Georgette Trumps Queensland
The stand-out entry in the Queensland final of the Semex-Holstein Australia On-Farm competition was everything and more judge Terry Tout could have hoped for.
Arabella Jasper Georgette VG89, sired by Wilcoxview Jasper, is one of four imported ET sisters residing at Arabella Holsteins’ Brookstead address in the Sunshine State.
Two of the sisters have jockeyed for pole position throughout their career, but in this competition, and in this moment, it was Georgette’s day.
Georgette was also Honourable Mention at the Brisbane Royal Show in August. She was shown six weeks fresh at the Ekka, milking 60 litres. The Grand Champion that day was her Arabella herdmate, Glenalbas Goldwyn Olivia.
By the time Terry visited Arabella, Georgette was well settled into lactation.
“She was the stand-out cow, for me,” Terry said. “Before I announced my winners I asked the audience who they would pick if they were judging for the overall Champion, and she was almost a unanimous choice with everyone else too.
“She should be seen at IDW where I’m sure she could be extremely competitive. She is big, long, and correct all the way through with a wide muzzle, chest and a super barrel. She had a tremendous fore and rear udder.”
Georgette’s fully imported ET sister (Arabella Jasper Georgiegirl), from their dam, Penlow Georgia Rubens, was the two-year-old State Champion three years ago, after winning Supreme Intermediate at Lismore. Their owner, Daniel Holmes, who has judged many on-farm competitions himself and who was fresh from a busy judging itinerary at Finley, Forbes, Lismore and Christchurch Show (in New Zealand) has reserved his opinion over who is the best cow.
“I’ll know in another couple of months,” he said, adding that GeorgieGirl had recently re-calved.
“I think Georgette may be the best because she has developed at a better rate. Georgiegirl, I think, may have peaked but that could change depending on how she settles in.”
Daniel said the season had been as challenging as it sounded for Queenslanders battling drought. Arabella has spent years and some expensive lessons proactively insulating their property from drought. They are milking 500 cows this season.
“There’s guys out there really hurting,” Daniel said. “We have become reasonably proactive with what we are doing. We’ve been milking cows long enough to know where we are going, where the feed is, where our pressure points are and how many cows to milk in any given situation. And if we have to sell cows, we do it. We will make decisions before we have to - before it gets to crunch times. We’ve been there once and we never want to go back there.”
Terry echoed Daniel’s thoughts. The Tamworth farmer thought he was well used to what dry country looked like. He admitted that he was shocked by the full impact of the Queensland dry.
“It was very depressing looking at the countryside,” he said. “I honestly don’t know how they are doing it – with hay prices at $600/tonne delivered, and a shortage of molasses and choices their fortitude was amazing.”
One thing that cheered everyone up was the cows on offer. A Red and White Holstein also caught Terry’s eye. She came from Black and Gold Dairies and Anne Well Holsteins. It’s a joint partnership which comprises Alan Little and Leesa Ison (together with Leesa's parents Max and Sue). They farm 750 acres with 200 acres of irrigation at Monto. Last year they spent much of the year dealing with the aftermath of the Australia Day floods in January, where water levels surpassed the record 1942 floods by 1.5m. This year they say some water would be nice.
Their winning four-year-old, Anne Well Classic Buttercup-Red, is a A Poos Stadel Classic-Red daughter. She is one of five Red & White Holsteins in the herd and she is milking 15% harder than her 140 herd mates.
“She’s certainly a cow that is a pleasure to work with and one you would like many more of,” Leesa Ison said. “The little bit of difference she has to most of our cows is that she is a Red with a huge ability to milk.”
Her completed 305-day two-year-old production was 10,193 litres and it foreshadowed her ability to peak at 56 litres on her second calf. Leesa said Buttercup easily had a 10-litre advantage on the rest of the herd at a time of year when production could be decimated by heat and humidity.
“The Red & White genes in this family (unlike the production in it) did ‘just turn up’. Her granddam, Anne Well Grandust Buttercup VG89, is by a homebred bull (Anne Well Duststorm), who proved to be a Red carrier. Grandust Buttercup's dam, Anne Well Grand Buttercup EX 2E won the six-year-old in milk class at the Brisbane Royal. Buttercup’s fourth dam (Anne Well Raider Buttercup VG87) was our first 10,000-litre two-year-old.”
Leesa said it was Buttercup’s dam, Anne Well Jatz Buttercup VG85, was where they really started to hone in on the Red carrier genes.
“Jatz Buttercup is Red/Black, with a real ability to throw the red ones,” Leesa said. “Classic Buttercup's first calf, was a Black and White heifer, sired by Destry. She has just freshened on her first calf, and while it is still early stages she looks quite exciting. And, of course when you try to get a Red one [from Jatz Buttercup], this year she had Red & White Destry BULL.”
Leesa said Classic Buttercup is a cow with great dairy strength.
“She’s one of the biggest cows in the herd, and with that power and strength she also has beautiful refinement. A real highlight is her openness of rib. Her vessel is one with great capacity and it is the tremendous strength of ligament and attachments that I believe will hold her in good stead to be in the herd for many years to come,” she said.
The Champion two-year-old was Kaloola Atwood D Liz 2nd, from the Northfield family at Kaloola Holsteins, Tatham.
“She was an extremely fine young dairy cow, with a really, really well-attached udder,” Terry said. “She was the kind of young cow that I love and, for me, she was a comfortable winner, over a Goldwyn daughter who was very similar but who just didn’t have quite as impressive udder attachments. They were a beautiful pair of heifers.”
The three-year-old Champion came from the well-performed and high profile Sunny Valley Guernsey and Clarkdale Holstein herd, owned by Allan and Julie Clark and their family, at Caniaba.
Clarkdale Deuce Eclipse is a Scientific SS Deuce daughter from a Calbrett-I HH Champion x a Robthom Malachite granddam.
“Again, this was a super young cow who was a little stale, but she still had that great dairy quality to her,” Terry said. “She was big, long and she had a well attached udder. She was similar to the two-year-olds. The Reserve cow to her [Leader Hialexander Satin, owned by Travis and Melissa Deans] had beautiful body capacity and barrel but she was just not quite as long and clean as my Champion.”
Shannon Clark, of Clarkdale Holsteins, said Eclipse offered and outstanding side profile, a strong topline combined with super dairy bone and beautiful udder texture. She went on to say they were milking 10 Deuce daughters and that they were incredibly happy with them.
This lactation Eclipse had put up 5400 litres up in 250 days, with her record still in progress. She is due to Mr Chassity Camelot in June.
The Mature cow winner was almost not entered. Meadowland Igniter Rhythm, sired by Summershade Igniter, is an App3 eight-year-old owned by John and Dianne Daley, who farm with their son, Bradley, and Bradley’s wife, Annaliisa. It was Annaliisa who pushed them to enter.
“I wanted to see how they would go, because I believed that they had some very nice cows,” Annaliisa said. “Rhythm has a nice udder and bone and she goes in calf easy. You really don’t notice her. She’s in and out of the dairy and does her own thing. John and Dianne said the win made her no better of a cow, but I was pretty impressed with it. She’s an absolute credit to their breeding.”
When asked what her Annaliisa’s reward for entering her would be, she replied: “Milking the cow is prize enough.”
Judge Terry was also impressed.
“For a cow of her age, she was extremely mobile and her udder was still well up in her. She had a huge barrel and length and she was extremely well set-up in the rump – hard-topped with some slope to her rump, which I love to see in older cows. She had an extremely strong ligament in her udder. Overall, it was her scale, mobility, udder and capacity that took her ahead of the Reserve cow.”
QUEENSLAND STATE FINAL RESULTS
Judge: Terry Tout, Cowarol Holsteins, Tamworth, NSW
Breeders 37
Entries 282
TWO YEAR OLD
1st: Kaloola Atwood D Liz 2nd – TK & LM Northfield, Kaloola Holsteins (Tatham)
2nd: Bevandale Goldwyn Adeen 5-IMP-ET – Bevandale Holsteins (Ravenshoe)
THREE YEAR OLD
1st: Clarkdale Deuce Eclipse – Clarkdale partnership, Clarkdale Holsteins (Caniaba)
2nd: Leader Hialexander Satin-ET – TW & MJ Deans, Leader Holsteins (Oakey)
FOUR YEAR OLD
1st: Anne Well Classic Buttercup-Red, Black & Gold Dairies, Anne Well Holsteins (Monto)
2nd: Kaloola Goldwyn Liz-ET, TK & LM Northfield, Kaloola Holsteins (Tatham)
FIVE YEAR OLD
1st: Arabella Jasper Georgette-IMP-ET – Arabella Farming Co, Arabella Holsteins (Brookstead)
2nd: Adadale Blitz Champagne – Paulger Partnership, Adadale Holsteins (Kenilworth)
MATURE
1st: Meadowland Igniter Rhythm – J & D Daley, Meadowland Holsteins (Millaa Millaa)
2nd: Bevandale Icefyre Meg – Bevandale Holsteins (Ravenshoe)
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