HAMPSHIRE, Ill. — Fresh off Luck-E Holsteins’ first World Dairy Expo Premier Breeder banner, brothers Joe (left) and Matt Engel reflect with gratitude for the owners and caretakers who helped make it happen in the International Red & White Show on Oct. 2. (Cowsmo photo)
*Inside the Luck-E sale-prep playbook and global footprint that led to their first Premier Breeder banner in the World Dairy Expo Red & White Show, and other headlines in the Holstein Show*
“We were really excited. It feels great, and we feel thankful and blessed,” says Joe Engel in a post-show interview. “Breeding those cows is the first step, an important one, but it’s just the first step. Those cows went to really great homes.”
The brothers brought just one bred-and-owned Red & White entry to Madison, a milking yearling. Then both were on hand to watch the show, together, instead of trading turns between Wisconsin and their home farm in northern Illinois. Being just 90 minutes from the Expo in Madison, the farm in Hampshire draws visitors from across the country and around the world.
A brief scoring glitch delayed the breeder announcement and heightened the moment. “We weren’t announced at first — there was a computer error,” Engel recalls. “My phone started blowing up from around the world, asking: ‘How are you not breeder?’ Once it was corrected, and we could announce it, the international response was huge.”
From sales ring to showring
The cows earning Luck-E the 2025 Red & White breeder banner were sold through their 2023 and 2024 Best of Luck-E Sales at the farm. Those same sales also produced standouts in the Holstein (black-and-white) show.
“Our favorite thing is trying to breed the next cow better than the last. Our second favorite is selling good cows and seeing them go on and do good for other people,” Engel says. “In each of those sales, we sold about 180 head, mostly milk cows and fresh heifers. We always sell our best. It’s everything, right off the top.”
Anchoring the R&W Premier Breeder banner was the Best Three Females win, which included the intermediate champion.
At home, Joe and Margaret’s eight children are increasingly involved with the cows. “They do a lot of the milking. They’re naturals,” Joe says. “Hope and Blake were with me most of the week, late nights in the barn and first thing in the morning. Even the younger ones beg to help milk.”
Sale timing and the fresh-udder routine
Luck-E typically sells cattle in milking form. “Our April sales feature young cows four weeks fresh so buyers know exactly what they’re getting,” Joe explains.
Their April sales mean a March wave of calvings, timed so they enter the sale ring four to six weeks fresh with clean udders, full veins, and peak bloom.
“Udder Comfort plays a huge role in getting those udders really crisp and ready, fast,” Engel observes. “For every one of those heifers, we’re covering the entire udder — front, rear, bottom, teats, up between the leg and udder — for a couple weeks.”
That regimen bridges their simple, functional cow management — sand-bedded freestalls, a one-group TMR, milking in the former stanchion barn — with the style and polish that draws both commercial and show buyers. Many find their new cows through Luck-E’s Facebook posts, or by simply stopping in throughout the year.
For the Engels, Udder Comfort isn’t an add-on — it’s baked into standard protocol in how they get fresh cows ready for milking at home or to showcase in the sale ring. They’ve been using the product since it first came out. “As soon as we tried it, this became our go-to product,” Joe reflects.
“People often ask us, ‘How do you let all those good ones go?’” Engel smiles. “We like seeing them go to great homes and do big things for new owners. People also ask how our cows’ udders look so good so soon after calving. It’s simple. We always use Udder Comfort. It helps maximize the cow’s genetic potential.”
The Luck-E fresh-cow routine includes coating udders on two-year-olds before they calve, getting product “between the leg and udder to soften and prevent irritation,” and then using it “2x/day for about a week after calving to remove swelling. For older cows, we use it a bit fewer days but just as deliberately.”
Of roughly 180 Best of Luck-E lots per sale (2023, 2024), six placed in the top six across classes at the 2024 Expo, and eight did so in 2025, with 11 this year finishing in the top 10.
The Banner Cows
Red & White breeder points were anchored by the Best Three Females, including Luck-E Altitude Attie-Red-ET, sold fresh in 2024. Attie bested 18 senior three-year-olds, took production and best-udder honors, and was named intermediate champion of the International Red & White for her owners Rick and Tom Simon and ALH Genetics USA Inc., Farley, Iowa.
Among promising yearlings in milk was the 8th-place bred-and-owned entry Luck-E Arc Alleluia-Red-ET, shown by Joe’s children, Hope and Blake. In the same class, Luck-E Azoom Avo Red-ET placed 10th of 19. She’s from the Luck-E A-family on both sides of her pedigree and owned by Golden Oaks Farm, Wauconda, Wisconsin.
Luck-E Russ P Astro-Red, from the A-family (Afro x Asia) stood 5th open and 3rd junior in the aged-cow class for Allison, Lane and Callum Francis, Greenville, Ohio.
Asia’s Lasting Influence
The Expo’s Red & White Junior Show grand champion didn’t earn breeder points for Luck-E but deepened the legacy of Luck-E and Asia. Bert-Mar Alt Adlee-Red-ET, shown by the Francises from Greenville, Ohio, is a daughter of the famed Luck-E Advent Asia EX94 — 2021 Holstein International Red Impact Cow of the Year and a four-time Reader’s Choice favorite — proof that Asia’s reach spans herds and generations.
Asia has been owned for the past decade by the Lundberg family of Bert-Mar Farms, Osseo, Wisconsin, whose herd has flourished with Asia’s dominant red-carrier influence and other smart breeding choices. Adlee was produced via an IVF agreement with Luck-E and sold in the 2023 sale — proof that Asia’s reach spans herds and generations.
From Illinois to Madison: A Supreme Story
Another emotional moment came at the start of the 2025 World Dairy Expo on Sept. 29 during the International Junior Holstein Show when Luck-E Merjack Asalia EX96 won the production class, then advanced as senior and grand champion, ultimately going all the way to the top in the parade of champions Oct. 3 as supreme champion of the Junior Shows.
Engel talks about the great care she is being given by her owners Tessa and Stella Schmocker of Whitewater, Wisconsin. Asalia was also second-place lifetime-production cow in the open show, with top production honors in that class.
“She had arguably the best set of feet and legs in the entire Holstein show,” Engel observes.
Asalia’s win carried emotion. “She was the favorite cow of one of Matt’s and my closest friends, Leanne Hedges,” he shares. “Leanne could lead that big strong cow like a kitten. She loved that cow, and knowing her situation, her request was to lead Asalia through our 2023 sale, which she did proudly. We were watching Expo last year (2024) when we got news of Leanne’s passing. To see Asalia go to the top this year really meant a lot.”
The A-Family engine
The modern Luck-E cow still mirrors the cows that first put the prefix on the map. The A-family — often breeding back on itself — and the K-family (from the brothers’ first 4-H cows, Klassy and Ashley) remain the foundation. Their influence radiates through descendants of their most noteworthy progeny, like Advent Asia, and high-impact sons such as Awesome-Red, Acetylene-Red, Apex (polled), and Avalanche.
One emblem of that strength is Luck-E Awesome Adventure EX94 96MS, the Illinois Cow of the Year, with a 5-10 365-day record of 44,039 M 2626 F 1198 P — bred by Luck-E on both sides of her pedigree. For Engel, the philosophy is balance: width from muzzle to rump, dairy strength, forage capacity, and udders that last.
“Avoid the bottom,” he sums up, “and the top end will come.”
Sires That Fit the Moment
“The Awesome Reds were definitely doing well,” Engel observes from Expo 2025, noting also the daughters from private Luck-E sires such as Apex (polled) and Azoom. At home, they’re impressed with Acetylene-Red daughters and have embraced Architect, a non-Luck-E bull whose daughters they love.
A new red-carrier on their radar is Paldwin. “He’s high type and really good on health traits,” Engel reports. “We have the very first sons and daughters in the world, close to 30 calves born in September, all out of our very best A-family cows. They look great — big, strong — and we’re anxiously awaiting genomics.”
Always moving forward
Looking ahead, the next on-farm sale is set for April 10, 2027, to be followed by a partner sale in Scotland that will feature sisters of Attie — this year’s International Red & White Intermediate Champion.
Until then, Luck-E’s gates stay open. “Pretty much every day except Christmas and Christmas Eve, just about everything’s for sale,” Engel says. “Send us a message, stop in anytime.”
For a program built on preparation and placement, from fresh-udder routines in March to breeder banners in October, the mission never changes: “Always trying to breed the next cow better and then seeing her go on to make somebody else really happy.”
A consistent record of excellence
Engel estimates one in every three Luck-E-bred animals in the past 25 years has scored Excellent. They’ve bred nearly 800 Excellent cows in the U.S., with 60 scored 94 points or higher, including two and 96, plus additional high scores internationally.
That consistency was evident on the colored shavings this year and echoed earlier in 2025 when Holstein Association USA presented Luck-E Holsteins with its Elite Breeder Award, recognizing the herd’s “exceptional production and components, tremendous udders, strength from end-to-end, and the ability to thrive in any environment.”
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