Ballyclider herd hosts the 2023 IHFA OPEN DAY - Tuesday11th july

Peter Ging & family, Ballyclider, Portlaoise, Co. Laois

On Tuesday, July 11th the herd will host the IHFA National Open Day which is a fantastic honour for Peter, his family and the local Laois Offaly club. As current Chairman and lifelong supporter of Rathdowney Show Peter is well versed in the preparations and planning events of this scale require.

Herd Origins:

The Ballyclider herd was first pedigree registered in 1980 as the herd progressed from humble beginnings of 16 cows in the 1970’s. With careful breeding and management this grew to around 40 cows at the onset of the EU milk quote era. This restricted expansion of the herd somewhat and numbers remained relatively stable until quotas were removed. The herd now stands at 190 cows and the Ging’s rear approx. 150 calves on farm every year.

Peter relies heavily on his family, wife Mary and children, for support on the farm. The Ging family featured heavily in YMA circles in the early 2000’s as life on the farm fostered a great passion for the black and white breed, and they still take part in the summer show circuit whenever they can. Ballyclider Darkie 31 EX94 5E won Champion cow at the 2019 Clonaslee & District Show (Pictured overleaf). She represents the 7th generation of VG/EX cows in her line and has 89,467 kgs milk, 5,962 kgs milk solids lifetime yield in seven lactations The reputation Ballyclider holds for producing quality dairy animals is widely known, Peter credits this for the strongbase of repeat customers that purchase surplus calved heifers and breeding bulls annually.

Herd Production Figures: The herds 305 d averages were as follows: 8,841 milk kgs with 3.91% fat and 3.37% protein, resulting in 345kg fat and 298kg protein for a combined 644kg solids for 2022. The Ballyclider herd is split calving with approximately 65% of animals calving in the spring and the remaining 35% winter calving. Peter maintains excellent production figures through the winter on conserved forages such as grass silge, maize silage and wholecrop while supplementing with nuts in the parlour. All crops are grown on the farm. The land in Portlaoise lends itself to a long grazing period when weather is favourable, although they may be later getting out to graze in the spring than some other areas. Animals are typically out grazing from early march until early November. The herd SCC averaged 117 for 2022. Over 1.5 million litres were supplied to their co-op Tirlan last year.

Genetics at Ballyclider:

In the current herd 35 cows have classified EX and 121 VG, this is a just reward for the time and effort Peter has invested into breeding quality cows from strong cow families throughout his farming life. The herd consists of many cows from the Chris, Una, Darkie and Cocarde families. Breeding always focuses on good classification, feet & legs as well as efficient milk production. Of course the cows only represent 50% of the breeding equation and Peter is very selective in the bulls he utilises for breeding. Current sire selection requires all bulls used to be at least +400kgs for milk and +40kg solids. Recently Peter would have used bulls such as King Royal, King Doc, Pharoh and Lustre P. Many influential bulls would have been used over the years also such as Bartonhoo Prosperity, Barold Rock Seal, Ugela Bell, Bert and Convincer.

IHFA and pedigree breeding

Peter has been a lifelong member of the IHFA and was a founding member of the Laois Offaly club which has long boasted a significant membership number and regularly competes in national competitions. Peter won the national herds competition in 1997 and 2000 for the 50-80 cow or medium herd size section. Peter’s contributions to the IHFA resulted in him being elected IHFA President for 2015, which was the 50th Anniversary year of the IHFA. Peter served as IHFA Chairman previously and has regularly judged shows and herd competitions.

The Open Day is generously sponsored by Tirlan and FBD. The herds competition is sponsored by Greenvale.

The Ging family and the IHFA look forward to welcoming you all to this years Open Day. With a record number of trade stands, the annual National herds Competition results, National Stockjudging Competition and much more there is something for all the family to enjoy!

National Herds Competition 2023

The Judging of the National Herds Competition will take place this year commencing on the week 4th June. The judge is John Cousar, of the Howcommom Herd, Scotland. John is a member of the Holstein UK National Judges panel.

Changes To The Herds Competition Formula

There is a change in the format of the points this year with the board approving the introduction of sustainability traits, SCC, Calving Interval, Average herd parity and Milk value. EBI is split out to overall EBI, EBI fertility, EBI production and EBI health. The new percentages are below and the weightings overall: 34% Production + 60% Conformation +Sustainability 6%.

Production Calculation (34%)

11% Protein Kgs

4% Protein Percentage

5% Fat Kgs

2% Fat Percentage

2% Milk Volume

4% Milk Value

6% EBI (Overall -2%, Production -1.5%, Fertility-1.5%, Health-1%)

Conformation Calculation (60%)

15% Classification

45% Judge

Sustainability (6%)

2% Somatic Cell Count (SCC)

2% Calving Interval

2% Average Herd Parity

• All production herd figures used in the calculation will be based on qualifying lactations on 31st December 2022.

• Cow numbers for categories will be decided on the last official milk recording in May/ June this year.

• Classification will be based on the year previous.

• All unclassified animals will be given a nominal score of 74 points.

Key