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Written by Digby Gribble
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Wednesday, 04 January 2012 19:36 |
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The South West Herds competition was this year judged by John Berry, who retired in 2001 when his Sunninghill Park Guernsey herd at Windsor was sold to the Thomlinson family in Cumbria to restart their dairy farm having lost their Black and White herd to Foot and Mouth. John has visited 14 farms from Cornwall, Devon ,Gloucester, the Isle of Wight, Somerset and Wiltshire, judging the herds, youngstock and cow family and bull progeny groups. In each herd the Judge is asked to pick an "individual" best cow and before the final results are announced, I thought it might be a good idea to showcase some of these individuals. Our first visit was to Berkeley Farms at Wroughton near Swindon where Nick and Christine Gosling are milking around 80 cows with all of the milk bottled on the farm and delivered to as part of an "Organic" box scheme byAbel & Cole. The cow that caught John's eye on the day was Artis A Melanie 75 who is the dam of the young stock bull Artis Edward that is being reared for use in the herd.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 January 2012 12:07 )
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Written by Digby Gribble
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Saturday, 26 November 2011 14:28 |
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Guernsey milk from Olive Farm ( David Paull) will be tasted on the BBC One Show at 7pm on Wednesday 30th November, when studio guest Jeremy Clarkson will be asked to give his opinion on the Guernsey milk as compared to ordinary milk. The milk from the Hurdlebrook Guernsey herd is sold as "Green Top" ie unpasteurised or raw and there are only about 200 herds in England and Wales that are licensed to sell direct to the public and in the case of the Hurdlebrook milk is mainly sold at Farmers Markets. Cream, Yoghurt and Cheeses are also available and can be obtained by contacting the Paull's at www.hurdlebrook.co.uk Other Guernsey milk products are available in all areas of England and Wales and can be found on the Guernsey A2 Milk website under this link The item was broadcast last week, but in the absence of Jeremy Clarkson, the studio guest was John Craven, who has spent his 40 years at the BBC in never giving an opinion on anything, the presenter who was filmed on the farm trying to handmilk a cow ( and failing to do so) , then made a great song and dance about whether she would be "brave enough" to drink the raw milk, all in all a waste of time and money!
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 December 2011 11:11 )
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Written by Digby Gribble
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Tuesday, 08 November 2011 17:00 |
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EGCS Council agreed at its recent meeting to introduce a Gold Star Award for Guernsey cows with points gained by female progeny for Inspection and for Production. The qualifying standards have been agreed to be awarded for Good Plus or Better daughters with 1 point for Good Plus, 2 points for Very Good and 3 points for an Excellent daughter and for, Production points will be awarded using the Production Index (PI) as a PI of 100 is the rolling average of weight of Fat +Protein for the herd in which the progeny are managed. A PI 0f 100-110 will earn 1 point, 111-125 will earn 2 points , 126 -139 will earn 3 points and 140+ will earn 4 points. Each 8 points will earn a Gold Star and each additional 8 points will earn a further Star, all of the information can be found online within the Centre for Dairy Information (CDI), it is hoped that the Awards can be made automatically but in the short term I would be interested in hearing about your Gold Star cows. So far the highest score that I have found is Gold Star (5*) and she is Tredinney Royal Oaks After Thought, her 3 daughters have earned 44 points to date and are Tredinney Als After That Ex 91 Tredinney Als After This VG 87 Tredinney Lorrys After Eight VG 88 Lorrys After Eight set a new breed production record and was the first UK Guernsey to give more than 1000 kgs of Fat + Protein
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 November 2011 17:35 )
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Written by Digby Gribble
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Tuesday, 13 December 2011 19:47 |
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Whilst reviewing the Top Cow proofs released today by Dairy Co, my attention was caught by Carne Quoit, the highest ranked heifer by PLI in England & Wales with a PLI of +£131, but it is her great grandmother Carne Tennis who will feature here. This remarkable cow had 13 calves, calving her first calf at 2 years and 5 months and her 13th at 14 years and 2 months, she produced 8 heifer calves and the 4 that have classified Good Plus or Better earning a total of 43 points so far for their milk production and type scores and thus gaining their dam 5 Gold Stars.
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Written by Digby Gribble
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Sunday, 13 November 2011 19:33 |
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Simon Matthews from Cornwall has asked how a cow that he used to own Trezelah Karen 5 would score under the new awards. Karen 5 was sold as an old cow at his sale and was bought by the Mann family where she bred a daughter Trewey Karen Ex 91 and Trewey Karen in turn has had 2 daughters and a grandaughter, Trewey Karen was the 8th calf born to Karen 5 and she had 4 other daughters in Simon's Bosoljack herd 3 of which classified VG and all of the VG daughters went to different herds with Bosoljack Retas Karen VG 85 going to Chris Hall's Tretheene herd where she had 2 daughters, Bosoljack Fortune Karen 2 VG 85 who at the sale was bought by Chris Eddy for his Treloweth herd where she had 1 daughter , before being sold again to Cheshire to the Thornton herd of Andrew & Michelle Hall where she had a second daughter. Bosoljack Baldwin Karen 4VG 87 also went to Treloweth and she had a daughter and more importantly a son Treloweth Karen Oak who became one of the Stock bulls at Bickfield and has 161 daughters registered with EGCS Trezelah Karen 5 would currently have 4 Gold Stars as her 4 classified daughters have contributed a total of 37 points and each Gold Star requires 8 points, so Trewey Karen gained 11 points (3 points for her Ex score and 8 points for production from her Production Indexes), Bosoljack Retas Karen gained 10 pts ( 2 for VG + 8 PI pts) , Bosoljack Fortune Karen gained 6 points ( 2 + 4) and Bosoljack Baldwin Karen 4 gained 10 points (2 +8 )
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Written by Digby Gribble
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Friday, 28 October 2011 08:18 |
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Guernseys made a welcome return to the Welsh Dairy Show after an absence of three years thanks to the effort made by Richard Norman and Catherine Mills to bring their cows from Somerset and they were in competition with Daffyd and Helen Cox and Colin and Hilary Evans from Laugharne and Bancyfelin in Carmarthenshire. The Welsh Dairy Show organise a very competitive Calf and Showmanship competition on the evening before the show and with 50 calves entered from all six dairy breeds a lot of whom had been winners at the All Breeds All Britain show it was a considerable achievement for Colin and Hilary Evans to provide the Champion with the May 2010 born Hilcol Delta Gwawr, she traces back to Bickfield via Rhandir and Lodor. The Showmanship Championship was awarded to Jessica Hall following up on the Jersey title won at the All Britain, she now helps Helen and Daffyd Cox but grew up with the Thornton Guernsey herd now owned by her parents Andrew and Michelle and made her debut at the All Britain in 2006 with a Guernsey calf The In Calf heifer class had three forward and Colin and Hilary Evans took first place with Hilcol Delta Dot and second place with Hilcol Khan Hollyhock and Daffyd and Helen Cox were third with Tredinney Yogis Gabrielle 5 the full sister to the Dairy Show Champion and it was good to see James Warren at the show helping the Cox's in return for the help Helen had provided to him at at the Royal Cornwall and the Dairy Show. There were 4 In Calf cows forward and Cadbury Hawk Violet 2 from Richard Norman and Catherine Mills was placed first with Hilcol Coriander in second place, Lodor Haul in third place and Cadbury Hawk Onyx 2 in fourth place. The two Junior cows saw Cadbury Hawk Pretty 86 at her third Dairy Show of the autumn and looking better on the day than the Cox's Tredinney Prince Lillian. Pretty is the fourth generation to be classified VG and is a daughter of White Ladies Pretty 85 who was the top priced lot at the White Ladies sale and produced over 9000 kgs for Richard. Bickfield Rainbow 51 was the only third calver present for Judge George Davies and she is still milking heavily but is back in calf to Yogibear for Colin and Hilary. Hamps Valley Tempest Fiona was the only Senior Cow forward but was an impressive sort and gave 9000 kgs in her third lactation and is one of 3 Ex daughters of Leighgrange Troy Tempest who was in the original group of GGBP sires, Fiona has another Excellent sister at Hamps Valley and is out of Bulkeley Fiona 42 who had 11 calves high on the Stafforshire hills. George placed Pretty as Champion with Rainbow as Reserve a repeat of the Dairy Event placing but the quality of the cows forward was better than up there.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 October 2011 10:39 )
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