Parlour patter with the... THOMAS FAMILY
Cheryl Thomas of Gelligatrog, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, runs 160 cows under the Gatrog prefi x, alongside husband Elwyn and daughter Anwen
I must start this issue
by paying tribute to my late Mother in law, Jean Thomas,
who sadly passed away in early December. She was a true lady who I admired greatly and greeted me with open arms on my fi rst visit to Gelligatrog all those years ago.
She took great interest in what we did on the farm and enjoyed reading any publicity we had in local papers. Once The Journal arrived, Elwyn would have a quick glance at it and then up it went to Jean’s house where she would read with enjoyment. She gave a long and courageous fi ght against cancer and will be sadly missed. Soon after the Welsh Dairy Show we had a visit from a Dutch Holstein Club, Land van Cuijk. This turned out to be an enjoyable day with a few Dutch words learnt and a few Welsh words taught! The Welsh cakes and bara brith proved successful and hopefully the cows were as good as the cakes!
Anwen took part in the Holstein South Wales Club’s annual service of Thanksgiving at the end of October. This proved to be a successful night with a great turnout showing the popularity of the Club’s president Robert Maskell. A feast was laid on after the service which was prepared by the family. Congratulations to the Maskell family for organising this event and donating the proceeds to the chemotherapy unit in the local hospital.
I was honoured to judge the October Show and Sale held at Carmarthen Cattle market (not quite sure how far down on this list I was) and glad to arrive home without any black eyes or any verbal abuse! It was a great turnout of cattle this month again with the champion going to the Deri herd.
A successful night of Pig Racing was held again at the cattle market and organised by the Holstein South Wales club. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and letting their hair down. A great deal of effort had gone into naming the pigs with many humorous captions. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We have had a few LDA operations over the years, but during November I experienced our fi rst key hole surgery. This proved to be successful with
LEFT Elwyn,
Cheryl and Anwen were delighted to welcome breeders from Holland to Gelligatrog.
the cow recovering much faster with less after effects. You learn something new every day in this job. The last few months have been challenging with some mastitis cases. There is such a scenario as cell counts too low, but what can you do? Combined with falling milk prices and mild weather, we do put up with a lot as an industry and never seem to get much support from the general public. At times I do feel as if I have lost the plot. I was asked by Elwyn to help him give some eye ointment to a maiden heifer. So off I went over to the shed where Elwyn was holding the heifer’s head. I started applying the cream. “This is slow coming out.” I told him. He replies: “Is the top of the syringe off?” Much to my disgust it wasn’t. I’ll put that down to the fact us women juggle a lot in our lives. One decision I made a few years ago was to invest in some Cozy Calf jackets. These have proved their worth, as soon as the temperature drops I put them on all newborn calves. I leave them on for about a month and they do make a difference. When a calf has a case of scours, the jacket keeps it warm, therefore, enabling the calf to fi ght the infection. Once the jacket comes off, the calf’s coat is shinny and full of bloom.
I was asked to speak to a group of ladies during November called the Carmarthen Ladies Dinner Club. This turned out to be an enjoyable evening with myself giving my life history from school to today. I never thought my life would be that interesting or entertaining to others. They all kept awake which I took as a compliment. There is always a fi rst for everything and at the end of November I was asked to open my fi rst ever coffee morning at Kidwelly Rugby Club organised by the Second Chance Cancer Charity Fund. This fund raises money for local cancer charities hence all money raised stays within the local community. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was glad to be able to support the fund.
Cheryl
Herd Size: 160; Average milk yield: 10,200 litres 3.88%bf and 3.22%p; Farm size: 192 acres; New technology: Elwyn and Cheryl; What looks good in the calf pens: Gatrog Mincio Culture, Gatrog Sammy Steffi and Gatrog Sammy Fame; What is in the fl ask:
Iota, Impression, Mincio, Pirate, Brady, Golddust and the British Friesian Blackisle Benloyal; Flagship families: Oralie, Beauty, Torch, Desire, Irene, Jingles, Lavender; Favourite cow: Weeton Golden A Oralie; Bulls in AI: Gatrog Breezer and Gatrog Steffi c; Classifi cation: 47 EX, 55 VG, 23 VG heifers and 11 GP, averaging 88 points; Other enterprises: British Friesians and Anwen has two pedigree milking Jerseys
128 THE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2015
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