Digby Gribble The Annual Awards for the Guernsey Herd Competitions of the South West Guernsey Association were presented yesterday and among the Prize winners was Briddlesford Lucks Bluebell 7 VG 85 who set a new UK production record of 1016 kilos of Fat + Protein and also gave more than 3000 gallons (14523 kgs) in her 305 day lactation. Congratulations to the Griffin family of the Isle of Wight for managing Bluebell 7 so well.
The Warren family of Tredinney Farm, St Buryan,Cornwall and UK Sire Services of Dartington Devon have successfully exported semen from Cara’s Conqueror of Les Jaonetts to the USA. The importers are Golden State Breeders of California owned by Mr Frank Faria. Conqueror was imported from Guernsey Island in January 2011 …
Andy and Rachel Payling have been awarded the First Prize for “Health and Fertility” for their Oxlynch Guernsey herd in the Gloucestershire NMR Herd Awards competing against all recorded herds of all breeds. They have also recently sold 20 in milk cows to a farmer from Hereford whose client was desparate …
The production of Fertility Indexes for UK Dairy breeds in the last two years has been somewhat “controversial”, in that as ever work done originally within the Holstein breed has been applied to the other breeds and no-one within the “magic circle” of Guernsey breed advisors has looked at what would …
Two young sires awaiting proofs having been used by EGCS and Genus have daughters milking and on the basis of the first 5 daughters to be classified look to be fulling their potentiall. Thornton Hercules was used by Genus for their “Bull of the Day” service and has 145 daughters …
After six weeks of snow and ice followed by the Christmas and New Year Holidays it was a great pleasure to be able to restart visiting Guernsey herds last week, and I was able to walk through three good herds each of which have several potential bull mothers for EGCS.
The Alderney Herd
I visited Alderney this week and on what was my third visit, came away very impressed with the improvements that continue to be made by the hard work and enthusiasm of the Cox family.
Clare and Mike and elder son Stuart are involved full time, with daughter Hannah and Stuart’s girlfriend Chloe and younger son Craig all helping out with the milk and meat processing operation.
When Mike and Clare first came to the Island they undertook to maintain the grassland of the whole Island either by grazing or by topping, they soon came to realize that time spent topping was a poor use of their resources and so have increased the grazing numbers in two ways.
Proven Guernsey Bulls Dec-2010 Ranked by GMI
Dairy Co. Have released the Guernsey Bull proofs and the full listing is available on their website
Click the link.Dairy Co Guernsey Bull Proofs .
The main list is titled “Top International Guernsey Bulls Ranked on GMI” and includes all bulls with a proof that has a Reliability of more than 65%. This table which shows 1000 bulls has a range from + 358 ( Sniders Option Aaron) to -710 (Robinsfield Souvenir 15) and 320 bulls have a positive GMI and are therefore above average.
BOCADDON Heifer Dispersal Sale 26th Nov 2010
24 Guernsey heifers from the Bocaddon herd of the late Rob Maiklem were sold through Hallworthy Market on Friday 26th November, alongside the Holsteins also bred by Rob under his Risingstar prefix. The young man before his tragic accident in July could be truly described as the “rising star” of the Guernsey breed, and those who received the catalogue will have appreciated just what a quality herd Bocaddon was becoming.
There were two milking heifers and Lot 7 Rosewood Charlies Fleurie sold to Mr Stevens for £1080 whilst Lot 5 a very fresh daughter of Trewey Surprise sold for £980.
VG Heifers Jan-Sept 2010
So far in 2010 39 heifers have been classified by HUK with a score of 85 points or more, there were 41 VG heifers in 2009.
The 39 heifers are sired by 28 different sires with Sweet Symphonys Cassidy siring five VG daughters , Treloweth Karen Oak and Four Winds Royal Delta siring three, Riverwood Tiller Khan and Coulee Crest RO Silverado siring two each and the other 23 sires with one VG daughter apiece.
26 of the dams are classified VG or better with 6 heifers being the third generation VG or better.
Leading owners are the Warren family with 8 heifers (7 of them home bred), with Blacknor having 5, Bickfield 4, Instead 3 and Sharnford and Trewey each having 2 VG heifers and 15 other herds each with one heifer.