In 2001 after Foot and Mouth had devastated Cumbria, John Berry was pleased to be able to sell all of his good high yeilding Sunninghill Park Guernsey herd to the Thomlinson family who asked to be able to use the prefix at Bolton Park Farm, Mealsgate Carlisle, the herd was expanded to over 400 cows and was one of the features of the 2004 World Conference Tour.
Initially the Guernseys suited very well particularly as the milk buyer Graham’s Dairy from Stirling in Scotland were able to use the Guernsey milk to open a “lucrative” door with Sainsburys who used it to establish the “Taste the Difference” luxury brand.
Inevitably in a herd of that size, turnover of cattle is large and the lack of availability of Guernseys led to the introduction of firstly Jerseys and latterly Ayrshires to the herd and to the crossing of bulls of all three breeds on each other.
The recent sale of the farm and the retirement of brothers David and Frank Thomlinson led to todays sale of the milking cows through Carlisle market.
A total of 254 cows were sold with approx 40 heifer calves at foot and 89 cows were sold for more than £1000, but that doesn’t really tell the tale of the sale. At the EGCS Council meeting on Tuesday the President stated that the “big” cow was no longer wanted. It is a shame that he didn’t make the effort to attend the sale, because the “market” rewarded cows with frame and strength with 23 of the Ayrshires selling for more than £1000 and producing the top price of £2900 for Lot248 to return to Scotland.
27 of the Guernseys made more than £1000 with 2 cows making £1600 and with Andrew Lewis of Barstable in Devon buying 39 Guernseys in total to add to his Holstein herd to improve the returns from his “cheese” contract.
10 Jerseys made more than £1000 with a top price of £1500
The feature of the sale however were the 26 cross breds that made over £1000 mainly Guernsey x Ayrshire plus a few Jersey x Ayrshire whilst there were 3 other Red & White cows making more than £1000.
Most of the heifer calves were sired by Guernsey bulls and the three way cross with the Guernsey brought back again was particularly effective and attractive.
Those of you who received the catalogue will realise that these cows were sold without pedigree, without milk records, without somatic cell counts and until the night before the sale without any Pregnancy information and so the buyers were having to rely on what they could see in the ring and it was “frame and substance” that drew the money coupled with sound udders and legs and feet.
I was able to buy 5 of the best calves for Alan Thomas from Lutterworth who purchased the best cows from the Watling sale last autumn to add to his Holstein herd and whose two young sons need an opportunity to discover that there is more fun to be had showing calves than Charollais sheep!
Matthew and Coral Senior also bought 8 spring calving cows to add to their mainly Jersey herd of 250 whilst Tony Dallyn also from Barnstable bought several but mainly Jerseys as they were the cheapest cows on the day and he had travelled up with the Lewis’s and was keen to see them establish a Guernsey nucleus.
Another first time buyer of Guernsey’s were the Telfer’s from Northumberland and Bill Senior an Ex-President of the British Holstein Society before its takeover by HUK and a long time competitor and friend from the Dairy Show came up with a typical epithet ” He had always thought Jerseys were kept by those who could’nt afford Holsteins but were too proud to milk Goats”
Both Andrew Lewis and Alan Thomas are keen to upgrade their purchases to Pedigree status and all of the dams are likely to have been pedigree when purchased and so some work has to be done to research the database and find the missing links.
Unless you should think that I have become a convert to Cross-Breeding then you would be wrong, I believe that there is still sufficient improvement available within the breed and the Gabrielle cow from Cornwall would have matched the Ayrshire top priced cow today both in quality and scale, but we are guilty as breeders of ignoring the “market” and always have been.
Averages for the different groups of cows were
92 Guernseys avg £794
52 Jerseys avg £762
42 Ayrshires avg £1055
10 Jersey x Guernsey Cows avg. £ 1086
32 Guernsey x Ayrshire Cows avg. £ 1330
43 Calves at Foot avg £233