ABOVE LEFT Woodclose Jordan Roxy, a VG85 classifi ed daughter of Cormack Jasper Roxy is one of the homebred favourites in the herd.
ABOVE RIGHT Classifi cation plays an important role
in herd management at Wood Close, with this heifer a VG classifi ed Plain-O Durham Ross daughter.
in turn, matched to an outfi t as an example of how they can help you. Husband Andrew and son Daniel help out from time to time, answering the phone, taking appointments and remembering to tell ladies to bring their outfi t and shoes with them. “They’re well practiced,” she adds. “Andrew helps by making cups of tea, but usually fi nds a way of chatting cow talk to the ladies, particularly when they are farmers wives.”
But, when they’re not answering the phone, Andrew and Daniel are busy farming and milk 185 cows twice a day on the 240-acre farm. They have also made some big changes since their move to Cumbria, upgrading their herd to pedigree in 2000 after plenty of encouragement from Stephen Bell from the Holmland herd.
“Nine animals were purchased from the Holmland dispersal in 1999, including Holmland Prelude Squaw 5 VG 87 and Stephen said it was sacrilege that his good cows with strong pedigrees were going into an unregistered herd,” explains Andrew. With Daniel’s growing interest in pedigrees and cow families, the decision was made to upgrade the whole herd. They have since enjoyed buying into many top end families, including Alma, Barb, Cocoa, Dellia, Doll, Elegance, Kimo, Kitty, Lulu, Margot, Marq I, Miss America, Paradise, Ricki, Roxy and Ruby. Predominately heifers are purchased fresh calved at the Border and Lakeland Club Sales, dispersal sales and the Black and White sale.
Some of the additions that are breeding well and developing families in the herd include Boclair Lou Elegance. Classifi ed VG88, she was purchased at the Club Sale and has bred a VG85 two year old by Fever and has a Talent sired in-calf heifer.
Cormack Jasper Roxy VG 87 was also purchased at the Club Sale in 2005 in her second lactation. She bred twin heifers by Gillette Jordan, one classifi ed VG85 and the other GP84 as two year olds. “We have also found that milkers can be purchased at reasonable money at the Black and White Sales,” commented Andrew. While Daniel added: “There is less risk buying something in milk, you know exactly what you are getting that way.” Two families purchased at the Black and White Sale are the VG85 scored Twinfi elds Shottle Marqi and the Ex90 classifi ed Denmire Talent Fortune 3, both have bred daughters in the herd. The most recent purchase is Newabbey Sanchez Dellia 3 VG86 as a second calver, she is out of Skyhigh Durham Dellia VG88 2 yr. Also bought at this sale was a cow carrying an embryo which resulted in a heifer calf, Woodclose Goldchip Lila Z. The herd has eight Excellent classifi ed cows and 55 Very Good with the average production 8251kg at 3.95%bf and 3.11%p on twice a day milking. Cow numbers are limited to 185 as this number is manageable without any extra labour.
Breeding decisions are assisted by the World Wide Mating Service (WMS) consultant Richard Graham who scores the cows and correctively mates them through the programme, also ensuring no inbreeding. Current sires include Fever, Seaver, Jordan, Lauthority, Cancun and Mincio, with buying alternating between Semex and Cogent. Genomics
28 THE JOURNAL OCTOBER 2014
is used lightly with some 20% of semen purchased from genomic sires. At the moment Sahara Baloo is in the tank, but the oldest calves are three months old and are by Hampton and Sammy. Heifers calve at 27 months and during the winter they are served with one straw of sexed semen followed by conventional, while a bull runs with them during the summer. Heifers currently calving into the herd are by Goldfi sh, Berryhill, Fever, Toystory, Stanleycup and Talent. The bottom third of the herd are served to a British Blue and calves sold through Borderway Mart, Carlisle, at six weeks old. This decision is due to restricted heifer rearing facilities on the farm, but both Andrew and Daniel feel this method improves the quality of the herd quicker. “Because of our limited rearing capacity we require an additional 10 heifers each year,” adds Andrew. “This is something both myself and Daniel enjoy, it is nice to always be looking to buy each year. Even before being pedigree I always purchased good, well bred cows.”
Classifying has always been part of the pedigree routine at Wood Close and they look forward to scoring homebred daughters out of purchased cows. The fi rst homebred cow to be classifi ed Excellent was Woodclose Broker Renske. The herd’s highest classifi ed cow at Ex94 was Mossrose Jolt Maude, a daughter of the cover girl from John Grindal’s dispersal sale at Wood Close. Now the highest on the farm are classifi ed Ex92 and are Wolfa Shottle Allyson and Lillyhall Talent Sukey.
In recent years investment has been made in a new slurry tower and covered silage pits and future plans are to upgrade the current 16/16 Westfalia milking parlour.
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