UK Guernsey Cattle Blog

It seems that other Guernsey breeders are noticing the lack of action and tardiness of the “Official” site, and a leading breeder has questioned the point of the website when “news” takes three weeks or more to be posted. I personally handed the press release from the Auctioneers for the Coopers Court sale on 29th September to 3 Council members on the 1st October as I felt it was “good news” for the breed.( posted 20th October).

Cattle available for sale privately were not advertised on the website and so had to be committed to the market as the TB clock was ticking.

I understand that EGCS have bought an expensive camera to be used to provide pictures from Shows and Sales, I look forward to seeing the results eventually!

 The EGCS Chairman stated some months ago in a letter to members that information about Guernsey Semen for sale would be available from the website with “active” links to CDI and Dairy Co. The tables from both organisations that are on this site have been available for the last 5 years but the webmaster could never create an easy link ( technical difficulties apparently). These lists obviously need managing, something that I did with Alison Maddrell of HUK, but I no longer have access to the information which is why the last 4 young bulls with semen currently available ( Ivor, Nomar, Mervyn and Amir) are not listed. The Dairy Co list is only for “Proven” bulls with a Reliability of 65% but lists Guernsey bulls from all over the world.

At last the “official” site has woken up to the A2 milk story, only 4 weeks after the event, the list promised by the EGCS President Elect at the AGM(10/9/08) has appeared but misses out 9 of the Guernsey Producer Retailers which were already listed on the “Official” site in Feb 2006. Amongst those omitted was one of the two Council members who Process Guernsey milk and who was linked to the original Channel 5 programme and who has had several new customers as a result of the programme.The other notable omission is Suffolk Farmhouse Cheese who have also had some interesting extra business.

Tonight I have enjoyed a “You tube” video of Australian Jerseys on the “Official”site,supplying milk to the Australian market, how about trying to get the UK supplier list up to date?

Still no link to The C5 website,and according to my contact at C5, no request has been received.

Is the “official” site interested in “good news” for all Guernsey breeders? The potential benefits for the Guernsey milk market are tremendous.

The Dairy Farming Event took place on Weds/Thurs of last week at Stoneleigh and every part of the Dairy Industry was represented, bar the English Guernsey Cattle Society. There were strong  competitive classes for  Ayrshire, Dairy Shorthorn, Holstein and Jersey, whilst there were cattle forward from British Friesian, Brown Swiss, Gloucester,Montebeliade, M R I, and Red Poll and information available about Fleckviev and Swedish Red but nothing about Guernseys.

Several people were challenging me as to the absence of information,one Holstein breeder had travelled down from Northumberland expecting to be able to find information about available semen for crossing on his herd, but left without the necessary data.

The Guernsey herd owners who were there were also annoyed at the lack of representation.

About 8 years ago the Late Tom Emm who had for many years supervised the EGCS Annual Competions,agreed to update the Competitions from a “paper” exercise, whereby the same few enthusiastic herd owners took the time to fill in entry forms supplied by EGCS, to a situation where all cows with official milk records for the relevant milk recording year were automatically entered.

Thanks to computerisation the process is relatively simple takes a little time and a bit of enthusiasm. I have been pleased to to do this task over the recent years and more pleased that several herds that had never previously been entrants became winners. In one notable case a non pedigree herd that was runner up in the main production competition,has now graded up to pedigree and is regularly winning in particular the cow family competitions.

This herd had been NMR recorded for years, and is now in a position to produce young sires for the GGBP scheme.

What is happening this year, the “glittering prizes” are due to be presented on the 10th September in Cornwall at the AGM and as far as I know the results have not been announced.?

You may have seen that Laity Farm Primrose 96 has just been scored EX95 4E, the second UK Guernsey to reach that level in modern times (since HUK took on the Classification in 1997).

Other 95 point cows include Ceadar Fringed Altann in the USA,dam of Aaron and having been lucky enough to see her in the flesh two years after she had been scored, i had no reservations about her .

I am however concerned about Primrose as there are better cows in the UK, by better I mean more correct in type terms. Will they be scored above 95 ?

I was more excited to see that less than 5 miles from Tredinney there is a second Ex cow ,  a Glacier maternal sister to a Wesley that went EX last autumn, and the Wesley was the best cow in Cornwall that I saw last summer.

I am looking forward to the AGM in Cornwall on 9th/10th September, not for the AGM and its associated events but for the chance to get back around those good herds that still form the backbone of the breed.

Please put the dates in your diary Mr Cox as I would be delighted to pick you up at Exeter on the way down.

Well, I have finally severed my links with the English Guernsey Cattle Society after nearly 9 years of trying to promote the breed to all and sundry.

i feel that progress has been made on all fronts, both in the production and type fields and am very excited by the prospects for the breed.

Testing work recently done on Cheese made with guernsey milk shows an enhanced level of beneficial amino acids, I will know more later in the week.

The US guernsey annual sale has just set a new record for both the individual animal and the averages for the sale ($5600) and looking at the sale video available at www.usguernsey.com — the quality of the animals, mainly calves and yearlings, was outstanding.

Rob Maiklem in Cornwall is trying to bring in embryos from the Idle Gold Contessa family as well as flushing a couple of Tredinney heifers in partnership with James Warren — we need more breeders to follow his lead to increase the best families and make them available to others.

2009 is the 125th anniversary of EGCS and it would be good if we were to repeat the Champion of Champion competition at the Dairy Show as done in 1984. We may not get 36 cows forward as last time but it certainly made a focus for the Centenary year.

Whilst milking this morning (20th April),the question was posed as to how had the Blue Halter Sale in Pennsylvania (19th April) gone?

Thanks to the hard work of Seth Johnson and his team and the wonders of the Internet, the answer was quickly found: 2008 Blue Halter Sale

47 Lots averaged $3308 or £1650 with a top price of £6750 for Flemingdale Sunrise Vanity,who had been Junior Champion at the New York Spring Show and 2007 Reserve All American Spring Calf.

Making £5,500 was the pick of the Youngstock from Sniders Homestead with the buyers having 30 days to make their choice.

What price for the pick of the Alderney herd ?

The Bloggers friend Gadge has added a new feature to this blog, with pictures of some of the “Great” cows of the last 25 years, 3 of them are probably easily recognised, Carmen, Daphne and Clarissa,the other 2 had as much potential but never got off their home farms and into the show ring:-

Elpsmead Precious 2 Ex 92 was the top priced animal at the Elphsmead dispersal (950 gns), she was bought by Steven Medlicott for the Chiltern Vale herd before being given to the Herdsman Roy Cogman when the herd was sold.She then moved into a Holstein herd with Roy before meeting with an accident, she did leave 3 daughters one at Thornton and two which ended up with Ian Crouch in the Cracker herd all 3 have classified as VG.

Boskenna Lauren Ex 95 ,was the highest pointed daughter of Jensgolden Proking Royal Oak here or in the USA, she was sold to the Hichens family’s  Carne herd when dry at the Boskenna sale but uinfortunately got e-coli mastitis just before she calved again.

She was the first Royal Oak to be scored VG,and has since been joined by 63 of her sisters who have scored 20 Ex and 42 VG, to put that in context the next most successful sire was Trotacre Jay Mr Luxury with 12 Ex daughters, followed by Willows Admiral Jasper 9 Ex and Arrow Head TF Lindon with 8 Ex

I believe that Guernseys are better now than they have been at any time in the last 40 years, but that doesn’t mean that they can not get better.

Both Sue and Mike have experience of other breeds, which by virtue of greater numbers particularly overseas mean that there is much more selection pressure and hundreds of well proven bulls available at any one time.

However the head of MDC breeding has just published a paper warning about the potential inbreeding problems in Holsteins as breeders all across the world chase the same “top” bulls.

What are the areas that we should concentrate on with the Guernsey?

Sue and Martin Staples have one of the most productive grass farms in the UK, possiblty only matched by the boys at the back of beyond who can be found by turning left at Penzance.

I know that Sue and Martin have been involved in research work to improve their pastures and would invite Sue to perhaps enlarge on what they a) discovered and b) what changes they then made on the farm.