Pennsylvania Holstein President Says
Job Is To Steady The Course
(Continued from Pago A 1)
“I like to see people get in
volved,” he says. “PHA offers a
lot of activities other than showing
that members can partake of. PCX'
instance, we find that if we get our
junior members to one activity,
like our judging schools or a state
junior convention, they’ll usually
be back.”
He is especially enthusiastic
about encouraging new members
to participate in the breed's activi
ties.
“I look at the new people be
coming involved in shows and
educational meetings and conven
tions and think that we must be
doing something right,” Burdette
believes. "And, it really trips my
trigger when a new exhibitor wins
at a show.”
Actually, Burdette is the pro
verbial poster-child for promoting
Holstein involvement. His dairy
ing career took root in Boyds,
Maryland, where his father, who
was in the excavation business,
began also operating a milking
herd on a neighboring farm. Along
with a hired employee handling
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the 80-head in a 22-stall milking
bam, young Jim Burdette came
home from school every day to
work with the cattle. His brother, a
professional surveyor, also lent a
hand with chores as time allowed.
Following graduation from high
school, Burdette began managing
the dairy herd full time.
But he new PHA president’s
cattle beginnings did not include
registered Holsteins. In fact, his
first turn around a showring, as a
rookie 4-H member, was at the
halter of an Ayrshire calf. Bur
dette could also be spotted hang
ing around the beef, horse and dog
portions of the local shows, where
4-H’cr Nina Brown might be exhi
biting her projects.
In August 1974 Jim and Nina
were married. Three months later,
they moved to a rented farm in
Pennsylvania, sandwiched be
tween Metcersburg and the stretch
of Tuscatora mountain which has
since become Whitetail Ski area.
“That first night after we moved
we milked 32 head, two registered
Holsteins, three grades and the
rest were Ayrshircs,” recalls Bur
dette. The two registered cows had
been purchased “off the truck”
from a cattle dealer. A third regis
tered cow was added a bit later, a
wedding gift from Nina’s sister
and brother-in-law, Nona and Joe
Swartzbeck, Union Bridge, Mary
land. The Swartzbecks, like the
Burdettes, are active Holstein
members and Joe is a past presi
dent of the Maryland Holstein As
sociation.
“She was right out of the top of
their herd,” Burdette relates. The
two-year-old Elevation daughter.
Peace and Plenty RA Susan,
milked 24,000 pounds her first
lactation, scored Very Good and
had two daughters for them.
That was just one of numerous
cattle success stories which have
developed over the years in the
Windy Knoll View herd. From
one of those first two registered
Holsteins purchased from the cat
tle dealer, Jim and Nina bred their
first homebred cow. Sired by Dun
cravin Boehms Countdown, Win
dy Knoll View CD Cindy-OC also
became their first Excellent cow.
As a 4-H judging team member
Special Pricing Good Through June 30th
Jim had visited the Boehm’s regis
tered herd in New Jersey, owned
by the world-renowned porcelain
artist, and seen the farm’s famed
Kings Artie Rose, matron of the
herd and dam of Countdown.
“I hiked that cow and I liked
Astronaut, his sire," remembers
Burdette of his reasoning for using
Rose’s Countdown son early in
his breeding program. The mating
proved to be an “Excellent”
choice, with several consecutive
generations of daughters scored
from EX-90 to EX-92 points.
In late April, the herd’s most re
cent classification, a sixth-genera
tion Excellent was added to this
tremendous pedigreed family
when Windy Knoll View Cassan
dra, a Raider daughter, sewed
EX-90 as a four-year-old. Windy
Knoll View has now bred 44 Ex
cellent cows.
Another special Excellent
boosted during that latest classifi
cation is a 13-year-old Gold
daughter scored 4E-92. Few cows
in the breed even fulfill a lifetime
of 10 calvings, let alone retain the
impressive “staying power” to be
come a 4-time-Excellent honoree.
As their dairy herd grew, so did
the Burdette family. Justin was
4 1-98
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 16, 1998-A2l
bom in 1978 and Kyle in 1982.
Both young men have been part of
the family dairying team since
they were small children and arc
breeding, developing and mer
chandising their own families of
cattle. In fact, claims Burdette,
they’re better merchandisers than
be is.
Ultimately, the animal that has
doubtless had the greatest impact
on the lives of the entire Burdette
family, and become the hallmark
of Windy Knoll View, was an
other homebred. Her name was
Windy-Knoll-View Ultimate
Pala.
Pala’s dam was one of two
Creek Bluff Lester daughters that
Burdette bred to the Canadian
born Quality Ultimate bull, sire of
several top show winners in the
“hot” cattle investor days of the
early 1980 s. Burdette took a liking
to the Quality Ultimate bull, ac
quired a couple of units of semen
and got two heifer calves for his
efforts. The first, Pala, was bom in
March 1985 followed by a Sep
tember 1985-bom paternal sister
which they named Lotsa Quality.
Lotsa Quality caught the eye of Lylehaven
Farms, Vermont, which eventually purchased
half-interest in her. She developed to become
a Reserve All-American and was second high
seller, at $10,500, at the 1987 World Premiere
Sale held at Madison, Wisconsin.
Burdette later flushed her dam again to
Quality Ultimate. The resulting offspring sold
for $15,000.
And, although purchase offers had also
come in for Pal a, the Burdettes turned them
down.
“We were offered a five-figure price for
her. I said ‘no’ I don’t know why,” reflects
Burdette of the now-historic decision to keep
Pala in the herd.
It wasn’t because her family had an ex
tended string of high-scoring pedigrees. Her
dam, the Creek Bluff Lester, scored VG-88 as
her best classification. Pala’s second dam
scored 78. On a second classification, follow
ing some health problems, she was dropped to
a score of 70. Before she could be classified a
third time, she died.
Pala’s own first daughter was a Valiant
She was named All-Pennsylvania summer
yearling, made 30,000 pounds of milk and
eventually carried an EX-92 classification
score on her paper.
Pala’s second daughter, was an Astrojet.
She scored VG-89 on her first evaluation,
won a high-dollar Pennsylvania Futurity con
test, milked 26,000 pounds with 1,200 pounds
of fat and was in line to be sold to Japan. Then,
one of those misfortunes hit familiar to most
livestock breeders, they were unable to get her
bred back.
But the pair of sisters, combined with their
mother, captured numerous of awards and
honors for the Windy Knoll herd, includingn
Reserve All-American Best Three Females in
1991. The daughters were also nominated
All-American Produce of Dam.
Her third calving produced a set of heifer
twins by Melvin. One was named the 1990
All-American summer yearling and went on
to be 3E-93, while the other scored VG-88.
Both produced records of over 33,000 pounds
of milk.
At that point in her career, Pala’s genetic
contribution to the breed was intensified as
the Burdettes began embryo-flushing this tre
mendous animal. According to Burdette, Pala
averaged 24 embryos per flush, and on one
occasion, produced 46 good embryos. Some
have gone to breeders on distant points of the
globe, others remained right at home in their
sons’ own growing herds of outstanding ani
mals.
Some years ago, Justin paid for a flush from
Pala to Counselor in exchange for his choice
of calves. The result was Pear, ultimately
scored 2E-94 and nominated Junior All-
American four times. Justin has flushed Pear
twice and sold offspring and embryos.
Kyle is currently flushing Pet, another
(Turn to Pag* A 24)