38 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Lindsay and Caroline Burnell Passion for breeding passed on to family Karen Phelps Seventy eight year old Lindsay Burnell still gets up and brings the cows in each morning. Wife Caroline, 76, hasn’t stepped back totally from the farm either and is ‘on call’: “I want to make sure everything is going right,” says Lindsay. “I hose down the yard and put up electric fences. I don’t want to retire.” Ayrshires have been a passion of a lifetime for the pair and there is no slowing down in that area either. Their 125ha effective unit at Ohau near Levin milks a herd of 280 cows. The herd is a mix of Ayrshire (40%), Friesian (55%) and Jersey Cross (5%). Lindsay says the mix ensures a good balance of production and resilience. While Friesians and Jersey Crosses may produce better under good conditions the Ayrshires withstand challenging conditions better, he says. Most of farm’s Ayrshires are part of Holyrood Stud and Lindsay says the aim is to breed a medium sized cow with good feet, mobility, in-calf Lyndsay and Caroline Burnell’s passion for breeding Ayrshires has been passed on to the next generation. rates and production. Recently they have started adding in Viking Red genetics, which has its origins in the three Nordic dairy breeds: Swedish Red, Danish Red and Finnish Ayrshire. “We felt that Ayrshires have become a very small gene pool and yet there are some really good animals coming from studs such as Kiteroa, Lodore,Inglecorner and many more studs,” explains Lindsay. “VikingRed offers another option and gives a bigger base of genetics and they are complete outcrosses compared to what we have used in the past.” He says Ayrshire breeders have had some success with VikingRed, which led them to want to experiment in their own herd. “We’d like to see a more robust animal. Our cows have very good conformation but we are looking to improve this further getting a slightly larger cow and one that will go nicely over New Zealand genetics resulting in a cow that can milk and perform really well. We are looking forward to seeing what the calves with the VikingRed genetics milk like in a year’s time.” He says there is also quite a bit of American and Canadian blood being brought into the Ayrshire breed, which he sees as a positive. “All of a sudden there seems to be an awareness we can’t carry on with a small gene pool of Ayrshires, we need to get outcrosses.” Lindsay considers the Ayrshire breed is improving all the time. “There is a lot of interest to breed from show animals because they look brilliant and they are starting to produce good production figures. We have cows that will compete with any breed and we’re now seeing a number of Ayrshires selling for pretty fabulous prices.” Lindsay and Caroline’s sons Andrew and Nathan are now running the farm on a day-to-day basis. They share the family passion for breeding cows and so do the grandchildren Laura, 8 and Max, 10. “The grandkids tell us what breeding they want for their calves,” says Lindsay with a proud laugh. “They know what bull they want the cows to get in calf to so they can have a heifer calf for calf club. We all still have a passion for breeding cows and it’s great to see that carry on into the next generation.” For all your agricultural and building requirements contact Gary The team at Davis Contracting Levin Ltd are proud to support Lindsay and Caroline Burnell • Grass & Maize Silage • Round & Square Hay & Baleage • Cultivation • Cartage • Hedgecutting • Tube or Individual Wrapping Fer t i l i ser Spread i ng | Boom Spray i ng Cu l t i va t i ng | Round Ba l age or Hay Farm Race Repa i r s Ema i l : mdpage@farms ide . co . nz PAGE SPREADERS LTD AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTOR
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