Red and white Holstein claims victory at show

Cork colours did well at last Sunday’s Clonakilty Show — with a red and white Holstein winning a top championship.

After her second as a two-year-old in last October’s National Dairy Show, it wasn’t a big surprise to see Pavime Dora Red win the Dubliner Cheese All-Ireland heifer in milk prize for the Beechinor family, Clonakilty. She is related to top show cows in Holland, Canada and the US — though US breeders tried to eliminate the red gene from Holsteins for many decades.

With US farmers rushing to import the best Canadian breeding, which included a significant proportion of red and whites, the US Holstein-Friesian Association was forced in 1970 to accept the red and white trait.