It was a double win for Chad and Kristen Gordon from Gorgala Holsteins at this years Winter Fair, taking home Supreme Intermediate Champion Cow with Gorgala Lambda Rae and Grand Champion Red and White with Gorbro Mirand Admire.
The couple bought Mirand Admire as a calf and she has done particularly well over the years.
“She’s a great cow to work with and the Winter Fair just suits her – her mother goes back to the well-known LuckE Advent Asia cow,” Chad said.
Gorgala Lambda Rae has some strong Avonlea cow families in her lineage including Avonlea Brady Rae and Avonlea Dorman Ritzy who was champion cow at the Melbourne Show back in the day
“Lambda Rae is a really balanced cow – she has a great frame, a quality udder and she produces a lot of milk.
“We are rapt she has won because she is the type of cow we like to milk and the type of cow we like to promote with our breeding,” he said.
Chad attributes some of the show success to Simon Tognala and his crew .
“As usual they did an outstanding job and had the cows looking amazing.”
Chad said the Winter Fair is a great show and suits the calving pattern of the Gorgala herd.
“We calve 70 per cent of the herd in autumn and the balance in spring, so the middle of the year works really well for us.
“It provides us with an opportunity to really showcase and promote Gorgala – the people are great, the atmosphere is good and everyone just gets along and gets the job done.
“Stu and Clare and the organising team did a great job over the years and I am glad someone like Declan has taken it on. Hopefully, with the Jersey’s joining there will be more cows and more opportunity for sponsorship down the track.”
Chad and Kristen milk 450 registered cows in a 30-swingover at Tongala.
They are at the upper end of their herd size and are at the point where they either sell some cows to reduce the herd numbers or invest in a new dairy.
“We have around 550 young stock running around the place so we have been selling a few each autumn and spring.
“I join all our heifers to sexed semen and while we do mop them up with the Angus bull, I can’t bring myself to join the milking herd to Angus so we always have way too many, well-bred young stock.”
Chad said herd numbers jumped a few years ago when the export market collapsed and it was hard to move stock.
“We went from milking 300 to 450 but we are spending around three hours in the shed each milking so we definitely need to look at our herd numbers in the future.”
Chad didn’t rule out the possibility of an on-farm sale sometime in the future.