Immunity+™ Competition Winner Announcement
The Robertson Partnership, owners of Brinkmarsh Holsteins from Falfield, Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire are the lucky winners of the Semex Immunity+ competition drawn at UK Dairy Day. They effectively win a year’s supply of Immunity+™ semen plus 100 straws of British Blue beef semen, worth over Ł6,000!
The partnership consists of Philip & Ann, their son Graham and his wife Sarah Robertson, and they milk 250 high yielding pedigree Holsteins averaging 12,500kgs at 3.80% fat and 3.30% protein, selling their milk to Cadbury’s. They also manage 750 acres, growing grass, maize and wheat to feed the cows. He entered the competition because of the attraction of using more Immunity+™ sires within the herd, he says.
“We are delighted to win,” said Graham.
“First of all we thought it was a wind-up when we heard. It was fantastic news and not only made my day but my year!
“For us herd health is our top priority, followed by type. We used Semex sires before Immunity+™ technology was launched, and fortunately some of the bulls we used were identified later as High Immune Responder Immunity+™ sires. As a result, we have the cows milking within the herd now and have seen an improvement in health. Going forward we are prioritising Immunity+™ sires and their benefits, as well as using with Robot-ready sires and also selecting milking speed, lower stature, type and longer teat length.
To help Mr Robertson make the best use of his straws his local rep Mark Pickford will run Semex’ Optimate™ breeding manager programme to ensure the best selection of sires and to minimise the effects of inbreeding.
Mark Pickford from Semex commented "Immunity+™ is growing in popularity at an exponential rate across the Semex customer because it is delivering real tangible results and benefits. The competition was enormously popular and I am delighted that my customer has won it. I look forward to helping him make the best use of it all!"
