Digby Gribble, Author at UK Guernsey Cattle

North Somerset Show 2010

13 June 202318 May 2010 by Digby Gribble

The 2010 show season started on Monday 3rd May 2010 with the North Somerset Show at Wraxall near Bristol, with Elizabeth Grose as Judge.

Unfortunately the Bickfield team were forced absentees as a result of TB problems and the Hurdlebrook and Wiltown teams were late withdrawals as a result of Sally Adam’s hospitalisation.

Fortunately Caroline Greenslade and Jon White did travel up from Devon and the Parfitt family were there in force and they were joined by one cow from Dorset who was flying the flag for Bickfield.

High Ranking Heifers April 2010

11 June 202327 April 2010 by Digby Gribble

The April 2010 Guernsey proof figures from Dairy Co have seen several new high indexing heifers appearing at the top of the rankings. There are 13 heifers with PLI figures of +£96 and six of them are daughters of Boskenna Junes Royal Oak and they have helped to move …

Tredinney Buzzards Bracken 4

13 June 202320 April 2010 by Digby Gribble

David Christophers has had his prize winning Tredinney Buzzards Bracken 4 professioinally photographed by Lucinda Morgan. Bracken calved in February and has peaked at 32 kilos with over 5% fat. David selected her as a calf at Tredinney and she was Junior Champion at Stithians in 2008 and Guernsey Champion at …

April 2010 Guernsey Bull Proofs

13 June 202320 April 2010 by Digby Gribble

Please click on the highlighted names to be taken to the CDI pedigree information.

Dairy Co have published the April Guernsey Bull Proofs and Sniders Option Aaron has regained the No 1 spot with a GMI of +359,

moving up to second place is Boskenna Junes Royal Oak with a GMI of +345.

South West Guernsey Competitions(part 2)

11 June 202330 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

The previous article dealt with the herd competitions for production and Inspection, but in addition there are classes for youngstock, bull progeny, the best cow on inspection, the best cow on production, the best cow family and the most improved herd year on year.

The SWGCBA Challenge Cup for Youngstock (23 entries)

This was won for the first time by Olive Farm (Babcary) and there were over 70 heifers in the group, sired mainly by EGCS young bulls, with in-calf heifers of Chiller, Shaka, Landon Premium and Rob Roy catching the eye, whilst the calves are by Eros, Posh Paddy, Workman and Ellys Epic. The heifers are reared at grass from the first week of life and the yearlings are outwintered.

The calves recieve whole milk twice a day for 8-10 weeks depending on the time of the year with calvingsd mainly between February and August.

Place	Owner	Herd	Score
1st	D&R Paull	Hurdlebrook	98
2nd	J Warren	Tredinney	97
3rd	M & R Dunn	Rosewood	96
4th	N Gosling	Artis	94
5th	J Yewdall	Webbery	93

Having recommended the CDI site, I thoug

11 June 202327 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

Having recommended the CDI site, I thought I should check it out and am glad I did, with the recent redesign of that site(which I like)the default is now to Holstein bulls only, but there is still a way in follow this link

Thanks to Colin and Rob, I hope the EGCS

11 June 202327 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

Thanks to Colin and Rob, I hope the EGCS President takes note! Bull selector is available for Guernseys within the CDI pages (link below on the left), but with the limited number of proven bulls available in the UK,one has to limit the number of traits that one specifies. Unfortunately …

There are many factors affecting fertili

11 June 202327 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

There are many factors affecting fertility, most farms are working at lower staffing levels than ever before, this combined with ever increasing expectations of milk yeild from our cows is probably the major reason for the slip in calving index. Calving index is only 2% heritable in comparison to yeild …

At the South – East AGM it was decided t

11 June 202327 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

At the South – East AGM it was decided that a fertility index should be shown as a seperate table and NOT in the GMI

Fertilty in the Guernsey Breed

11 June 202326 March 2010 by Digby Gribble

EGCS President Chris Watson placed this comment in “another place” and has not surprizingly received any replies, with the FOB meeting tasking place next month on Guernsey Island it may be helpful if any one would like to comment.

“Rob of cause you are right, but not everyone agrees that GMI is the major cause AND sights individual bulls that have let us down. They forget all the ones that they are thriving on.