One of the smartest, stylish, well bred herds of Holsteins in the north of England came under the hammer at Borderway Mart on Friday 19th October 2007.

Messrs R&W Dinnings “Benlaw” herd, although maybe not a household name in Pedigree circles, attracted universal admiration from the large crowd of pedigree and commercial dairy farmers in attendance. Almost exclusively the cows and heifers, bred off long wearing, regular calving, good production cows, displayed marvellous udders, excellent legs and feet, ample body capacity and overall style.

It was only right and proper that they sold well – and they did, from old cows to baby calves.

Some 30 cows and milking heifers made over 1600gns to a top of 3300gns, with six over 2000gns.

In particular demand too were the late winter, early spring calvers, an indication of the increased confidence in dairying.

Heifer calves consistenly between 500 and 800gns, and numerous yearlings at 900gns was a reflection of the reflect paid to the milkers that preceded them.

Leading prices

Averages
137 Cows & Heifers in milk/ in calf - £1318.78
17 In Calf & Served Heifers - £1134.00
35 Bulling & Maiden Heifers - £908.10
24 Heifer Calves - £541.63
213 Overall - £1087.96

CATALOGUE FOREWORD

In 1956 my parents, Bill and Margaret Dinning, bought cows and heifers from the Howdenside and Andmar herds of British Friesians to replace their Allenside herd of pedigree Dairy Shorthorns. Many of the families from those initial consignments are still with the herd today including the Bountiful, Christabel, Everest, Excess, Gift, Lovejoy and Mossrose.

In 1965 the herd was moved to its present home at Whittle Farm and the Benlaw prefix established. In due course expansion took place; a number of animals were bought from Roger and Jean Rutherford’s Greatham hard (Amy and Quaint) and John and Betty Gray’s Birkscott herd (Darkie, Arathusa, Lottie and Lenbell).

Regrettably, the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 resulted in the in-calf heifers and some of the young stock being taken out as dangerous contacts. Fortunately, some quality animals were acquired from the Catterlen and Denmire herds as replacements.

Grass forms an integral part of the unit and the herd is kept outside as long as possible on free draining land. A high proportion of the yield per cow comes from grass and forage.

The herd is winter housed in cubicles with a standard TMR. They are feed and milked twice a day through a herringbone parlour.

Last year (2006) the averages were
Cows 10,496 litres @ 3.68% bf & 3.14% p
Heifers 8784 litres @ 3.76% bf & 3.31% p (NMR RECORDS) SCC is 180

Classification has been carried out over a considerable period of time and there are many high scoring animals in the sale, a third of the herd is Excellent or Very Good. Also notable in the sale is the high proportion of the first and second calvers, the herd has an extremely quiet disposition there is some great characters amongst them, and they really have been a pleasure to milk.

In the milking portion the main sires over the last few years have been Micklin, Mystique, Thor, Kendall, Bosside Ruben, Manat and Convincer. The young stock is mainly sired by Aaron, Smarty, Shottle and Desire, with most of the cows in calf to Baxter and Lemmer.

A special word of thanks must go to Alan Gray for his great interest and guidance in taking the herds breeding policy forward over such a long period of time.

The herd is in a four year TB tasting programme. They have been vaccinated for Lepto in May 2007 and BVD in June 2007. Dry cow therapy is carried out using Cephaguard Dry Cow and Oberiseal.

Finally the Dinning family would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff who have worked at Whittle Farm for a combined total of 85 years; Jeff Harrison, Colin Dent and Susan Glendinning, whose dedication and good humour have been a great asset to our business.

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