the time. So Damrow spent a lot of time talking and working with Maria Nye of Mountain View Dairy in Delta, Utah, and Justin Jenson, who is a dairy youth specialist for Utah State Extension in Logan, Utah.
“Those two, especially Justin who I now have become close friends with, really inspired me to do more,” Damrow says. “They were always my biggest supporters when I first really started going out of my way to help others. So many people did that for me in Wisconsin and the dairy industry is so big not to try and share it with others.”
When Damrow started this youth work about four years ago, he had a core group of seven to nine kids. After taking some kids to local activities, Damrow was elected as the Idaho Holstein Association president. He then took a group of Utah and Idaho kids – who had only shown at their county fairs but had expressed an interest in show cattle – to Colorado, giving them an amazing experience.
“Hats off to all the people who put on the Colorado Dairy Youth Extravaganza every year and allow hundreds of kids from multiple states to attend,” Damrow says. “Finally, those kids had some friends interested and it’s been a domino effect ever since.”
The next year, Damrow followed up the Colorado trip with a visit to Tulare, California, for the Western Classic Dairy Show, which was another memorable event put on by California breeders in the area.
“The past several years, I have tried to take as many kids as possible to the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin,” Damrow says. “I want them to experience the best show in the world and even participate in the showmanship contest so that they can say they have been on the colored shavings.”
Damrow and Porte families with their partnership heifers at World Dairy Expo 2023. Image provided by Zachary Damrow.
One of Damrow’s favorite aspects about working with dairy youth is giving kids the experience they normally would not have coming from Idaho.
“We live in a large commercial herd area, and really getting exposure to showing cattle and participating in youth dairy events are few and far between here,” Damrow says. “Helping the youth grow in their skills and decision-making as cattle owners is really neat too.”
Damrow takes dairy youth to three to four shows a year. Now, some parents have started taking the initiative to bring their kids to more events – which is all he could ask for.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to share my passion with youth today and give them real-world experiences from someone who has traveled and done a lot in regard to exhibiting cattle elsewhere than the county fair,” Damrow says. “The kids have taught me a lot too, along with their parents.”
Through his work with kids, Damrow has gained a deeper appreciation for the challenges dairy families face every day.
“It has really taught me that people in the dairy industry are some of the most resilient people there are,” Damrow says. “We go through so much daily, whether it’s just managing the day-to-day activities on the farm, to managing children with club sports and religious activities. On top of that, how markets and trading affect what can and can’t be done every year. We all support each other through thick and thin, and life and death.”
A year ago, Damrow and Jenson created the Intermountain Junior Dairy Club Facebook group, and a webpage was created by a couple of parents. This has now caught the eye of several parents and industry professionals. Damrow hopes to see continued involvement and knowledge being passed on to new people. He encourages anyone in the intermountain area who wants to get involved to connect with them on social media.
“I would like to thank my boss Greg Andersen for seeing the need for youth activities and letting me do them as much as I want,” Damrow says. “Even though his kids aren’t really interested, he still lets me go judge county fairs and take kids to these shows out of state.”
AOB Show at the Weber County Dairy Days 2025. Twenty-eight Ayrshires were exhibited. Image provided by Zachary Damrow
Another large part of Damrow’s youth involvement was getting the Idaho State 4-H dairy judging contest back up and running.
“The committee of people who helped get it going again after 30 years do not get enough credit for all their hard work. I’d love to give a shout out to Scott Nash, Rudi and Anne DeWinkle, Jennifer Johnson, Natasha Tienhaara, Cindy Kinder and Debbie Lowber,” Damrow says. “It has been a real pleasure working with everyone on this committee, and our hopes for growing it really makes working with these individuals a lot of fun.”
Damrow is from a small dairy farm in rural Dodge County in Wisconsin. He moved to eastern Idaho in 2014 and started working at Seagull Bay Dairy, where he also followed his passion for breeding dairy cattle and founded Blackstone Genetics, which has allowed him to connect with dairy youth.
“I was very fortunate to have grown up in an area in Wisconsin that was rich in youth development in the dairy industry,” Damrow says. “I had many mentors from Dodge County, such as Bob Kaiser and Bonnie Borden, my county extension specialists; Todd Wendorf, Jon Powers, Lynn Harbaugh and Kevin Jorgenson, who were a few of my dairy judging coaches; and Butch Ridge, Travis Smith and my sister Sarah Damrow, who served as chaperones for our state fair junior show string.”
As a youth, Damrow was actively involved in 4-H, FFA and Dodge County Jr Holsteins. He was also a junior member of both the American Milking Shorthorn Society and the Ayrshire Breeders Association.
“We showed our cattle at county, state and national levels, with my junior highlights being Grand Champion Ayrshire at the junior show at World Dairy Expo in 2007 and Supreme Champion at the Wisconsin Junior State Fair with Cedarvale Black China EX-92,” Damrow says.
“My favorite part with this too is just giving the kids the experience and opportunity to do it in the first place,” Damrow says. “Growing up in Wisconsin, I had so many opportunities to get my project animals out and travel, and I want kids here to experience that too.”
