BREEDER’S CHOICE
The old conundrum of what bulls to buy from your semen representatives never goes away.
Here we get the perspective of five breeders, all with differing opinions of what type of bull
they need to fit their respective systems
David Tait, Gloryland
Jim Stevenson, Newry
Gloryland Holsteins
Farming with wife Charlotte and son James near Kilkeel, Co Down, Jim
consists of a dozen
Stevenson runs the 100 cow Newry herd. The herd is averaging 9887 kg
cows, housed
at 4.07% fat and 3.15% protein while being cubicle housed. Feeding is an
in tie and box
easy feed system consisting of 60% grass and 40% maize silage combined
stalls, near
with a 25% blend. Cows are topped up in the parlour according to yield.
Grottoes
In the summer, the cows are grazed night and day with silage available at
in Virginia,
milking times.
USA. From a
Bulls that sire daughters with shallow udders, good legs and feet (not too
grass hay diet,
straight) with dairy strength and adequate production are chosen. They
supplemented
expect heifers entering the herd to average seven lactations
with grain,
and this enables them to have surplus heifers to sell.
rolled corn,
Sires in use today include:
barley, and crimped
oats with a 40%
Ladino Park Talent Sandy-Valley Bolton
protein pellet, the cows are yielding Picston Shottle Jenny-Lou Mrshl
10,900 litres at 3.8% butterfat and 3.3% Toystory
protein.
Magor Bolivia Allen R-E-W Buckeye
Bulls are chosen that will improve type,
while maintaining or increasing butterfat
Emerald Acrs Ta Baxter Mr Minister
and protein, and must be from good
Regancrest-Mr Drham Sam
families. Each cow is individually mated
with the aim to not lose but improve!
In the region of 10% young sires are used and
these include Comestar Zircon, Comestar Lyman and
On the service sheets at Gloryland are:
Berryholme Fullfl ow.
Braedale Goldwyn Regancrest Durham
K-H-W Advent Lylehaven Lightning
Bovigen SF Red Rock
Andrew Williamson,
Sterndale Rose Royce Red
Ingleden
Around 30% young sires are used with
Milking the 200 cow Ingleden herd at Calthwaite,
Redrock and Rose Royce, both red sons of
Penrith, with his wife Jill is Andrew Williamson. The
Redrose.
cows are cubicle housed and averaging 10,000 kg
on a TMR ration with a little top up in parlour. The
TMR incorporates grass silage, wholecrop, brewers’
grains, molasses, soya/rape and caustic wheat. Bulls
Kevin Werry, Werrcroft are chosen by considering Dairy Strength, Feet, Legs
and Udders. Andrew wants to try and breed a cow
Kevin runs Werrcroft Farms Ltd with his
with plenty of capacity and strength to cope with
father Ron and brother Rick near Oshawa
producing a lot of milk and lasting a long time.
in Ontario, Canada. They milk 65 cows in a
With this in mind he is using:
tie stall setup and the herd is fed TMR with
access to dry hay. The herd average is 9100 kg
Plain-O Durham Ross 331
at 4.0% fat and 3.2% protein.
Palmcrest Blitz Blade
He usually looks for Canadian bulls with 500 Milk and +10 Type with
Cogent Loader
positive deviations if possible, for other bulls he wants 1500 for milk
and plus 3 for type with positive deviations.
Go-Farm Allen Scooby Duu
Magor Bolivia Allen
They are currently using:
Regancrest Dolman
Braedale Goldwyn Regancrest Dolman
Regancrest Design
Regancrest Mr Samuelo Pursuit September Storm
Braedale Pagewire
Cederwal Spirte R-E-W Buckeye
In addition, 15 - 20%
La Presentation Denzel Lylehaven Lightning
young sires are used, all
Regancrest Design Picston Shottle from Cogent, and at the
Jenny-Lou Mrshl Toystory
moment these are Excel
Hopscotch, Bartels F Metro,
They only use 5% young sires, usually the ones from show cows like
Holmland Saturn Red and
Comestar Zircon, Arethusa Attic and Rainyridge Dakota.
Corringham Bali.
THE JOURNAL APRIL 2009 117
e2-09 Breeders Choice.indd 3 02/04/2009 15:01:21
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