2017 Bruce Cottington Award

The Minnesota Milk board of directors chose David Kjome, Rochester, Minn., as the 2017 Bruce Cottington Friend of Dairy Award winner.

Kjome has been to Ecuador, Columbia, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand judging dairy cattle, and judged World Dairy Expo three times. His ability to educate and inspire dairy youth and their parents brought him from 4-H agent, American Guernsey Association fieldman, and sire analyst for Tri-State Breeders in Iowa to Minnesota. He came to Minnesota as an agricultural loan officer with First Northwestern Bank of Winona. In 1970, he started helping dairyman through University of Minnesota Extension in Olmsted county for 30 years. Congressman Gil Gutnecht also relied on Kjome for dairy insight. 

His first recognition was when he joined the Iowa State University Judging team and word got around that he “was a good talker.”

In 1981, he worked with University of Minnesota faculty to execute a demonstration project with 21 farms known as the Olmsted County Mastitis Demonstration project, which became a model for other counties to follow. 

Kjome’s other awards also include high individual in the Jersey breed at the National Intercollegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, Rochester’s Chamber of Commerce AgriPerson of the Year in 1983, and induction into the Minnesota Livestock Hall of Fame in 1994. He was named a National Dairy Shrine Pioneer in 2016.