Paula Hynes: The next generation is key - both for the farm and the herd
Dream with her new born calf 'Little Dream'. Picture: Paula Hynes.
I’d like to say the wet weather didn't put a damper on us celebrating New Year's Eve, but the reality is with the farm being busy, we were all fast asleep as the clock struck midnight.
The new year did bring new life on the farm, though, as Kali calved on New Year's Day. She is a sister to Kasey, the first lactation jersey that has been so successful for us in the show ring.
Kali is sired by Avonlea Chocochip and delivered a wonderful little heifer calf sired by Dulet Bowlers. 2025 must be the year of the Jersey because 24 hours later Dream calved, my regular readers will know Dream is a daughter of our old Jersey cow named Granny.
Like Kali, Dream is also sired by Chocochip, and she has had a super show career since, winning her class in Tullamore in both 2023 and 2024, along with wins at the National Dairy Show, YMA Nationals, and she was Junior Jersey champion at Emerald Expo in 2024.
Calving at 22 months, she has delivered a wonderful little heifer sired by Joel, which we have named Little Dream. Having born Jersey calves on the farm really did make Georgie's Christmas as she has a real soft spot for the Jerseys.
Little Dream has a real spark about her with lots of attitude; hopefully, with a bit of luck, she will follow in her dam and granddam's footsteps and have some success in the show ring in the future.
The Jersey girls weren’t the only ones adding new life to the farm as we have had a lot of heifers calve. Georgie's Holstein show heifer from 2023 named Squirt calved with a lovey black heifer calf sired by Progenesis Ambrose, and she will hopefully see a show halter in time as her dam also won at the National Dairy Show in 2023.
Most of our high EBI heifers are also calved now, with all bar one having heifer calves. The heifer that had a bull was purposely served with conventional semen as she was bred on a mating contract, she herself is from the Alanna cow family so it will be interesting to see how the calf genotypes.
The heifer we purchased is sired by Trent Way JS Rompen Red out of a Ranger Red sired heifer from S-S-I Doc Have Not cow who was thi rd at World Dairy Expo in 2022 as well as being Reserve All-American four-year-old and is an extremely valuable cow having sold as a package deal for $1.925m in 2022.
With AI sires on the dam and grand-dam line, we are delighted to have Rouge join the farm here as she is also the only Red and White granddaughter of SSI Doc Have Not. We’ll see how Rouge progresses, and hopefully, she will see the show ring early in the season.
She will fit in nicely with the other heifers we have lined up for the show season as we have some nice Sidekick heifers from super cow families that will be out during the year.
One thing we have tried to teach the girls is the importance of cow families - a nice heifer will only go so far, but if she is backed by a superb cow family, then there is massive potential, regardless if they are high EBI or high type.
When we invest in heifers, we see it as an investment in our daughters' future. Yes, it is nice to win rosettes but ultimately, we look for pedigrees that will become phenomenal brood cows in the future for the girls. With cow families such as Acclaim, Twizzle, Jasmine, Esprit and Fame on the farm now there is great depth there for the girls to work with and not to forget our own Alannah cow family, the original brood cow is due her 11 th calf soon and having delivered so much for us as a high EBI cow.
It has been wonderful to see how successful her Bullseye heifer was for Georgie this year in the show ring and know that in time that heifer can become part of their journey in breeding.
Like the little Alanna bull calf born this week, he is backed by a cow family that delivers on farm, with superb health traits and longevity. Whether it’s a commercial cow or a show cow, they all have one job to do, produce a lot of milk as efficiently as possible.
As hard as we work to develop the herd here, the girls are also making their own way in life, developing their own herds; Georgie is now in partnership in the UK with her jersey heifer, allowing her to develop her passion for Jerseys away from home.
While we may have parted company with our shares in heifers in Devon, it did afford us the scope to invest in Rouge, and we also have embryos from one of those heifers, which in time will allow us to add another deep cow family to the herd.
With Becky busy globe trotting, she still has Magic up in Shropshire who has turned into a very promising cow, she has also acquired shares in some deep cow families in Australia including a very successful Jersey cow family and a Diamondback Holstein cow family.
I'm glad to see the girls developing their own little herds away from home; just as cow families are the key to any successful dairy herd, the next generation of farmers are the key to the future of any farm and as Little Dream arrived on the farm this week, the big dream has always been there to see the girls follow their passion for dairy cows.
