DOLLY P HAS MORE THAN ONE SON

179JE 058    FAIRWAY BRENDON DAGWOOD P

aAa 1-2-6-5-4-3           Semen price   $ 7.00

(Maternal brother to 76JE140 Fairway Topkick DEACON P-- current highest type polled Jersey sire)

Tom and Cheri Harsh at Tipton MI are relatively new to dairying and even newer to the business of purebred Jerseys.    They started a grass-based dairy in SE Michigan from scratch in 2000, and in a short period of time realized the tremendous management advantage of the polled (naturally hornless) gene that is more prevalent in Jerseys than in any other major dairy breed.   After the decision was made to pursue polled heads, they developed the practice of purchasing annually in the winter, a pedigreed polled sire (with a chance of being homozygous, ie, "pure" polled) that would first breed heifers, and then clean up behind AI'd cows, so as to increase the polled gene frequency in their herd.

"Dagwood" was the first of the pedigreed polled sires they acquired for this purpose (since followed by Dutch Hollow Perry P, Tizol of Reber P, and Fairway Iatola Duke P, in current residence) and they now have a dozen milking "Dagwood"s on the farm they like pretty well for their quiet dispositions, easy milking habits, and generally good type.     Unfortunately, he proved (like all the others above) to just be heterozygous polled, where you expect 50% polled heads from horned mates, rather than the 100% polled you would get from a homozygous polled sire on horned mates.

On their second type appraisal with AJCA, the Harsh's had the following results from their random use of "Dagwood":  nine milking daughters, scored 83, 83, 82, 82, 81, 81, 76, 75, 64 (this one calved blind in two quarters but was milking enough that Tom saved her).    Thus 67% of his daughters scored VG, the blemished one pulling his average down to 78.6 to date (without her included, the eight keepers average 80.4 which is two points above Harsh's older cows).

BREEDERS CHOICE SIRES made arrangements to collect "Dagwood" after his year of service, after which he was sold to a large Red & White dairy for use on heifers.   He remained a quiet and easy working, tractable bull for another year and a half before an injury ended his career.

Depending upon how his calves look, BREEDERS CHOICE SIRES may also collect semen from his younger brother, FAIRWAY IATOLA DUKE P, for 2009 season use.

BERRY COLLEGE (GA) TO SCHULTZ DAIRY (VA)

The maternal line of "Dagwood" starts with ADONIS DOLLY OF ASH GO P, EX92%, 100,000 + life to date, a daughter of Comfort Pal Adonis ("Althea") who now has four EX daughters and emerging granddaughters and grandsons making an AI impact.    Her dam came from the herd of the Godfrey family, as a result of their purchase of a Berry College- bred cow, bred to "Berretta", scored VG86%, best record over 24,000m and over 100,000m lifetime (purchased as a heifer in a Dixie Invitational Sale held at Sunny Day Farm-- a heifer many thought was the best individual offered that day).   The next dam is by Meri Acres Duncan Atlantis P (son of the EX96% 311,000m lifetime "Aron" cow) which was the original source of the polled gene leading up to "Dolly' and her offspring.

The sire of "Dagwood" is Dutch Hollow Brendon P, a polled "Barber" son of the famous polled matriarch, Dutch Hollow Lester Mischief P, an EX91% cow, the dam of Dutch Hollow Berrettas Choice P (and his full sister, the EX92% "Masquerade P").    "Brendon P" made tall cows with the trademark "Barber" udders, had a short career at Select Sires prior to being exported to South America, where interest in polled Jerseys is significant and increasing.

  This cow line is proving to be a bright newer source of the polled gene, and a couple of the maternal sisters to "Dagwood P" are providing young bulls for AI sampling.

But what always intrigued us about this cow line is the background presence of cows that have high lifetime reputations-- the most obvious being that most unique combination of polled, type, produciton and longevity= EX96% National show champion 311,000m lifetime Maplerow Mercury Aron P, whose "Duncan" son mentioned above is seen in hindsight as a useful progenitor of "plus PL". 

Two of the three best daughters of Yankee FW Chief-- WF/L&M Chief Barb (dam of "Barber") and Greenridge FW Chief Althea (dam of "Adonis")-- are also in there.

"Mischief P" lived a full life-- her daughter "Masquerade P" is still living as an embryo donor-- and the dam of "Berretta" made it to teenage.