British friesian bulls

[Friesianfan]

I thought I would start an alternative thread to the Holstein bull thread. What are people's best Bulls? Mine would be Black Isle glen albyn and tittenser hylke.

 

[Maxxum-man]

I have a fair few Hilton's coming through at the minute

 

[Friesianfan]

I've got hiltons in their fifth and sixth lactation and they're doing really well

 

[dinderleat]

Have you got any Quentin milking at the moment

 

[roboticherdsman]

Had a few Evolution's heifers milking well in the robots but those tracked down far back from Lakemead Alphonso bull are producing very good daughters and grand daughters.
Patrol's heifers calves looks good with nice coppered coats as he is a RC.

 

[roboticherdsman]

Yes, Quentin - very good too, and Tarquin.
Umpire are ok-ish but think they have less cell count and less mastitis than other but poor fert.
Got lots of heifer from Tex, Harris, Hilton, Quentin coming into the herd next autumn.

 

[Friesianfan]

Have you got any Quentin milking at the moment

No I've never used any Quentin. Too closely related to the rest of my herd. Have you got any?

 

[Maxxum-man]

No I've never used any Quentin. Too closely related to the rest of my herd. Have you got any?

We have a fair few Quentin cows about, old girls now, the sort of cows you want around, good milkers and a fair cull animal at the end

 

[Maxxum-man]

I need to check and see where our bradash tournament heifers are upto, I used him as he carried a red gene if I remember rightly

 

[roboticherdsman]

I use GMS the genetic breeding map from Genus to help stop the inbreeding in the herd as the 3rd lac here are quite inbred caused before I arrived and my next aim is to cut down the Cell Count as it's quite impossible to tackle with the robots and new upcoming test bull Bricroft Gunner may do the trick .

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

Forty years ago where I worked at weekends while still at school, he was calving heifers by a bull called Saham Grey Glide, don't think I've ever seen anything to match those, if I could have a wish come true, I'd have a herd of them.

 

[More to life]

The last Friesian cows we had circa 1995 were by pettril magnet I think that was the prefix . They were by far the best I can remember fantastic cows . lesmay superstar killed the breed of here ,so I crossed over to the dark side to find some milk .

 

[Friesianfan]

Forty years ago where I worked at weekends while still at school, he was calving heifers by a bull called Saham Grey Glide, don't think I've ever seen anything to match those, if I could have a wish come true, I'd have a herd of them.

The last Friesian cows we had circa 1995 were by pettril magnet I think that was the prefix . They were by far the best I can remember fantastic cows . lesmay superstar killed the breed of here ,so I crossed over to the dark side to find some milk .

You should try the modern British friesian. I think you would be pleasantly surprised!

 

[madscientist]

I thought I would start an alternative thread to the Holstein bull thread. What are people's best Bulls? Mine would be Black Isle glen albyn and tittenser hylke.

was it the Marside herd that was lost with foot & mouth? those bulls bred tough milky stock near me n a big pedigree herd. Marside performer rings a bell.

 

[Friesianfan]

was it the Marside herd that was lost with foot & mouth? those bulls bred tough milky stock near me n a big pedigree herd. Marside performer rings a bell.

Yes that's right marshside

 

[madscientist]

rubbished any ideas the friesan can't milk. did the herd rise up again in any matter or form?

 

[Sid]

Yes, Quentin - very good too, and Tarquin.
Umpire are ok-ish but think they have less cell count and less mastitis than other but poor fert.
Got lots of heifer from Tex, Harris, Hilton, Quentin coming into the herd next autumn.

We're milking Quentins tidy heifers nice and quiet.
Rancher is a good bull used a lot of him cows are 6 years oldnow.
Benloyal extremley tidy cows with nice udders.Used him twice.Heifers springing to him again atm.
Nauticus used him back in2002 (cows still here)and now have 2 nd round of heifers by him good longlasting cows.

Tournament, Hilton,Tarquin,Maverick,umpire in the youngstock.
Using Centrello, Solo and Brandysnap atm.

All heifers go onto AA bull and i'm more than happy to use a bull 5 years later again if he's done a good job. Can get too carried away with the latest "fashion" bull IMHO

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

You should try the modern British friesian. I think you would be pleasantly surprised!

I have actually just bought one, a very good bull off another TFF member.

 

[Fergieman]

I used Marshside Conqueror and have alot of older cows to him, Mainly using Winnoch bred bulls now and am pleased with them.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I was just thinking of starting a 'what Friesian '? thread but mine was going to be about what Friesian bull(s) to use over my jerseys. I guess this thread has the attention of most of the Friesian enthusiasts on here so here goes....

I started crossing 8/9 years ago when the farm was organic but when I came out of organic 4/5 years ago the only contract I could get was a channel island one so I sold the mongrel mob and went back to pure jerseys. I now have the opportunity to move to a standard manufacturing contract again so I'd like to have another for at crossing.

I only used 2 bulls, one was Hugo a kiwi Friesian and the other was Winnoch Officer a BF. I didn't really rate the Hugo daughters all that highly they mostly had jersey yields with Friesian solids. They were all sold as second calvers so may have got better as they matured. I preferred the Winnoch officer daughters, this was one of them.

I'm all spring calving and want to send more protein off the farm because it pays so much higher than fat, so I'm looking for a bit more volume than the jerseys while maintaining a good protein %. I also want to breed a slightly hardier animal, better suited to living out most of the year but I'm keen that the cows don't get too big.

Any thoughts? I certainly haven't ruled out using kiwi bulls again but also quite like the look of Quentin and some of the Catlane bulls.