increase font size
Supreme Junior Champion Glenidol Lambda Cookie, owned by 14-year-old Toby Whytock (kneeling), of Te Awamutu, gave the family a great run in their first big show.
The Supreme Junior Champion at last month’s NZ Dairy Event came with a great story for her 14-year-old owner, Toby Whytock.
Eighteen months ago, Toby and his parents, Newlands Whytock and Lee Morris (an equine vet who specialises in equine embryos through her business, EquibreedArt) decided to shift their focus on their 40ha farm from horses to cows.
They not only won Holstein Junior Champion and Supreme Junior Champion with Glenidol Lambda Cookie – they had two animals finish in the top-two of the six Holstein classes that peaked at 26-head in one class. It was a punchy start in the registered industry at the country’s premier show for this tight knit family which supplies Open Country Dairy.
“We’ve got a small farm, and we thought if we can have only a small number of cows we’ll have 50 really nice cows,” Lee said.
Lee said they had secured foundation cows from the Barclay family (Okawa Holsteins) and later from Tahora Holsteins’ Party at the Pub sale in Canterbury in April 2022. One of the those cows, sired by High Octane – Tahora Octane Cookie – bred them Cookie. It’s worth noting that Tahora Holsteins had a quiet hand in two of the three Supreme Champions of the show.
“We bought seven amazing animals, and her mother was one of them,” Lee said.
Newlands said he had always followed the production awards and had always been impressed by Tahora’s results.
“Now we’re buying some of their animals,” he smiled.
They both said – as Toby rushed straight from the win to join his team in the youth challenge – that it was an incredible feeling not just to show cattle, but to show cattle together.
“Because it’s such a family thing… kind of ‘united we stand’,” Lee said.
Milton dairy farmer Chris Wills says he began using probiotics in spring 2023 to address somatic cell count (SCC) grades when cows transitioned from their winter barn to lush spring pasture.
Treat your farm boundary like a border. This was one of the messages delivered to farmers at a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand Protect Your Patch workshop in Lincoln.
Feeding infected milk is high risk for spreading diseases such as M. bovis.
To ensure optimal growth, health, and wellbeing of calves, feeding strategies should be considered carefully.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
An independent report, prepared for Alliance farmer shareholders is backing the proposed $250 million joint venture investment by Irish company Dawn Meats Group.
Whangarei field service technician, Bryce Dickson has cemented his place in John Deere’s history, becoming the first ever person to win an award for the third time at the annual Australian and New Zealand Technician of the Year Awards, announced at a gala dinner in Brisbane last night.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…
