Excellence is the rule at Grand-View Ayrshires

CECIL Excellence was on display when visitors from around the country stopped at Grand-View Ayrshires Farm, Cecil. The fellow Ayrshire breeders were treated to a tag sale, farm tour and lunch at the Tim and Katie Busch farm on June 28. The group of about 175 included visitors from as far away as Maine, Connecticut, Florida, California and Canada. The Busch farm was just one of the stops included on the tour for the 2012 Ayrshire National Convention, held June 26-30 in Appleton. The tour also included stops at Milk Source Genetics, Kaukauna; Ullm-Star Farm, owned by Damian and Kiley Ullmer and family, Seymour; and Simon’s Specialty Cheese, Little Chute. “It was great to have so many people from across the country tour our farm,” Tim Busch said. “We had a lot of people on the tour tell us what a great herd of cows we have. That makes all of the hard work worth it.” Currently, Grand-View Ayrshires Farm has 45 milking cows and about 100 total head of cattle. Tim Busch grew up on the 80-acre family farm and purchased it in 1996. The herd is 100 percent Ayrshires, which are rotationally grazed. The Busch family is especially proud of their Ayrshires. They noted that two of their cows represent eight generations of Excellent classification: Grand-View BBBK Dreamer (EX-93-2E) and Grand-View Sumtotal Divot (EX-92). “There are only two cow families in the breed history that go to eight generations Excellent, and these two cows represent one of those families,” Busch said. Both cows have the same granddam: Grand-View Oly2 Diva (EX-90-2E) with over 200,000 pounds of milk in her lifetime. Dreamer was the Futurity winner at the 2010 World Dairy Expo. Divot was Intermediate Champion and Reserve Grand Champion at Southern National Ayrshire Show in Louisville in 2011. According to Busch, both of these cows have been flushed extensively, with some embryos exported. Ayrshires The Ayrshire breed originated in the County of Ayr in Scotland, prior to 1800. During its development, it was referred to first as the Cunningham, then the Dunlop, and finally, the Ayrshire. Breed characteristics include red and white color, quality milk, great type and efficiency as grazers. The first importations of Ayrshires to the United States was believed to have been made around 1822 by HW Hills, of Windsor, CT. The largest numbers of Ayrshires are registered each year in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, and Vermont. For more information on Ayrshires, visit www.usayrshire.com or www.wisconsinayrshirebreeders.com.