Cowden Arctic

Cowden Arctic calves are easy to calve and consistent in colour 

Cogent’s Barry Lawson paid a visit to a farm in his region to see how well the Cowden Arctic calves are performing.

6 week old heifer and bull calves by Cowden Arctic

J G Houseman & Sons run a pedigree Holstein dairy herd of 300 cows at Markington near Harrogate where they breed all their own replacements. Several years ago, Mr Houseman and his sons William and Richard started using Cogent for some of their beef semen.

For the last two years, they have been buying all their beef semen from Cogent - “the bulls at Cogent are easy calving and are priced well for the market we want,” said Richard. They have had consistent success with Cowden Vesuvius, and more recently Cowden Arctic.

Cowden Arctic has a 279 day gestation  The Houseman’s were not surprised at the latest proof for Cowden Arctic as it has mirrored their experience. William said “with a 279 day gestation length he is ideal for our dairy herd. We need top performance as quick as possible. The calves are smaller but they grow on quickly.”

We produce our own dairy replacements but when cows repeat more than once, they are served by AI with the British Blue – “getting them back in calf is the most important thing and the blue semen performs well”.

Consistency of marking  Brothers William and Richard both commented that the Arctic calves are very consistent in marking and that both the bull and heifer calves do well. “The calves are all evenly matched, a good shape and are very thrifty. We have had people here who found it hard to believe the heifer calves were the same age as the bull calves – they have done well.”

Bull calves go to the local auction or are sold privately. The heifer calves are kept on and are sold as stores at around 14 – 8 months.

Whilst on a visit to see Holstein cross calves by Cowden Arctic, Cogent’s Barry Lawson took the opportunity to inspect a group of store heifers by Cowden Vesuvius .