15 The first Guernsey cattle were imported into Brazil in the seventeen century by the Baron of Nova Friburgo to the famous “Fazenda Gavião” located in Cantagalo, state of Rio de Janeiro. From that time it grew up to be the number one European dairy breed raised in Brazil up to the 50’s when the Brazilian Guernsey Cattle Association had around 80,000 cattle registered as P.O. (Pure of Origin). Since the 50’s aggressive marketing of the Holstein breed has changed this situation. At that point in time the Brazilian Government stopped paying dairy farmers a minimum price for milk and the emphasis was put then on quantity rather than qual- ity. In the 70’s and 80’s the Almeida family managed the Brazilian Guernsey Cattle Association and during this period the number of registered animals went down to 300 - 500 animals per year. Mr Custodio Almeida was the main Guernsey cattle breeder followed by his son Custodio Augusto. They had a herd of about 200 Guernsey registered cows in the 1980’s. The Almeida family proved that the Guernsey breed was ideal for crossing with Zebu dairy breeds like the Gir and Guzerat, resulting in cows well adapted to tropical regions. In fact Mr Almeida believes that among all the European dairy breeds, the Guernsey is the one that is most adapted to the trop- ical climate due to its skin pigmentation. In the 90’s the Association moved its headquarters from the place were it was historically introduced in Brazil, the state of Rio de Janeiro, up to the state of Bahia, a state located in a much warmer location. Since then interest in the breed has declined. Today there are no known purebred Guernseys in Brazil. One can say that the breed went into extinction in this country. In 2004 a small group of Guernsey lovers decided to save Guernseys from total extinction and to rebuild the breed in Brazil. The key person reuniting old and new Guernsey breed- ers was Jose Luiz Moreira Garcia, a Brazilian agronomist who has a great interest in Organic Farming. Having studied all the breeds that have inherently higher milk quality, Mr. Garcia chose the Guernsey due to its higher beta carotene milk content as well as higher solids and butterfat. However, the overriding factor in his decision to raise Guernseys was the milk protein Beta Casein A2, which supposedly does not cause allergy in people who have allergy to milk. Over 90% of Guernseys carry protein. “Of course, a number of other attributes like longevity, docility and the overall beauty of this breed, apart from partici- pating in the rescue and re-establishment of the breed has moti- vated me the most” says Mr. Garcia. “I have started visiting all the remaining farms that were said to have had Guernsey cows in the past and I have managed to purchase at least five cows that still had some visible Guernsey blood as judged by the deep yellow skin pigmentation and the characteristic brown and white hair coat colour. I then bred them by A.I. to a bull named “Luxury” (7 GU00339) from Select Sires. This was the only semen of the Guernsey breed available in Brazil in 2004. Since then I have started talking to all the A.I. firms dealing in Brazil and some, like Semex, have brought several other options as well as Select Sires. The sale of Guernsey semen in Brazil has increased by 38% since we started promoting this breed again,” says Mr. Garcia. The newly reunited association has plans to import from 50 to 70 frozen embryos to start all over again. Meanwhile they are having much fun in raising half bloods or even threequarter- breds as can be seen in the picture. GUERNSEY GENETIC RESCUE IN BRAZIL
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The first Guernsey cattle were imported into Brazil in theseventeen century by the Baron of Nova Friburgo to the famous“Fazenda Gavião” located in Cantagalo, state of Rio de Janeiro.
From that time it grew up to be the number one Europeandairy breed raised in Brazil up to the 50’s when the BrazilianGuernsey Cattle Association had around 80,000 cattle registeredas P.O. (Pure of Origin).
Since the 50’s aggressive marketing of the Holstein breedhas changed this situation. At that point in time the BrazilianGovernment stopped paying dairy farmers a minimum price formilk and the emphasis was put then on quantity rather than qual-ity. In the 70’s and 80’s the Almeida family managed theBrazilian Guernsey Cattle Association and during this period thenumber of registered animals went down to 300 - 500 animalsper year.
Mr Custodio Almeida was the main Guernsey cattle breederfollowed by his son Custodio Augusto. They had a herd of about200 Guernsey registered cows in the 1980’s.
The Almeida family proved that the Guernsey breed wasideal for crossing with Zebu dairy breeds like the Gir andGuzerat, resulting in cows well adapted to tropical regions. Infact Mr Almeida believes that among all the European dairybreeds, the Guernsey is the one that is most adapted to the trop-ical climate due to its skin pigmentation.
In the 90’s the Association moved its headquarters from theplace were it was historically introduced in Brazil, the state ofRio de Janeiro, up to the state of Bahia, a state located in a muchwarmer location. Since then interest in the breed has declined.Today there are no known purebred Guernseys in Brazil. Onecan say that the breed went into extinction in this country.
In 2004 a small group of Guernsey lovers decided to save
Guernseys from total extinction and to rebuild the breed inBrazil. The key person reuniting old and new Guernsey breed-ers was Jose Luiz Moreira Garcia, a Brazilian agronomist whohas a great interest in Organic Farming. Having studied all thebreeds that have inherently higher milk quality, Mr. Garciachose the Guernsey due to its higher beta carotene milk contentas well as higher solids and butterfat. However, the overridingfactor in his decision to raise Guernseys was the milk proteinBeta Casein A2, which supposedly does not cause allergy inpeople who have allergy to milk. Over 90% of Guernseys carryprotein.
“Of course, a number of other attributes like longevity,docility and the overall beauty of this breed, apart from partici-pating in the rescue and re-establishment of the breed has moti-vated me the most” says Mr. Garcia. “I have started visiting allthe remaining farms that were said to have had Guernsey cowsin the past and I have managed to purchase at least five cowsthat still had some visible Guernsey blood as judged by the deepyellow skin pigmentation and the characteristic brown andwhite hair coat colour. I then bred them by A.I. to a bull named“Luxury” (7 GU00339) from Select Sires. This was the onlysemen of the Guernsey breed available in Brazil in 2004. Sincethen I have started talking to all the A.I. firms dealing in Braziland some, like Semex, have brought several other options aswell as Select Sires. The sale of Guernsey semen in Brazil hasincreased by 38% since we started promoting this breed again,”says Mr. Garcia.
The newly reunited association has plans to import from 50to 70 frozen embryos to start all over again. Meanwhile they arehaving much fun in raising half bloods or even threequarter-breds as can be seen in the picture.
GUERNSEY GENETIC RESCUE IN BRAZIL
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On a late afternoon visit to a dimly lit heifer barn inthe state of Wisconsin, in the USA, a huge headappeared in the opening to a nearby box stall and let outa bellow.
“Don’t worry about him, that’s just a young sire weare housing called Royal Oak,” said Dale Jensen, myhost for a visit to Jensgolden Farm in A m e r y,Wisconsin. Heeding Dale’s advice, I went another cou-ple years without giving another thought to the massivebull I had seen that day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t untilhis first daughters were well into their second lactationsthat anyone really noticed him at all. The modern dairyindustry has not historically been kind to late bloomers,but Jensgolden Proking Royal Oak bucked those oddsand now ranks among the top ten bulls in the breed forUS PTI, and is considered by many to be the most com-plete bull of his generation.
Formed in 1997, Jens-Gold Farm is the partnershipof brothers Dale and Lyle Jensen and Dale’s wifeTeressa. Daughter Kirsten Klugow is the herdspersonand son Trent, who has his own Guernsey herd nearby,helps with crops. Together, they farm nearly 1,000 acres andmilk 205 Registered Guernseys through a parlor. At the time ofmy visit in the mid-1990’s, Lyle still maintained a separate herddown the road (Level Gold) and Dale milked about 80 cows ina tie-stall barn operating under the name Jensgolden Farm.
The story of Royal Oak really begins with his sire,Jensgolden V Protein King. Protein King was a popular sire forsome time and was known for siring exceptionally high test,great teat placement and very deep rib. Protein King was sonamed because he was part of a sampling program run byWisconsin GBA that was concentrating on sons of high proteincows. Both Protein King and his sire, Harmony QuantityVolcano, still show identical PTA’s of +.31% for fat and +.07%for protein.
“Sometimes I think I should have named him ‘ButterfatKing’,” laughed Dale Jensen.
Protein King had an outcross pedigree with Volcano on topof an Olympic View B Maverick daughter. Those that follow theJens Gold ads in the Guernsey Breeders’Journal will recognizethe granddam of Protein King as “Kelly the Cow”, an early herdfavorite and now the announcer of news from Jens Gold in theirfrequent advertisements. Moderate genetic evaluations for totalyield limited the demand for sons from Volcano and ProteinKing. Only seven Volcano sons were sampled. In researchingpedigrees today, it is apparent that Volcano and Rozelyn PatsPrince are the primary source for improved components in thebreed. Royal Oak was the only one of the four Protein King sonssampled in AI to return to active service.
On the maternal side, Royal Oak has a mainstream pedigree.His Dutch Mill Telestars Fayette dam did everything one couldask of a cow. Jensgolden Fayette Orianna was EX-92 with over
136,000M. Her lifetime components of 4.6% fat and 3.7% pro-tein are typical of what is expected of her granddaughters. Shehad three daughters with over 23,000M 1,150F and 800P. Twoof these were VG-88 and the other was EX-90. The VG-88Mercury is the dam of Jens Gold Sentry Onward, a bull thatappeared on the Active AI list. Royal Oak’s brother Jens GoldBionic Option, has had several Excellent daughters and a hand-ful of sons sampled in AI.
Royal Oak’s granddam was a Co Hill Farms Big Tex thatwas lost at calving.
“Orianna’s dam was injured as a heifer and never got goingafter freshening, although I credit Big Tex for bringing greatudders into the pedigree,” explained Dale Jensen.
The dam of the Big Tex was a daughter of SchwinghammerFarms Quantity, providing the base for high components on thebottom side of Royal Oak’s pedigree.
“I wanted to lock in great teat placement with this mating,”stated Dale Jensen of his decision to use Protein King. “I hadcorrectively mated Orianna to Magic and Mercury, knowing shewould protect them for teat placement. I also expected ProteinKing to lengthen Orianna’s shorter fore udder.”
When a flush to Protein King yielded no pregnancies,Orianna was bred back to him. Royal Oak was the result, bornin March of 1993. Blaine Crosser of Select Sires agreed to sam-ple the bull through Dairybelt Guernsey Sires.
“It was the different sire stack and the opportunity to have ason of Orianna that caused me to select Royal Oak to sample incooperation with Dairybelt Guernsey Sires. His breeder, DaleJensen, had already made the mating of Fayette Orianna toProtein King. With all the Magic and Perfecto sons being prog-
Jensgolden Proking Royal Oakproving impressive on both sides of the Atlantic
Jensgolden Proking Royal Oak
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eny tested at the time, Royal Oak offered a pedigreebuilt for high components,” explained Blaine.
Dale noted, “Royal Oak could have been a showbull, he was so flat boned and deep ribbed. His daugh-ters are way above average for width of chest andframe. When we had our first daughters, we actuallyworried they would be too big. We now use him to cor-rect udders but protect him for straight legs.”
Jens Gold was home to several first-crop daughters,three of which are still in the herd with over 100,000M.Full sisters Stayne and Spruce have been highlights ofthe herd in recent years, with Spruce garnering an All-American nomination in 2004.
“When Stayne was a calf we liked her so much, webred her dam right back to Royal Oak. We almost neveruse the same Young Sire twice on the same cow. I’mglad we did,” exclaimed Dale.
Jensgolden Royal Oak Henna still ranks in the top10 of the breed for CPI and has two grandsons and sev-eral brothers in AI. She is the result of mating theJensen’s other top bull mother in the 1990’s, VolcanoHelen, to Royal Oak.
Royal Oak has 412 registered offspring in the US,and many more overseas. 190 of his daughters are classified inthe US, with a remarkable 70% scoring VG or EX. All told, theyaverage 82.2 points on final score. 148 daughters have beenscored in England, achieving an average of 80.4 points.
The highest scored Royal Oak in the world resides, not inNorth America, but in England. Boskenna Lauren is the onlyEX-95 Guernsey cow in that country. England is also home toan EX-94 Royal Oak daughter, Wardour RO Fawn, a cow thathas produced over 22,000M three times and is on pace to makeover 26,000M this year. In North America, R Way Royal OakFaye certainly tops the list of high type Royal Oak daughters.She is scored EX-94 and has been an All-American twice, inaddition to winning the Reserve Grand Champion banner atWorld Dairy Expo in 2004. Up The Creek Royal Oak Winky isthe only Royal Oak scored EX-93 and was the first outstandingfirst-crop daughter that most US breeders saw. After she wonher class as a Sr. Three-Year-Old at Madison, breeders beganclamoring for Royal Oak semen. She has been a consistent showring performer for many years and is still in the Up The Creekherd, making an appearance at the Minnesota State Fair in 2005at the age of nine. Jens Gold Royal Oak Z Spruce, EX-92,rounds out the list of top scoring Royal Oak daughters. She hastwo sons in AI and was the 2004 HM All-American Aged Cow.Faye and Spruce helped propel Royal Oak to the Premier SireAward at World Dairy Expo in 2004.
Royal Oak’s type proof looks almost too good to be true, yetit describes most of the daughters perfectly. He sires great teatplacement with shallow, well-attached udders. They are tallerthan average, wide and very deep bodied. He has a tendency todrop the pins down lower than is ideal and to lengthen teats. Hesires moderate improvements in yield while improving both fatand protein percentages.
“Royal Oak has provided frame, improved udders andimproved test and it seems as though his sons are carrying on thesame way,” commented Digby Gribble, fieldman for the EnglishGuernsey Cattle Society.
The first sons of Royal Oak have received their USDAgenetic evaluations, with two in the US and one in England. Oneon each side of the Atlantic is making noise already. TredinneyRoyal Highness is highly proven in England and plans areunderway for a possible importation of semen to the US. RipleyFarms R Oak Royalty-ET is getting some attention based on animpressive early proof for production. Several other sons aredue to have many daughters milking in the coming months,including Four Winds Deemand-ET, one of the most popularyoung sires in recent years
Blaine Crosser is excited to see how the Royal Oak sons andgrandsons turn out.
“Royal Oak's major contribution to the breed has been hisability to improve butterfat test at a time when Guernseys hadlost ground in that area. His unique pedigree, shallow andwell-attached udders, strength and substance of bone also havemade Royal Oak a very special bull for the breed. I really likethe fact that the Royal Oak breeding pattern is very consistent.You can pick them out in herds wherever you go in the U.S. orthe U.K.”
At the 2005 National Convention Sale, the gavel fell on afinal bid of $325 per unit for Royal Oak semen. For a bull thatcan work so well on so many cows, it nearly seems like a bar-gain.
“We named him Royal Oak because he was the son of aKing,” stated Dale Jensen. He has certainly lived up to his royalheritage.
Jensgolden Fayette Orianna
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CANADA: TOP 20 RANKED BY LPI May 2006LPI={6(9(protein) +2(fat) +4) 5(MS) +4(LF) +Conf. +Cap)}x7
NB. Canadian proofs are expressed in Breeding Values (BV). An animal’s BVis equal to double its PTA. Thus BV=PTAx2 PTA=BV÷2 http://www.cdn.ca
