About this episode
In April 1997, a French-speaking Purina delivery driver walked into a Quebec barn with bags of heifer feed. The Holstein Canada classification crew had just finished. One classifier turned to him, half joking: "How many points would you give those cows?" He glanced at the animals and answered on a whim. 87. 86. Both scores matched exactly. Within a week, Holstein Canada called. There was just one problem — Bruno Jubinville didn't speak a single word of English. This is the story of what happened next, and it will change how you think about what really makes a cow last.The story you'll hear:The barn-floor audition that launched a career — and the bilingual colleague who translated his way into the jobWhy a concrete worker from New Hampshire ended up reading cattle for a livingThe three mentors who shaped everything — one taught professionalism, one gave him the opportunity, one transferred the passionWhat it's like to classify 60 cows a day, five days a week, navigating dark Alberta back roads by written directionsThe nervous Friday morning he and a colleague scored two cows 97 points at the same farm — and both left for Madison that weekendWhich of his eight EX‑97 cows he considers "the most complete" — and why he insists even a 97 is never perfectHis one-word gospel — balance — and the football player on a BC flight who became his favourite metaphor for itThe trait he calls "my baby" that he fought for years to get into the Canadian scorecardWhy he believes genomics is "one tool in a box of tools" — and what happens when breeders forget about cow familiesThe part of the cow nobody talks about — the loin — and how it quietly controls fertility and longevityHis provocative claim that genetics have already outrun management — and what that means for every operationBruno Jubinville spent 29 years inside one of Canada's most important dairy programs, rising from field classifier to Manager of On-Farm Operations at Holstein Canada. He classified eight of the eleven 97-point cows in Canadian history — Holsteins, a Jersey, a Brown Swiss, and an Ayrshire. He took the Canadian classification system to Colombia, Brazil, and a dozen countries. He championed locomotion scoring when tie-stall producers pushed back. And he did it all starting from zero English and zero credentials — just nine years in a Master Breeder barn and an eye that proved itself from behind a feed truck. Now at Blondin Sires, he's carrying that same message directly to breeders: balance and longevity pay. The math is simple. Push a 100-cow herd from 2.7 to 3.5 average lactations and you save roughly $140,000 in avoided replacements. That's a robot payment. That's a barn renovation. That's equity.Read the full profile, see photos of all eight EX‑97 cows, and explore related articles at
