Saturday night saw the Annual Dinner and Competition Awards for the newly renamed Wessex Guernsey Cattle Association, which now covers Guernsey herds situated in Dorset,Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight,Somerset and Wiltshire.
Judge Martin Smith who manages the high yeilding Kingspool herd of Holsteins, that was the NMR/RABDF Gold Cup winning herd in 2010 had 9 herds to visit and stated that he was ” surprised and impressed by the quality” of the cows in all of the herds.
With the addition of Gloucester and the Isle of Wight, there was a marked change in the prize winners with the Briddlesford herd of the Griffins providing the runners up in all of the production awards with Andy and Rachel Payling’s Oxlynch herd providing the winners with a team of 10 cows averaging over 800 kgs of Fat +Protein led by the individual winner Oxlynch Streaker 9 who yeilded 940 kgs from an 11,000 kg third lactation. Her dam Oxlynch Streaker 5 has had an impact with over 6000 kgs F+P from 11 lactatations whilst producing six daughters.Streaker 5 calved her first calf at 2 years old and her 11th at 12 years and six months.