Former Guyra girl Donna Holland (nee Looker) and husband Denis have won a top prize for their New Zealand dairy farming operation. Donna is the daughter of Ron and Maureen Looker .
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The Hollands were the winners of the Royal Agricultural Society South Island Dairy Heifer competition.
The top prize followed being placed second in the Otago-Southland competition and being judged the overall winner of the Wyndham A & P Society in-calf heifer completion.
The Hollands milk 286 cows on their 180ha effective Kaiwera farm, which they converted seven years ago. The winning heifers were rising 2 year olds.
Winning the South Island competition was a fantastic result Mrs Holland said. Before entering the Wyndham competition they did not set their hopes too high. During the previous two years they had entered crossbred Freisan-Jersey heifers into competitions, but this year entered purebred Freisans, which meant they faced tougher competition against stud breeders.
Mrs Holland said that gaining prizes was secondary to stock management and feeding.
“We don’t just do it for the competition, we look after our calves because this is our income down the track and if you do not look after these calves when they come into milk they haven’t got the potential,” she said.
Royal Agricultural Society South Island dairy heifer competition convenor Mervyn Livingstone said the Hollands’ heifers competed against many thousands from throughout the South Island and faced strong competition from very experienced breeders.