The British Friesian Herd of the Year Award has been won by the Northern Irish Inch herd from Downpatrick, Co. Down.
The award aims to recognise the UK’s top-performing British Friesian herd. The Inch herd is owned and cared for by a partnership of the Cleland and Morrison families.
Today, there are 30 elite milkers in the herd, which predominantly consists of British Friesians, with some Swedish Reds. The Inch herd has been ranked as the top herd in the UK for Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) for the past three years.
The British Friesian portion of the herd is currently averaging 8,343kg of milk at 4.87% butterfat and 3.62% protein, with 61% of the British Friesian milkers in their fifth lactation or more.
Calving interval over a six-year average is 368 days and 60% of the milking herd is classified ‘excellent’ (EX) with the rest achieving ‘very good’, and one exception of GP83.
The Inch herd
The partnership between the Cleland and the Morrison families sees James and Sarah Cleland manage the milking herd at the home farm, while Jim and Jeannie Morrison care for the young bulls and heifers at their base which is five miles away.
Milking production began at Inch in 1949 when Tom and Marion Morrison bought Dairy Shorthorns before introducing three British Friesian heifers three years later.
Although these heifers averaged £200/head, when land prices were £100/ac, they proved to be an exceptional investment and have bred over 3,000 animals registered to the Inch prefix, European breed society Holstein UK has said.
The Morrisons were one of the first families to embrace Holstein genetics in the 1970s, according to Holstein UK, and under the management of Tom’s two sons, Jim and Frank, numerous quality-cattle were produced.
This includes Inch Star Nina EX, the first Irish National Holstein Show Champion, who went on to sell for the record price of 6,500gns before she went on to become Winter Fair Champion for her new owners.
More recently, the Inch Holsteins became the current Northern Irish Premier Holstein Small Herd. They are also two-time winners of both the national Premier Herd Competition and the Master Breeder award.
After almost 50 years of breeding Holsteins, the Morrison family revisited the British Friesian bloodlines with the result being an “impressive hybrid”, Holstein UK said.
One particular cow, Inch Jed Daphne EX93 (4) 40 star, started the Friesian line and bred the only cow in the herd book to classify EX 12 times.
A simple grass-based system suits the herd well with buffer feeding of silage and concentrates fed in the parlour. The partnership currently has 15 bulls at leading artificial insemination (AI) studs, plus many more bred to Holstein herds providing hybrid vigour.
