We switched from Jerseys to Ayrshires in 2023 primarily because we struggled with low quality forage in our pastures, and Ayrshires were advertised as being tough cows who thrive even on sub-par forage. We first purchased two cows from Sunny Acres Farm in NY, and were pleased with our experience. A year later we bought 4 more Ayshires from a herd dispersal in PA. The animals were from Vales-Pride farms in MD. After working with them all for a while, a couple clearly didn’t fit with our management system, so we sent them down the road, leaving us with 4 Ayrshires to work with.
Sunny-Acres Midas’s Kalamity is our favorite. She’s calm and cooperative, stays healthy and well-conditioned with minimal grain supplementation, is a very good mother, and has a stunning udder that milks quickly. She is a lower producer, but I don’t mind that when she has the strengths she does.
Vales-Pride Redemption Bess is our highest producer. She has been resilient, but is harder to keep in good condition than Kalamity. Her udder is a bit uneven in production per quarter, so she’s somewhat annoying to milk, but her teats are long, which I like, and she’s generally a good cow.
Vales-Pride Alaska Oakyla has had some challenges to overcome since she came to us. We learned what Hairy Hoof Warts are, thanks to her, and, thanks to our local IBA supplier, were able to successfully eradicate them using Big Shot hoof spray. Not long after her feet were finally doing well, she came down with a mysterious tongue/mouth issue that affected her ability to graze. She lost condition, was in pain, and despite having vets out to examine her twice, we never figured out what was going on with her. She could eat hay, so was able to gain a little condition before calving in November. During the winter her tongue healed, and she milked beautifully despite my fears of problems due to her being thinner than ideal. Now she is doing very well. She has a nicely shaped udder, milks moderately quickly, and is resilient. She is very shy, so can be challenging to handle if you do anything unexpected, but as long as you stay calm and everything is as expected, she does fine.
Vales-Pride Redemption Jolie has had a few concerning weaknesses, and was difficult to breed back, so she is probably going to be sold after she calves in August. She struggled the most with the transition to our farm, being impacted by internal parasites, and losing a lot of condition during the two lactations that we’ve owned her for. She is also the largest of the four, and we noticed her causing more damage to soft springtime pastures than the others.
Vales-Pride Gentle Joan is our first home-raised Ayrshire, out of Jolie, by Gentle Beast. She is looking beautiful as a yearling heifer, and we love her personality. We are excited for her to have her first calf this coming winter/spring. She is pictured above, behind her dam, Jolie.
We also have two heifers from Kalamity and Oakyla, by Remsberg, that are growing nicely. We intend to replace any problematic cows with promising heifers in the coming years, instead of growing our herd.
We love the Ayrshires; they have incredible milk, stunning udders, and their personalities are great. They LOVE routine, and when in one, are very calm and predictable. When their routine is thrown off, they take some time to adjust, but are adaptable despite their dislike of change. Sounds a bit like me…maybe that’s why we get along.