Ellen, Champion Milk Producing Cow for 17 Years, Changed the World By Shirley Willard, Fulton County Historian There once was a black and white cow named Ellen, who lived south of Rochester, and became a world champion milk producer in 1975. People came from all over the world to see her. Car loads of visitors arrived nearly every day and buses brought visitors almost weekly all summer long. Ellen held the world record for 17 years till 1992. During that time she helped to change history and the way of life for all farmers. Beecher Arlinda Ellen, her registered name, was owned and raised by Harold and Norma Beecher and their eight children on a farm near Mt. Zion at the south end of Lake Manitou. Ellen was a big Holstein cow, a gentle peaceful cow that calmly chewed her cud and produced lots of milk. She produced 195 pounds or 23 gallons of milk one day in January 1975. She averaged 165 pounds of milk a day that year. (I can remember in the 1950s my father getting two or three gallons from a Guernsey cow and thinking that 5 gallons from a cow at one milking was great.) Ellen�s record of 55,560 pounds of milk in one year was verified by Dairy Herd Improvement Association officials, working with Purdue University Extension specialists. Holding the world record for 17 years was an amazing record! Weighing about 1800 pounds, Ellen was considerably larger than the average cow. Her udder was larger too, being wider and deeper, closer to the ground than most cow's. She ate about 60 to 70 pounds of a commercial grain mixture, the same amount of top quality alfalfa hay and drank between 50 to 60 gallons of water a day. She was an exceptional converter of feed, according to Purdue University. She ate about seven percent of her body weight in dry matter daily and produced five times as much milk as the average cow. Because of Ellen, agriculturists and farm representatives came from all over the world to visit and to buy Holstein cattle in Indiana. Yes, Indiana became the top producer of dairy cattle. Farmers in foreign countries wanted those black and white cows from Indiana - no other state would do! - and they came by airplanes and then by buses to see her. This was at a time when artificial insemination and in vitro growing of eggs and implanting those eggs in other cows was just beginning to gain popularity. Ellen�s calves would be considered very valuable. Sperm from her sons were used to artificially inseminate many cows for several years. Ellen's milk production helped revolutionize dairy farming. Fewer cows were needed to produce milk for the world. That meant fewer farms and dairymen. That spelled the end of the widow who supported herself and her few acres by milking and selling Grade B milk to small plants like Armours Creamery at Rochester, Litchfield at Warsaw, and Winsor Dairy and Craft Dairy, Peru, in the 1930s to 1960s. At the same time, the world became conscious of the effects of fat and high chloresterol on human heart problems. Being a Holstein, Ellen's fame contributed to the shift in popularity of brown cows to black and white cows. No more Jerseys and Guernseys with their high butterfat content. Out the door with Ada the Ayrshire, a popular cartoon about the crazy antics of a contrary cantankerous cow in farming magazines! In with the pretty black and white cows! Cow crafts popped up all over, especially black and white Holstein cows. They are popular subjects for arts and crafts in the Midwest. They are seen in ceramics, paintings, appliques on towels and clothing, dolls, every kind of material. Ellen's likeness is being reproduced by artists all over the world. The picture of a gentle black and white cow is found wherever rural art is found: in calendars, magazine ads, books, festivals, and schools. There are also silly pictures and statues of little cows in dresses and aprons, black and white calves in straw hats with fishing poles, etc. Small statues of cows and calves in a different pose for every month of the year now grace many a shelf in thousands of homes. Thanks, Ellen. You had no idea how much influence you would have. Ellen's mother (or "dam" in breeder's talk) was Bridgecrest Skylighter Elsie, purchased from Harry Bridge & Son (Jim), Royal Center. Harry is the father of Bob Bridge of Rochester. Ellen's father or sire was Pawnee Farms Arlinda Chief, owned by Wallace Lindskoog, of California. Beecher Arlinda Ellen was her whole name, and she was born on the Beecher farm a half mile east of the Mt. Zion bridge. Ellen was raised there, and was the 4-H project of the oldest son, Stan Beecher. He was a member of the Woodrow Sodbusters 4-H Club and attended Woodrow School for his first grade. Woodrow was closed in 1959 and the pupils went to Columbia Elementary in Rochester. Stan and the other Beecher kids rode the school bus driven by my father, Charlie Ogle. Ellen was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records 1975-92 as the world champion cow. Her picture was in Life magazine. Life sent a photographer from New York City to spend several days at the farm capturing Ellen in many poses. After all of his work, the print they chose to publish simply showed Ellen grazing with a goose wandering by in the foreground. A large photo of her is still exhibited at the Purdue University Veterinary School. When she was the world champion, Purdue and Curtis Breeding Service would hold a special day "Ellen Day USA" and place a huge framed photo of Ellen by an alfalfa field and Harold Beecher was there to tell visitors about the feed that Ellen ate. Ellen had seven offspring. All were bull calves except for one heifer, which was born as a twin to a bull. This heifer was infertile, as commonly happens in over 90% of bovine females born twin to a male. Such heifers are termed "free-martins." Using modern medicine, veterinarians can stimulate the growth of multiple eggs in a cow's ovaries and later artificially inseminate the cow to produce fertilized embryos. A week later the embryos are harvested and can be grown in vitro or immediately transferred to recipient cows which carry the resulting calves through the pregnancy periods. In this manner, more calves can be produced from one cow than the normal one calf per year. (The gestation period for cows is 285 days.) Unfortunately this technology was only in its early stages in the 1970s. Later developments vastly improved the success of these techniques. Ellen was taken to a clinic in Michigan to have her eggs harvested, but she yielded only one fertile embryo that lived. All six of her sons were used in artificial insemination (AI) to sire calves but none of her descendants achieved Ellen's huge milk-producing capacity. How Ellen got to be the World Champion Cow Back to Shirley's Writings |
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Located in North Central Indiana
Shirley's Writings
About Shirley Willard
Shirley Willard moved to Rochester
in 1941 when she was five years
old. She got interested in history
while sitting on a bale of hay
listening to the old farmers talk. She
grew up on a farm in the Mt. Zion
neighborhood south of Rochester
and attended Woodrow Grade
School, graduating from Rochester
High School in 1955, Manchester
College in 1959 and a MA from Ball
State in 1966. She taught English,
history, Spanish and journalism for
14 years. She was a charter
member of Fulton County Historical
Society, and was the first secretary
in 1963. She served as FCHS
president 1971-2001,
spearheading the building of the
Fulton County Museum, Round
Barn Museum and Living History
Village called Loyal, Indiana. She
founded the Trail of Courage Living
History Festival in 1976. She is a
writer and has written, edited and
published books and newsletters
for FCHS, its Genealogy Section,
Indian Awareness Center, Historical
Power Assn., and Potawatomi Trail
of Death Assn. She continues to
volunteer as a writer for FCHS and
as Fulton County Historian.
Shirley Willard moved to Rochester
in 1941 when she was five years
old. She got interested in history
while sitting on a bale of hay
listening to the old farmers talk. She
grew up on a farm in the Mt. Zion
neighborhood south of Rochester
and attended Woodrow Grade
School, graduating from Rochester
High School in 1955, Manchester
College in 1959 and a MA from Ball
State in 1966. She taught English,
history, Spanish and journalism for
14 years. She was a charter
member of Fulton County Historical
Society, and was the first secretary
in 1963. She served as FCHS
president 1971-2001,
spearheading the building of the
Fulton County Museum, Round
Barn Museum and Living History
Village called Loyal, Indiana. She
founded the Trail of Courage Living
History Festival in 1976. She is a
writer and has written, edited and
published books and newsletters
for FCHS, its Genealogy Section,
Indian Awareness Center, Historical
Power Assn., and Potawatomi Trail
of Death Assn. She continues to
volunteer as a writer for FCHS and
as Fulton County Historian.
