[Data Is Changing Farms] Choi Myeong-hoe, CEO of Nogok Farm, First to Win Grand Champion at Holstein Show Two Years in a Row

Only four dairy farmers have ever won Grand Champion at the Korea Holstein Show twice. Among them, Choi Myeong-hoe (67), CEO of Nogok Farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, is the first to reach the top two years in a row. CEO Choi won Grand Champion (President’s Award) with ‘Nogok Stargazer Silver No. 835’ at the ‘2026 Korea Holstein Show,’ held October 14–15 at NongHyup Anseong Farmland. It was his second consecutive win following four titles in 2025. At this year’s show, 92 farms nationwide entered 223 dairy cattle.
 

An award difficult to win even once in a lifetime… I wanted to show young dairy farmers

CEO Choi said, “Grand Champion is an award that is hard to receive even once in a lifetime, so I never imagined winning it twice in a row,” adding, “I have consistently entered the show over the past 30 years because I wanted to show young dairy farmers, including my son-in-law (Lee Byeong-ju, 43), who came to the farm a year ago, as well as second-generation dairy farmers, that improvement work can continue even as you get older. I led the cow myself again at this show.”

The pressure was greater than last year. Last year, both the Senior Champion and Intermediate Champion were his cows, so he expected one of the two to become Grand Champion, but this year, among the four cows in the final round, he could not know until the end which one the judge would choose. CEO Choi said, “The judge pretended to go toward another cow, then came over to mine,” adding, “I hope my juniors break this record quickly.”

When he won his first Grand Champion last year, he burst into tears. It was when Heo Jeung of Excellent Farm in Goyang, who first taught him about genetic improvement, came over, hugged him, and told him he had worked hard. He recalled, “I had poured all my passion into it for 30 years but had not achieved the top result, and I wondered whether I could do it before quitting the farm,” adding, “I hugged my older colleague and cried.” 

From a former noncommissioned officer to foot-and-mouth disease burial… 30 years of ups and downs

CEO Choi served as a noncommissioned officer for 5 years and 8 months and, after being discharged in 1986, started a farm the following year. The small farm, which milked 300 kg a day, closed after 2 years. He tried other work, but it was not easy, and, drawn by the atmosphere of a neighborhood with many dairy farms, he started farming again in 1996.

Because he started later than others, he moved quickly from the beginning. On a farm where cows were milked with buckets, he bought pipes and modified them himself to build a herringbone milking parlor that could milk 6 cows at once, and, starting with 20 first-calf heifers, he was producing 1 ton a day within a year. It was also from this time that he began buying and using imported semen for 40,000 to 50,000 won when domestic semen cost 1,000 to 2,000 won per straw. When the quota system was implemented in 2001, he received a quota of 1,300 kg, and production rose to 2.2 tons a day.

The hardship came in 2011. The year after spending 900 million won (600 million won in loans) to build a new barn, he had to bury 140 cows he had improved because of foot-and-mouth disease. Only 34 calves survived. CEO Choi said, “Three days before foot-and-mouth disease, I was looking at the cows and told my wife that our improvement had come quite far, but three days later we buried them all.” He served as vice chair of the emergency committee for 580 affected farms nationwide and staged a tent protest in Yeouido for 60 days, but compensation was only about 3.8 million won per head. For 10 months he had to pay interest with no income, and to meet a 2-ton quota, he bought back as many as 70 to 80 cows that cost 6 million to 8 million won each. He said, “In the past, 60 to 70% remained, but now feed costs have risen while raw milk prices remain unchanged, making it hard to leave even 20%.”

His connection with shows began in 1998. In the first year, he even came in last. The turning point was 2003. Through a Seoul Milk study tour program, he learned everything from cleaning manure to running a show ring at a farm in Hokkaido, Japan, and after returning home, he created the Korea Holstein Improvement Council. At the time, only two people clipped the hair of their cattle before entering them in shows, but as the clipper and spray techniques he learned in Japan spread, shows began to gain vitality. CEO Choi served as the council’s second president and held three of its own shows in Pocheon and Anseong. 

The 4- to 8-month rearing period shapes a lifetime body frame

The core of feeding and management that CEO Choi points to is the rearing period. Calves pass through a newborn room and are adapted to an automatic milk feeder, and the weaning period, formerly 90 days under artificial feeding, has been moved up to about 80 days. After that, until 4 months of age, Bermuda hay and feed are provided without limit, then changed to restricted feeding while observing body shape. He emphasized, “The body frame must be properly made at 4 to 8 months of age for it to be maintained for life.”

During this period, he uses a 20 kg special feed that costs as much as three 25 kg bags of regular feed, but provides only 800 g to 1 kg, less than half the usual amount (2.5 kg). Instead, he feeds top-grade, highly digestible Bermuda hay to increase body capacity. As height and body length grow, the so-called ‘barrel’ develops greatly, and that body is maintained even after the cow matures. At the breeding stage, he increases feed to 3.5 kg and mixes in tall fescue and alfalfa. For pregnant cows being prepared for the following year’s show, he raises the special-feed amount to 2 kg, four times that of ordinary cows. CEO Choi said, “A cow I am interested in never leaves my sight all year long.”

This year’s Grand Champion No. 835 was a cow that had calved only one month earlier. Immediately after calving, both stamina and body condition drop, making it difficult to take a cow to the show ring. CEO Choi and his son-in-law Lee Byeong-ju devoted themselves to this cow for a month, feeding energy and vitamin supplements every day, using fever reducers to prevent mastitis and fever, and giving IV fluids about five times. He said, “Her recovery was extremely fast, so her body did not fall away, and her chest depth and other areas filled out richly.”

Management at the venue also decided the match. At home, he gives feed by the bowlful, but at the venue he divided it into handfuls at 1-hour intervals, and he mixed water with a yeast supplement in a bowl brought from home to reduce travel stress. He also tested in advance at home, at various times of day, how long it took for the udder to fill. However, when No. 835’s udder was not as full as expected on the morning of the show, he removed the water tub 4 hours before entry and fed only small amounts of feed, then just before entering first fed 2 to 3 kg of feed, followed by water mixed with yeast supplement and glycerin. CEO Choi said, “Sixteen hours was exactly right for filling the udder,” adding, “In the span of 4 to 5 hours, the cow came out looking like a completely different animal.” He does not hide this know-how. “If what I know is shared with others and leads to results, that is rewarding,” he said. 

One year of robotic milking… 305-day milk yield increases by 2,118 kg

Nogok Farm installed 2 robotic milkers in October 2025. Since then, its direction of genetic improvement has also changed. This is because, in first lactation, robots have difficulty finding the teats of tall cows with small udder capacity, which leads to milking failures and mastitis. CEO Choi said, “When choosing semen, first I choose from among bulls marked for robotic milking, and second comes teat placement,” adding, “Production is fundamental, and to milk for a long time, cows must have good robustness.” He explained that while in the past he selected sleek cows that were tall and long-bodied, today the global trend is toward ‘square and well-balanced’ cows. He steadily watches overseas show videos to keep his eye aligned with global standards.

He is wary of improvement that pursues only body type. He says semen for production and body type must be used alternately. No. 835 was also obtained by mating a type-oriented dam (Stargazer) with a balanced-type sire (Silver). For about 5 cows that will go to shows, he manages body type separately even if milk yield is sacrificed, while the rest focus on production through robotic milking. Regarding the trend of buying embryos to enter shows, his position is that “it is not enough just to have good semen; you have to shape the cows through feeding and management.”

The changes after introducing robots are clearly visible in milk-recording results. According to the records of the Dairy Cattle Improvement Center of NongHyup Agribusiness Group, Nogok Farm’s 305-day average milk yield, which was 9,789 kg in October 2025 when the robots were installed, rose to 11,907 kg in October 2026, an increase of 2,118 kg (21.6%) in one year. During the same period, the average milk yield on test day also rose from 33.1 kg to 39.6 kg per head. In the October 2026 test, the milk fat percentage was 4.53%, the milk protein percentage was 3.27%, and the 305-day milk yield of multiparous cows in their third or later lactation reached 13,435 kg. The 76 cows with actual milking records are producing 3,010 kg a day. CEO Choi said, “In the past, to fill this level of quota, we would have had to milk 90 cows.”

However, CEO Choi’s belief is that it must not be left only to machines. In the October test, the average somatic cell count was 273,000 cells per 1 ml, down 219,000 from the previous month, but there were also 9 animals exceeding 500,000 cells. He said he tells Lee Byeong-ju, “First-calf heifers that cannot adapt to the robot must be pushed in by force if necessary so they are milked,” adding, “A person must watch until the cow adapts, and you must fit your cow to the machine to prevent mastitis.” The daily routine of waking at 3:30 a.m. to milk has changed. Now Lee Byeong-ju comes to work at 6 a.m. and checks the data to see whether any cows have not entered the robot.

Going forward, the plan is to reduce the number of animals raised and improve efficiency. Nogok Farm currently has 200 recorded animals (107 multiparous cows and 93 heifers). Based on genomic testing of young stock, CEO Choi plans to reduce this to 150 head, including 75 milking cows, 15 dry cows, and 60 young stock, and to buy an additional 300 kg of quota to reach 3 tons a day. He said, “If we reduce the number of animals, manure decreases and the cows’ environment improves,” adding, “There is a world of difference between 90 cows and 70 cows.” 

Six selected for the next show… “I always move forward with a dream”

The next generation of Nogok Farm is Lee Byeong-ju. Even while working at a company after getting married, he helped with farm work on every day off, and on August 15 last year he officially joined the farm. Lee said, “I knew from the time I got married that my father-in-law was running a farm, and because he had built it up so well and created a good working environment, I came in.”

CEO Choi plans to work together with Lee Byeong-ju for the next 5 years, passing on his know-how, and then hand over the farm. Lee Byeong-ju will lead the entries for next year’s Seoul Milk show. But that does not mean Choi has stepped back. He has already selected 3 young cows and 3 multiparous cows to enter in the May show next year and has begun managing them. CEO Choi said, “If you are an improvement-minded farmer running a farm, you always move forward with a dream. The goal is always set high.” As he has done every year, he reaffirmed his determination to prepare systematically for next year’s show as well.