E510 The Classifier Behind Eight EX‑97s: Bruno Jubinville’s Lifetime Crusade for Balance

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 job
• Why a concrete worker from New Hampshire ended up reading cattle for a living
• The three mentors who shaped everything — one taught professionalism, one gave him the opportunity, one transferred the passion
• What it's like to classify 60 cows a day, five days a week, navigating dark Alberta back roads by written directions
• The nervous Friday morning he and a colleague scored two cows 97 points at the same farm — and both left for Madison that weekend
• Which of his eight EX‑97 cows he considers "the most complete" — and why he insists even a 97 is never perfect
• His one-word gospel — balance — and the football player on a BC flight who became his favourite metaphor for it
• The trait he calls "my baby" that he fought for years to get into the Canadian scorecard
• Why he believes genomics is "one tool in a box of tools" — and what happens when breeders forget about cow families
• The part of the cow nobody talks about — the loin — and how it quietly controls fertility and longevity
• His provocative claim that genetics have already outrun management — and what that means for every operation

Bruno 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 https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry-professionals/the-classifier-behind-eight-ex%e2%80%9197s-bruno-jubinvilles-lifetime-crusade-for-balance/. Subscribe to The Bullvine Podcast wherever you listen so you never miss a story. Got a story of your own? Reach out on Facebook or email us — the best dairy stories start with someone willing to tell them.