> No offence, but it amuses me how some farmers place importance on colour!
I have quite a few experiences regarding this very point.
But here is the best one.
Years ago, I took a loop through Lancaster County, PA looking for undiscovered
show cows. This was 460 miles from home, but we had pretty much exhausted
all closer possibilities.
>From the road, I spotted a straight "Canadian" looking young cow
showing a
deeply veined dry udder.
I braked to a halt, stood the car on it's nose actually, and scanned for and
found what had to be her mother across the pasture.
She was ramrod straight too, and I was certain she (the mother) was a Ellbank
Admiral Burke Ideal, as I had seen many.
Probably registered!, I thought, if she is indeed an Ellbank!
Very exciting! Just the reason why I had driven thousands of miles down dusty
back roads!
At that point, I then had enough information to be worth asking if they were
registered. I drove in and inquired, and they were registered!
A few minutes dickering around and I discovered the owner had never sold a cow
except for beef. He was an Old Order (Groffdale Conference) Mennonite.
It turned out that the old cow had the fancy young cow daughter, and two more
unfreshened daughters as well! Those were sired by Round Oak Rag Apple
Elevation and Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief!
And the old cow was bred back and safe to Elevation! The older daughter (by a
Charmer son) was also due in a month to Elevation and already had a year old
daughter by Elevation!
I bought all five for $5,000.00 and drove through the night back to Northern
Ohio.
They weren't big enough to win, but I figured that one generation further on,
with our nutrition, and we were headed for the "big time" with at
least one
from this tight new family!
A week later my Dad dropped some bred heifers at the Deep Water Terminal at
Richmond, Virginia and swung back through Lancaster, PA and got them.
He called from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and was as excited as I was. He also
figured that we had a chance at fortune and glory with something born in the
very next generation from this family. He too was pretty sure they were a
little small only because of nutrition.
Most people would have called them big, but I'm talking small as in "World
Dairy Expo small". That's still pretty darn big as most people figure.
Dad got home with them. Everyone was gathered near to see what we had, and to
make their own appraisal about what we could do with those cows and our
resources.
The five came down the ramp off the truck and I heard my Grandfather, HB Owen,
draw in his breath sharply.
I knew already what he had seen. I was hoping he wouldn't be sharp enough to
see what I had done. But he found it instantly! Darn!
The Arlinda Chief, who was still an open heifer, had black on her udder!
I'd had seen it the first instant I had seen her back in PA, but I thought Dad
and Grandfather would miss it on an open heifer. I'm more liberal than them.
Dad, didn't mention it but I'm pretty sure he saw it before he loaded and
decided to give me a pass on it.
HB Owen, my Grandfather, didn't elaborate about what I had tried to pull off.
Which was bringing in a family with an off colored individual, the black
udder.
He knew and he knew that I knew. He just said in his normal voice with no
explanation: "Get rid of them".
The next day, I wrote letters to 20 or 30 people whom I knew would believe me
and described what I had to sell.
Most of them came to look. I still have the cc of that letter in a file.
The third person to come bought them, but the rest came anyway just to see, as
was common then in the Registered Holstein community.
I sold them to Roger Schug, of nearby Monroeville, OH for exactly double,
$10,000.00.
Roger played with them for 3 or 4 years. He sold some to Brookview and bought
them back again. He sold a couple into Canada. The Charmer granddaughter
(middle generation) he eventually sold to Japan for $20,000.
But what made Holstein history was the Elevation open heifer from the Charmer
granddaughter. She was the 3rd generation of the cow family I bought in PA.
She was the dam of the fabulous show cow "Charity" at Hanoverhills.
She got
pregnant with Charity at Brookview but Charity was born back at Roger Schug's
when he bought back her dam. (That Elevation also was eventually exported to
Japan.)
Roger showed her, Charity, as a two year old at our local district Black &
White show. I beat her there on showmanship with a far lesser individual.
She, Charity, was then a slim and one-gutted two year old. But Roger sold her
to Hanoverhill where they needled her (probably) and grew her out. Two years
later, she was as big a 4 year old Holstein cow as has ever walked the earth.
Charity eventually was 1st four year old and Grand Champion cow at the two
Eastern National Holstein shows, both at Harrisburg, PA and also at The World
Dairy Expo at Madison.
They then made a overnight entry at Fresno and air freighted her over the
mountains and into California where she was Grand at the third of the three
National Holstein Shows.
Later she was Grand at the world's most prestigious Holstein show, The Royal
Winter Fair at Tronoto, Ontario.
She was All-American and All-Canadian as a 4 year old that year and repeated
as an aged cow for several more years.
Later, in the Hanoverhills Dispersal, the fabulous Charity was struck off for
1.5 million Canadian dollars to Roman Bros.
I had loaded my wife an all my kids in our car and we drove through to Port
Huron, Ontario so they could see history made at the Hanoverhill Dispersal.
And it was worth it, just to see Pete Heffering and Charity come sail into the
sale ring with all their flags flying.
At the exact same moment, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roman's long
black limousine slid to a stop just outside of the tent. George Roman
stepped out and stood partly behind the mirrored glass car door. Dave Houck
walked partly around the car from the right front seat and handled the
bidding.
That was unexpected and unscripted. A moment later R. Peter Heffering,
holding Charity behind him with one hand, humbled himself in front of the
world and begged Romans to let him retain half interest.
An unforgettable moment in Registered Holstein history.
-----
The thing is, we had the the genetic building blocks, the facilities, the
experience, the money, and all the other resources necessary.
We could have bred and developed Charity as well as anyone, but her
grandmother's maternal sister had black on her udder!
--
Kindest regards,
========================
F. W. Owen
Owenlea Holsteins
9430 Spencer Road
Homerville, Ohio 44235
e-mail fwo@bright.net
home page http://www.bright.net/~fwo
voice & fax 330.625.2369
cell 330.635.2287
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