Ayrshire cattle

They say that diversifying has helped them support the next generation and keep their cows.

The herd is between 80 and 90 head, with Brown Swiss, Jerseys, Ayrshires, and Holsteins.

Well, here's some fun news.

There is a new agriculture school for kids that are living in Michigan.

You've got two red herds.

Tell us about, or two red groups within your, uh, herd.

Yeah, I've got, um, pedigree Milking Shorthorns, which I've got about 60 of, and I've got about 30 pedigree Ayrshires in the herd.

And yeah, I've also got a couple of, um, pedigree Friesians that I work on as well, that are all, um, done on the breeding worth stuff, which is something I'm not a big believer in, but I just always like to give everything a wee go.

And tell us about the reds.

Um, the Shorthorns aren't that far behind.

Their, um, the herd average is about 600 milk solids, and the Shorthorns are sitting at about 580.

The Ayrshires are a, a bit lower.

In 1834, the Highland Society decided to split this pack up into four different classes for a hermit show.

And they had short horns, West Highlanders, Ayrshires, and the pole breeds.

of Galloway and Northern districts.

And that is basically it.

But I think we're just getting started.

We're having fun and we're looking into different breeds.

We showed a Swiss this year and we have a couple Ayrshires.

And it's been...

It's been great.

Right.

Um, he was w- he had a really big fancy Ayrshire herd.

Well, not big.

We've never been big in today's numbers.

Might have been in their day, but the B- they were in Ayrshires, hand milked in by us-

Really?

... way back then, aye.

And he-

Had the intermediate champion.

Grand of the junior show was a Colton daughter.

Maybe the show we dominated the most in, Ethan, is Ayrshires.

Ayrshires, it was a two-horse race to premier sire between Reynolds and King Sire, and Reynolds was our premier sire.

They each had 24 top 10 finishers, and I think I saw the other day it's nearly 96 top 10 finishes in the cow for milk source.

The, the, the King Sire was grand.

This is pure pageantry and theater.

The seven breed champions of the junior show, the absolute best Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Milking Shorthorn, and Red and White are all paraded out and lined up side by side on the colored shavings.

This is the part of dairy judging that always blows my mind.

The judges are essentially tasked with comparing apples to oranges to bananas and deciding which one is the single greatest piece of fruit.

How do you objectively compare a Holstein to an Ayrshire?

It requires deep encyclopedic knowledge of the breed standards.

You aren't comparing the Holstein's udder directly to the Ayrshire's udder because they are built differently for different environments.

Right.

Yep.

And, uh, they introduced us to, and I always mispronounce it, Ayrshires?

Yep, Ayrshires.

Yes.

You're right.

Very excited about that.

It was an Ayrshire.

I have great partners with that animal, and so it was just really exciting.

And to be able to have this new space is just a great way to celebrate that.