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The 133rd AGM of the U S Guernsey Association took place last weekend in Texas, organised primarily by Todd Moore of Lavon Farms, who is involved with the successful Lucky Layla Cheese and Milk products.

A feature of the annual event is a select sale of top quality heifers ,embryos and semen which are auctioned on the last day of the AGM. These animals are selected by Seth Johnson and his colleagues and each year the choice seems to improve and in each of the last three years have set new records. This year maintained that trend with an average for 30 Lots and choices of over $5000 and with 65 embryos averaging $435.

Stithians Show in Cornwall is and has been for several years the most keenly contested Guernsey show and for that matter it is one of the few summer shows to still provide competitive classes for all of the dairy breeds.

The 2009 show saw a new “star” emerge as Champion making her show ring debut and she was Clay Hill Glenda 4, a daughter of Easby Alacrity she was spotted by James Warren in the spring and bought privately from the Foords and is the second cow from Sussex to win a Championship in Cornwall this summer.

Jason and Katherine Salisbury were able to retain the Royal Norfolk Guernsey Championship when Sharnford Marigold was again placed as Breed Champion, she was Reserve Supreme in 2008 and competes again for that title later today. Jason and Katherine have recently moved to a bigger farm to accomodate their growing …

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The St Senara Dispersal sale for Peter Cattran at Holsworthy market found a tremendous trade with 14 Guernsey females selling for over 1000 guineas and a further 20 making more than 800 guineas, the top price was Lot 33 who made 2000 and was bought by Colin Evans for his Hilcol herd at Carmarthen. She was St Senara Adrienne,

Some of you may have seen the article on the front page of The Daily Telegraph Weekend Section (Sat 27th June 09) reporting on a day out at the Bath and West Show, one of the highlights of which was watching the milking demonstration, feeding the Guernsey calves and seeing the surplus milk turned into Yoghurt and Butter.

The old established Nuthurst herd of Blyth Model Dairies were sold on 25th June 2009, the herd was established in the 1930’s by Prince Littler and the herd was purchased in the 70’s by Mr Wagstaff and was passed on to his daughter and son in law Mr & Mrs Vardy.

Remarkably the herd had been milked and managed since 1955 by the Huntley family with Stan Huntley in charge for 40 years before handing the reins to grandson Matthew Eely who supervised yesterdays sale.

36 females from 8 exhibitors provided the best show of the season with every class requiring Duncan Vincent to make challenging decisions and delivering an exciting climax.

Please click on the highlighted names to be taken to the CDI proof pages.

The Royal Bath & West show has for many years been the “major” summer show for the Guernsey breed and it is disappointing to report that it is losing that position as next week’s Royal Cornwall promises to be the most competitive of the summer.

Given that the Royal Bath & West falls during the school half term holidays there is an opportunity to reverse the decline in the Guernsey fortunes and geographically Shepton Mallet is reachable from Wales, the Midlands and the South East all of which areas have lost their Guernsey classes at the shows.

23 females from 5 Exhibitors provided Colin Evans from Bancyfelin, Carmarthen with a challenging mornings work at this years Devon County Show. Once again Guernsey numbers were better than the Holstein or Jersey breeds combined and none of the adult Jersey classes had more than a single entry and five of the Holstein classes were contested by just 2 animals.

The cattle shed was however full but with mainly Beef animals with 10 different breeds in contention.

This good herd has now been dispersed privately with 7 buyers taking females in the last 6 weeks as the farm at Barcombe Mills Lewes has been sold as falling milk price and rising costs persuaded Phil and Poppett Foord that it was time to take things easier.