presence was mainly restricted to one herd in East Anglia, but by the late 1980’s came to the attention of a wider audience and started to establish itself as a new, alternative breed. Here in the UK, Brown Swiss are proving themselves in the production stakes, having already taken the No 2 spot (behind Holsteins) for milk yield and CFP and this year has finally seen the UK population increase to a sufficient level to enable proof evaluations on a UK base. One herd to take advantage of the strengths of the breed is Kevin Thomas’ Allstar herd in Carmarthen that now numbers around 85 Brown Swiss to 50 Holsteins, although that balance is likely to be maintained as Kevin still has a penchant for good black & whites. After buying, a 50 acre smallholding, milking just 30 cows, Kevin started working for Semen World which he thoroughly enjoyed and where he ended up working almost full time with the organisation. At the time, Fred Williams was setting up a Canadian-style barn including one Brown Swiss, Valauclair Improver Pearl EX92. She was shown at the Cheshire Show which she won before entering a flush program, although her progeny were out of Kevin’s reach financially. He was then introduced to Clive Davis who had imported Brown Swiss embryos and milked some great cows. Together they went to a dispersal sale in Cheshire where Kevin bought his first Brown Swiss, an Austrian cow who was nicely balanced but had the dual purpose look and lacked the texture and quality of more modern mammary systems. Kevin says that people still assume the breed has these issues but
insists that the population has improved enormously over the last 20 years. A few years later, another sale finally gave Kevin the opportunity to invest in some Pearl genetics when he bought two of her daughters as third calvers along with their heifer calves from a neighbour and the family remains an influence in the herd today.
It was around this time that Kevin sold his 50 acre smallholding, although he rented the ground for the following winter before having to relocate his cows to friends. A year later, Kevin and his sister Julie bought a farm together and while Julie ran beef and sheep, Kevin managed the small dairy herd (including seven Brown Swiss) for three years before a parcel of land was sold enabling Julie to buy him out. This facilitated another move for the Allstar herd to 77 acres at Llanboidy which had a decent yard but no house – simply planning permission for a bungalow. After 12 months in a caravan, Kevin sold off 23 acres to finance construction of the bungalow. Having experienced such levels of turmoil over several years, Kevin had by then discovered both the ease of management and milk quality that is innate within the Brown Swiss breed. He decided to phase out Holsteins as having to focus on two breeding policies in a small herd of 40 cows was adding to management pressure, but as it happened, a conversation in a pub shortly after led Kevin to Gellifelen Farm. Owned by the Welsh Assembly, this 210 acre dairy farm was open to tenders for a short lease of only three years whilst the government built a road through the land and renewed power cables. Kevin successfully applied and has now been there for four and a half years – work looks set to continue for another two years before moving once again becomes a necessity.
A shift to a much larger holding allowed the herd to expand, hence the continued presence of Holsteins alongside the Brown Swiss majority. Kevin is pleased about this as the interest in pedigrees and breeding that brought him into full time agriculture is more accessible and varied in UK Holsteins, but it is the Brown Swiss that better complement his system. After a year or two of problems finding reliable staff, and therefore incessant working, Kevin decided to attempt to regain some social life and took the decision to install two robots. Given the temporary nature of the site, the only permanent modification to be made before installing the robots was a concrete pad. The wooden stanchions, concrete panel walls, roof, gates and posts are all removable and a freight container serves as an end wall
RIGHT Allstar Sweetie EX92 Elite RM(2) SP, who made a lasting impression on Kevin.
THE JOURNAL OCTOBER 2010 31
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