Holstein Association USA’s Star of the Breed award recognizes a cow that would be many Registered Holstein breeders’ “dream;” a cow that can compete with the best both in the showring and with her milk production. The 2010 Star of the Breed is Scarlet-Summer RB Gwendelyn, bred and owned by Scarlet Summer Holsteins of Muncy, Pennsylvania. Scarlet Summer Holsteins is comprised of Jarrod and Marsha Burleigh, and their two children, Alex, 7, and Madison, 4. Both graduates of Delaware Valley College, Jarrod is a nutritionist with ADM, and Marsha works at the farm full-time.
Gwendelyn, born Dec. 6, 2004, is sired by STBVQ Rubens-ET, out of Mountainside Atomic Gwen, a daughter of Canyon-Breeze Atomic-ET, scored Very Good-85 as a 7 year old. Gwen has a top milk record at 5-02, in 365 days, of 53,150 pounds of milk with 4.0 percent fat (2,126 pounds) and 2.7 percent protein (1,435 pounds), with almost 200,000 pounds of lifetime production.
Gwendelyn herself is scored Excellent-94 2E, with an EX-96 point udder. She has been turning heads this lactation, making a 365-day record of 58,270 pounds of milk, with 5.2 percent fat (3,004 pounds) and 2.9 percent protein (1,677 pounds).
While she was never fresh at the right time to be shown much as a young cow, calving in late December 2009 set Gwendelyn up for a great show season in 2010. She got the year off to an exciting start, being named Grand Champion at the Pennsylvania Spring Holstein Show, later going on to win Reserve Senior Champion honors at the Pennsylvania Fall Holstein Show, and was the fifth place 5-Year-Old at the Eastern Fall National Holstein Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. in September. Capping off a fun year, Gwendelyn was the 2010 All-Pennsylvania 5-Year-Old Cow. The Burleighs have offspring and embryos out of Gwendelyn by Erbacres Damion, Regancrest Dundee-ET, KHW Kite Advent-ET and Markwell Kite-ET. Gwendelyn is pregnant, due in mid-November to Scarlet-Summer Shadowmaster, a Regancrest Dundee-ET son of a VG-88 Sunnylodge Linjet that goes back to Jarrod’s family’s breeding. The family hopes to show Gwendelyn throughout next year, starting in the spring, and is excited to see what kind of milk record she is capable of producing.
The Burleigh family milks 90 cows in a tiestall barn, which they built four years ago. They farm 180 acres, growing all the crops they need to feed the cows. The herd is currently averaging around 23,000 pounds of milk, with 1,080 pounds of fat. Their most recent BAA is 110.9 percent with 41 Excellent cows, 34 Very Good and 12 Good Plus animals. Of their breeding philosophy, Jarrod says, “I’d rather have the ‘best one’ than the ‘first one.’” They typically use proven bulls with known transmitting patterns, and like to alternate using bulls that throw powerful cows with bulls that sire dairyness. Scarlet Summer Holsteins is on Holstein COMPLETE, and classifies regularly.
For more information on the Star of the Breed Award, visit www.holsteinusa.com and click on Awards in the main menu. PD
—From Holstein Association USA news release
