Close
Sign in
Club directory

Shropshire
19/08/2019 08:53:00
SHARE

Shropshire Holstein Club News update August 2019

These are exciting times in Shropshire, building up to hosting the HYB 2020 Rally and we are now also planning the 2020 HUK Celebration following the election of Mr Robert Clare from Hawksmoor Holsteins as Vice President of HUK who will take on the presidency at next year’s AGM.

On top of that we have a new HUK Delegate for the Western region after Mrs Jane Whittaker from Knowlesmere Holsteins was elected at this year’s Celebration following on from Mr Mark Nutsford who has served his time in this role. So it is all hands to the pumps and lots to prepare for a huge Shropshire welcome to all cow enthusiasts next year.

Following on from his success at Shropshire Show, Ed Seaton and his family at Styche Holsteins took the Holstein and Inter- Breed Championship with Hawksmoor Rene 50 at Newport Show as well, much to the pleasure of Rob Clare who takes great pride in having bred her.

Throughout the Summer Phil Arrel has been running training and team building events for our HYB section which is a mixture of some senior and a lot of novice members who will become champions in the future, and getting a lot of enjoyment from being involved. They performed well at this year’s rally in South Wales with Andrew Patterson in his last year as a HYB member coming third in the clipping and highly placed in the stock judging.

Speaking of Andrew it is very exciting times at Hallon Holsteins where he is managing the herd owned by James Tudor and family at Bridgnorth who have won through to the final round of the HUK Herds Competition after winning the title of Champion Shropshire herd. We have fingers crossed and wish them all the very best in the final round

11thAugust was the day we celebrated 100 years of the Lomax family having farmed at Hill Farm, Chorlton with an afternoon of fine food and good company to mark this milestone in the history of Chorlton Holsteins, both Black and Red plus a new addition of a Dairy Shorthorn in memory of generations past who established this fine herd.

On 15thAugust we visited two herds in Shropshire on our annual herds visit event.

Fifty members and friends arrived at Penypark Holsteins near Chirk and were greeted by all the Gaskin Family with coffee and biscuits before inspecting the 130 milkers out at grass on a beautiful sunny day. The herd is averaging 9,983 ltrs per cow and calving all year round. The type classification of the herd reflects just how good this herd is with 24 Ex and 49 VGs in the herd today and only just recently started classifying after the effects of TB. Historically they have used stock bulls but have devoted much time and research into sourcing young bulls from herds like Woodmarsh and Denmire with obvious success.

The herd is milked twice a day here as are the Glanmarton herd that we moved on to following an excellent lunch provided H J Lea Oakes, before we made the short trip to visit the Whitticase Family at Glanywern Farm , St Martins.

Here they run the 360 cow Glanmarton herd which again demonstrates very high type and uniformity with an average of over 11,000 ltrs per cow.  

Here they use Genomic bulls on 85% of the herd, sourced from Semex and Genus/ABS including young bulls on the Genus/ABS Cornerstone programme. This herd is predominantly Autumn calving with the high yielders housed indoors and the rest are buffer fed before returning to the fields.

Building construction and layout has been a big focus here resulting in a well planned and comfortable environment for the herd including the young stock.

Two very good herds and very devoted families doing what they do best with great results. We are very grateful for the hospitality shown to us,  of two very good herds of cows here in Shropshire that many have not seen before and we wish both families every success and good fortune for the future. 

Frank Dixon