A2o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 21,1954
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
TORONTO, Canada Six of
Canada’s top registered Holstein
herds opened their bam doors last
week to York County Holstein
members taking part in the
group’s annual farm tour.
Warm hospitality, impressive
cattle, and delightful spring
weather greeted the York
dairymen at the herds of Hanover
Hill, Roybrook, Romandale,
Rowntree, Browndale and
Ebyholme. All six of these out
standing operations are located on
the rolling farmland on the out
skirts of Ontario’s largest city.
Hanover Hill has its roots in New
York state, and just ten years ago
relocated to the Canadian
province. A 1972 dispersal of the
former Tara Hills herd paved the
way for the move north, where
many of the herd’s customers were
located and an excellent export
market for young sires exists.
From the initial herd of 45 cows
in the Hanover Hill operation re
started in 1974 at Port Perry,
numbers have grown to about 375
total head, with 105 in the milking
string.
30 Excellents
A roomy stall barn for 45 head
houses top animals, including the
farm’s 30 Excellents, and some of
the 35 VG and 30 GP individuals.
Overflow animals are kept in an
adjacent loose housing facility,
and switched to the stalls for
milking.
Two of the herd favorites were
familiar to most of the York
visitors. Brookfield Tony Charity,
1982 All-American winner by Mars
Tony, was a several-times national
show winner, including taking top
honors at the 1982 Harrisburg All-
American show.
She is fresh since July and
continues to milk over 100 pounds
per day with a 3.9 fat test,
projected to 28,000, and bred back
to Valiant. In November, Charity
was selected champion of
Toronto’s Royal Winter fair.
Matriarch of Hanover Hill is
Tara Hills Pride Lucky Barb, bom
in 1966 and given her own special
large boxstall in one of the farm’s
airy pole buildings for housing
young stock. Scored 2E-94, Barb is
the dam of the popular Red
Holstein sire, Hanover Hill Triple
Threat-Red, seeing heavy use in
herds on both sides of the border.
Hanover Hill continues to use
Triple Threat, as well as other
popular sires including Elevation,
Fond Matt and Citation R, ac
cording to Ken Trevena, co-owner
of the farm with Peter Heffering.
York’s state Holstein director Tom Boyer and his wife, June, talk with Brian Eby of
Ebyholme Farm.
Go along
Feeding program for this type
conscious herd is typically
Canadian, focusing on hay, which
is fed four times daily. Haylage
goes into the feed troughs twice a
day, with once-daily com silage
feedings.
While silage com can be grown
in the short warm season, com
grain cropping is not compatible
w|th the climate, and most feed
grains and concentrates are
purchased into Canadian feeding
programs.
Hanover Hill supplements their
ration with a mixture of cottonseed
and beetpulp to producers topping
70 pounds daily, boosting the
energy, protein and fiber levels of
the feeding program.
Calves are hutch-raised, then
moved into an enclosed, insulated
small-pen bam at weaning age.
Older claves and yearlings are
housed in large group pens, with
each animal identified by sire on
large, overhead blackboards.
“Small is beautiful” might be
considered the philosophy at
Roybrook Farms, Brooklin, where
an intensely linebred herd of 33
milking animals includes some of
Canada’s outstanding individuals
of the Holstein breed. Seven of the
only 600 “Elite” cows in Canada
are at Roybrook.
Balsam Brae Pluto Sovereign,
affectionately dubbed the “white”
cow, was the foundation of the
Roybrook herd, which today
averages over 18,000 milk with a
4.2 test. Included on the honors
listed beneath her picture which
hangs in the milkhouse are All-
Canadian aged cow in 1956 and
winner of the best udder at the
Royal Winter Fair that same year.
Seven generations of descen
dants from her are currently in the
milking string, and every animal
traces back to her, some with five
generations of Excellents in their
pedigree. Her son, Ace, by
Lakefield Fond Hope, turns up
somewhere in the piedigree of
every milking string member as
well.
Numerous herd sons have seen
popularity in the A.I. industry,
including such well-knowns as
Starlite, Telstar and Tempo.
Starlite worked extremely well
at Roybrook. Of the herd’s seven
Excellents, five are by Starlite,
and several milk over 1,000 pounds
fat.
Supports 4 families
This small operation owned by
Roy Ormiston, supports four
families through milking and
merchandising, and has a total of
about 75 head. Calves are raised in
Boyers talk with Canadian host
Focus on hay
on a Canadian Holstein tour
Foundation matriarch of the herd
With Hanover Hill co-owner Ken Trevena is Tara Hills Pride Lucky Barb, one of the
farm's foundation individuals. Now more than 17 years old, she is the dam of Hanover
Hill Triple Threat-Red and scored 2E-94.
an environment-controlled bam
and several of the most valued
brood cows are given individual
boxstall housing.
Top pedigrees
Romandale Farm is located near
Unionville, and the herd is
managed for owner Stephen
Roman by Dave Houck. Early
pedigree background on the herd
includes the bloodlines of Canadian
greats, ABC Reflection Sovereign
and Lakefield Fond Hope. Sons of
ABC, like Romandale Dividend
and Romandale Reflection
Marquis, added additional
pedigree strength.
A crossing of the herd’s Pet
Crysta, a former All-American, to
Citation R, resulted in a son that
sold to Japan but has been a
modem building block of the
Romandale breeding. Count
Crystan has eight outstanding
daughters in the herd, three scored
Excellent, four VG and one scored
GP.
Romandale has been well-known
to York Holstein breeders as the
co-owner of the George Knight
family’s Northcroft Ella
Elevation, EX-97-3E. Ella remains
at the Knight’s Woodbine farm in
York County, but two of her
daughters are milking in the
Romandale herd. They are by
Roybrook Starlite and Roman
dale’s own County Crystan.
York breeders welcomed
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Romandale herd superintendent Dave Houck welcomes
York breeders with a brief history of the bloodlines of this
world-famous herd.
Two of her sons are at Canada’s
United Breeders, one sired by
Browndale Sir Christopher and one
by Fleetridge Monitor. She is one
of only four milking females in the
Holstein breed to be four times All-
American, and won the Royal
Winter Fair, and All-Canadian
Aged Cow in 1981.
Pa.-bred cow
Another Pennsylvania-bred cow
also holds a prominent place in the
Romandale herd. Valley Pond
Astro Ann, an Astronaut daughter,
was bred by the Hershey Bare
family at their Lebanon R 2 farm.
Rowntree Farms heavily into
embryo transfer work from their
31 Excellents, 65 Very Goods and a
few GP individuals, with a herd
average of over 18,500 and 3.9 test
on 305 days. Three years ago, the
Brampton herd was Canada’s
highest on test.
Originally the owner of Em-
Tran, the embryo transfer
specialist firm at Elizabethtown,
Rowntree now operates Via-Pax,
their own ET subsidiary located
just a few miles from the main
farm.
As Canada’s third largest ex
porter of cattle, and leading bull
exporter, Rowntree has sent 500
V<*
f ! s **'
head to South America and Russia
since last October. Two or three
young sires are also syndicated
annually, including this year’s
favorite from their Symbol family,
Rowntree Replicator-ET, by Tidy
Burke Elevation. .
Showing is a major part of the
focus on merchandising at
Rowntree during the past ten
years, 26 All-American, All-
Canadian, or reserve honors have
been won by Rowntree’s out
standing individuals.
The milk will follow
While sire selection is largely in
response to market trends, em
phasis is put on good udders, feet
and legs, and body strength and
capacity.
“If those requirements are
met,” says breeder and mer
chandiser Tom Rowntree, “milk
production will follow.”
Bob Brown and his sons operate
Browndale Farms, near Paris, a
45-head milking herd with
production averaging over 20,500
milk and 805 fat.
Breeding of this herd is largely
along the lines of the farm’s own
bred sires, several of them from
their Excellent 1972-73 All-
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