Be sure to check out the new website for RJ Farms at www.jerseycanada.com/rjf. Bob and April Jarrell and Family now have a comprehensive web presence featuring many of their top cow families, as well as a page dedicated to their Red Carpet Spectacular Sale on July 10th at the farm in Corbyville. Check it out!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Picture-perfect picture, picture-perfect timing!
Right after the winter Olympics concluded we received a message from the super-keen John Brand of JNJ Jerseys near Clinton, Ontario. The morning after the great games wound up he received his Feb/Mar 2010 Jersey Breeder. Hm...great photo of a Jersey cow and the Canadian flag. Fairly appropriate, he thought. Then he noted that Melissa Bowers of Ferme Lencrest near Coaticook, Quebec had taken the photo. The photo was a great winner of the Jersey Canada/Unique Stock Photo contest for 2009. Hm...John looked at the tag in the cow's ear. Hm....2642 management number. Sounded familiar. And....the cow is one John and his family bred at JNJ and sold to Lencrest! Hm....87% at 2-2, easily good enough to be at The Royal in 2009, by a neat young sire and making a nice 2-0 record...hm......and her most fitting name is......JNJ Tyler OLYMPIA!
Does it get any better or more fitting than that!???!
Does it get any better or more fitting than that!???!
When all the pieces fit together.....
Seemed like an innocuous enough kind of call....from the ever-enthusiastic and energetic Dean Cole in "Mosquito-Bite" in Halifax County, NS. Arriving on one December day in the year of Our Lord 2009. Dean is sire of Sandy Cole. In the deep, dark days of December Sandy was deep into preparations for his Semex/Holstein Canada three month junket to the wilds and wonders of Aussie, Ozi, or, if you must, Australia! One of Sandy's roles at the Cole's family's Eloc ( Cole, Eloc, you got it, eh?) is Lord High Chamberlain of Stall Card Preparation. On my latest foray into Eloc land on August 1, again in the year of Our Lord, 2009, we had been reviewing the cows prior to evening milking. Yours truly was caught up short by a card above a rather-young looking Holstein that read "Springbank Snow Countess". Hm.....seemed to me that the legendary black and white Snow Countess had been born at least 100 years prior to 2009! I was informed by Dean that I had just witnessed his son's puckish sense of humour in operation.
Anywho, back to December 2009. Dean wanted to know about "that cow from Tattrie's up in Brule on the North Shore of NS" (and there is no shore like the North Shore, that's for sure!) that had a big splash at the RAWF in the 1950s. Because of all my "life experience" I knew Dean was referring to the iconic (well iconic in some limited circles!) Patsy Of Windblown. This fine cow born in 1950 had been the $3800 high seller in the 1955 Sale of Stars at the Royal. Doug Tattrie and his brother Angus and wife Anne and their family were relatively new Jersey breeders at the time. The buyers from a little piece away in Truro, NS were the Norrie family of Fundy Jersey Farm. Now at this juncture I must note that the Tattrie farm at Brule is on "the doorstep to heaven" as it is in the very most eastward part of (north) Colchester County right up against Pictou County. Dean wondered if we could pull together a few pieces of information on Patsy. Sandy would then exercise his card-creation mastery for one of the fine Jerseys at Eloc before taking wing for the trek to Aussie. At this point I am compelled to ask if you are highly impressed by the extra-important tasks that Jersey Canada staff are asked to complete on a daily basis? Just nod and say: Yes, Suitably impressed!
I'll also add that the Eloc is a true United Nations herd with Holsteins, Jerseys, Swiss and Milking Shorthorns gracing the barns and pastures.
So, we set out to get the job done and started on a trail that had so many bunny trails one could hardly believe it!
Patsy of Windblown was an Excellent daughter of Popeye's Standard Dreamer. Dreamer was bred by J. Arthur Malcolm a very nearby neighbour of the Tattrie family. Mr. Malcolm is to date the only Nova Scotian ever to serve as President of Jersey Canada-a role he filled in 1955-56. This gent was also brother of Jennie Malcolm MacInnis. Mrs. MacInnins (wife of Logan M) was part of the MacInnis family of Scotch Hill farm about a mile from where yours truly grew up in Lyon's Brook in Pictou County. I recall slugging bales on that farm in my early teen years and attending 4-H meetings there when a few Jerseys were still part of the herd. Standard Dreamer was a son of Flora's Faye a member of a famous cow family bred by Edison Mutch of River North Jerseys on nearby PEI. And Edison Mutch was maternal grandsire of who? Wayne Boswell, 2004 President of Jersey Canada and only PEI resident to date to be President of Jersey Canada.
The dam of Patsy of Windblown was Brownie's Anne 02Z, born in 1945 and bred by one Amos C. Tattrie of River John. And where is River John? East of Brule on the western edge of heaven on earth-i.e. Pictou County. Anne was a rather intensely line-bred daughter and maternal grand-daughter of a bull named Norway Prince Charlie. Hm...Norway.....I wonder? So, checking on Prince Charlie's roots I discovered that he was indeed bred at the Maritime Oddfellows Home Farm on the west edge of the marine town of Pictou-about three miles from where I was raised. Norway refers to Norway House the large house that had served as main building on the retirement home on the farm.
If you track back on Anne's maternal line you'll going back almost a century in the Amos Tattrie herd.
Then you'll find genetics from herds near Amherst still on the North Shore and near the border with New Brunswick.
So? Well at Christmas time my Dad, the feisty Jack(son) Gammon was visiting some neighbours named MacConnell and brokered the loan of an amazing scrapbook the family had kept on their Stony Acre Jersey herd. The MacConnells had farmed at Meadowville, a great farming community between Lyon's Brook and River John and Brule. Rollie MacConnell has been a family friend for decades. The scrapbook told a compelling story about Rollie's grandparents Sigbert Mac Connell and Mrs. M and his parents the late Rae and Helen MacConnell and their family. The MacConnell kids had been part of the Pictou County 4-H program at the same time as the Gammon brood.
Helen MacConnell was an especially energetic and keen Jersey person. She was for a time the dynamic Secretary of the provincial Jersey association. As was the case at the time the local newspapers carried lots of stories on the exploits of the Mac Connells and their top Jersey herd. From a herd of 35 to 40 head and maybe 25 to 18 milking cows the family won numerous show championships and even produced a couple of Canadian All Time Class Leaders for Production in the late 1950s and 1960s. One of their cows even broke a 30 year old Canadian production record set by a cow in BC on the west coast! Sometime ago I wrote that they had hosted a Provincial Jersey Field Day in the summer of 1959 that attracted well over 250 guests!
And where was Helen MacConnell born and raised? As daughter of the aforementioned Amos Tattrie of River John she was raised by the sea on her Dad's farm. Later in life Helen took to expressing herself through painting. On my desk at home in Fergus sits one of my most prized possessions a small original painting of a lovely horned Jersey cow in pasture by the sea. I have to believe Helen was painting a Jersey cow at her home sea-side farm.
Many of the foundation cattle at Stony Acre farm were from the Tattire herd. Their champion producers were by a bull named Dalcraig Royal Dick, a bull who was bred by the Master Breeder Adamson family at Heathbell which is between Lyon's Brook and Meadowville.
Hm..are you tracking with me?
One day over Christmas I was doing my much-needed walk on a trail close to home and just west of Pictou. Hm....part of the trail was "off limits" due to construction but I could see tracks in the snow that told me "everyone else was walking on the trail anyway". In addition the off limits section would on a seaside portion of the trail right in front of Norway House and the former Oddfellows Farm where Norway Prince Charlie had been born in 1939, 70 years earlier. Seemed like a no-brainer that I had to do that walk. As I did so I there was, as Canadian singer Jann Arden would say: "A massive explosion of thoughts in my head" as I reflected on the Tattries and Mac Connells and other Jersey families on the North Shore not far from home.
On the afternoon of Sunday, December 27th my Dad and I headed west along the North Shore for our annual Christmas visit with the Thompson and Johnston families at Pine Haven Farm at Oxford another almost-North Shore towns. Over Christmas I had browsed an amazing book about the communities of Seafoam and Toney River on the North Shore, in Pictou County east of River John. As we drove through these villages I thought of learning that there had been Jersey 4-H calf clubs there in the 1940s. West of River John Dad pointed out the former Amos Tattire farm. Then we passed Amet Farm formerly owned by the Jersey-loving Langille brothers, over the county line into Colchester and past the two barns where Doug and Anne Tattrie and Harold and Kathy Tattire had milked Jerseys at Windblown, the Semple farm, home of some very famous Jerseys once upon a time; Arthur Malcom's former farm, then quickly by farms where families with names like Reid, Gunn, Ross, Schaad, MacLanders and Cock had milked cows. At the Cock's Norwall farm a cow named Norwall Castor's Anda had been bred. She spawned a bevy of great cows at Pine Haven. One branch of the Anda family had yielded the Miss Pixie line at Norval Acres in Quebec. As we drove to Oxford we were not aware that, on that afternoon, Don McCaig of Norval Acres was leaving this earthly life.
At Tatamagouche, just a few miles west of Brule and that cluster of former Jersey farms, we passed the Balmoral Inn-scene of many NS Jersey meetings and then the former Weatherby Jersey farm.
In life it is always important to be active today and to plan for and be expectant about the future. Then again, it is always helpful to be reminded of your past and where you came from back in the mists of time.
Thanks to Dean Cole for starting this walk down memory lane!
Anywho, back to December 2009. Dean wanted to know about "that cow from Tattrie's up in Brule on the North Shore of NS" (and there is no shore like the North Shore, that's for sure!) that had a big splash at the RAWF in the 1950s. Because of all my "life experience" I knew Dean was referring to the iconic (well iconic in some limited circles!) Patsy Of Windblown. This fine cow born in 1950 had been the $3800 high seller in the 1955 Sale of Stars at the Royal. Doug Tattrie and his brother Angus and wife Anne and their family were relatively new Jersey breeders at the time. The buyers from a little piece away in Truro, NS were the Norrie family of Fundy Jersey Farm. Now at this juncture I must note that the Tattrie farm at Brule is on "the doorstep to heaven" as it is in the very most eastward part of (north) Colchester County right up against Pictou County. Dean wondered if we could pull together a few pieces of information on Patsy. Sandy would then exercise his card-creation mastery for one of the fine Jerseys at Eloc before taking wing for the trek to Aussie. At this point I am compelled to ask if you are highly impressed by the extra-important tasks that Jersey Canada staff are asked to complete on a daily basis? Just nod and say: Yes, Suitably impressed!
I'll also add that the Eloc is a true United Nations herd with Holsteins, Jerseys, Swiss and Milking Shorthorns gracing the barns and pastures.
So, we set out to get the job done and started on a trail that had so many bunny trails one could hardly believe it!
Patsy of Windblown was an Excellent daughter of Popeye's Standard Dreamer. Dreamer was bred by J. Arthur Malcolm a very nearby neighbour of the Tattrie family. Mr. Malcolm is to date the only Nova Scotian ever to serve as President of Jersey Canada-a role he filled in 1955-56. This gent was also brother of Jennie Malcolm MacInnis. Mrs. MacInnins (wife of Logan M) was part of the MacInnis family of Scotch Hill farm about a mile from where yours truly grew up in Lyon's Brook in Pictou County. I recall slugging bales on that farm in my early teen years and attending 4-H meetings there when a few Jerseys were still part of the herd. Standard Dreamer was a son of Flora's Faye a member of a famous cow family bred by Edison Mutch of River North Jerseys on nearby PEI. And Edison Mutch was maternal grandsire of who? Wayne Boswell, 2004 President of Jersey Canada and only PEI resident to date to be President of Jersey Canada.
The dam of Patsy of Windblown was Brownie's Anne 02Z, born in 1945 and bred by one Amos C. Tattrie of River John. And where is River John? East of Brule on the western edge of heaven on earth-i.e. Pictou County. Anne was a rather intensely line-bred daughter and maternal grand-daughter of a bull named Norway Prince Charlie. Hm...Norway.....I wonder? So, checking on Prince Charlie's roots I discovered that he was indeed bred at the Maritime Oddfellows Home Farm on the west edge of the marine town of Pictou-about three miles from where I was raised. Norway refers to Norway House the large house that had served as main building on the retirement home on the farm.
If you track back on Anne's maternal line you'll going back almost a century in the Amos Tattrie herd.
Then you'll find genetics from herds near Amherst still on the North Shore and near the border with New Brunswick.
So? Well at Christmas time my Dad, the feisty Jack(son) Gammon was visiting some neighbours named MacConnell and brokered the loan of an amazing scrapbook the family had kept on their Stony Acre Jersey herd. The MacConnells had farmed at Meadowville, a great farming community between Lyon's Brook and River John and Brule. Rollie MacConnell has been a family friend for decades. The scrapbook told a compelling story about Rollie's grandparents Sigbert Mac Connell and Mrs. M and his parents the late Rae and Helen MacConnell and their family. The MacConnell kids had been part of the Pictou County 4-H program at the same time as the Gammon brood.
Helen MacConnell was an especially energetic and keen Jersey person. She was for a time the dynamic Secretary of the provincial Jersey association. As was the case at the time the local newspapers carried lots of stories on the exploits of the Mac Connells and their top Jersey herd. From a herd of 35 to 40 head and maybe 25 to 18 milking cows the family won numerous show championships and even produced a couple of Canadian All Time Class Leaders for Production in the late 1950s and 1960s. One of their cows even broke a 30 year old Canadian production record set by a cow in BC on the west coast! Sometime ago I wrote that they had hosted a Provincial Jersey Field Day in the summer of 1959 that attracted well over 250 guests!
And where was Helen MacConnell born and raised? As daughter of the aforementioned Amos Tattrie of River John she was raised by the sea on her Dad's farm. Later in life Helen took to expressing herself through painting. On my desk at home in Fergus sits one of my most prized possessions a small original painting of a lovely horned Jersey cow in pasture by the sea. I have to believe Helen was painting a Jersey cow at her home sea-side farm.
Many of the foundation cattle at Stony Acre farm were from the Tattire herd. Their champion producers were by a bull named Dalcraig Royal Dick, a bull who was bred by the Master Breeder Adamson family at Heathbell which is between Lyon's Brook and Meadowville.
Hm..are you tracking with me?
One day over Christmas I was doing my much-needed walk on a trail close to home and just west of Pictou. Hm....part of the trail was "off limits" due to construction but I could see tracks in the snow that told me "everyone else was walking on the trail anyway". In addition the off limits section would on a seaside portion of the trail right in front of Norway House and the former Oddfellows Farm where Norway Prince Charlie had been born in 1939, 70 years earlier. Seemed like a no-brainer that I had to do that walk. As I did so I there was, as Canadian singer Jann Arden would say: "A massive explosion of thoughts in my head" as I reflected on the Tattries and Mac Connells and other Jersey families on the North Shore not far from home.
On the afternoon of Sunday, December 27th my Dad and I headed west along the North Shore for our annual Christmas visit with the Thompson and Johnston families at Pine Haven Farm at Oxford another almost-North Shore towns. Over Christmas I had browsed an amazing book about the communities of Seafoam and Toney River on the North Shore, in Pictou County east of River John. As we drove through these villages I thought of learning that there had been Jersey 4-H calf clubs there in the 1940s. West of River John Dad pointed out the former Amos Tattire farm. Then we passed Amet Farm formerly owned by the Jersey-loving Langille brothers, over the county line into Colchester and past the two barns where Doug and Anne Tattrie and Harold and Kathy Tattire had milked Jerseys at Windblown, the Semple farm, home of some very famous Jerseys once upon a time; Arthur Malcom's former farm, then quickly by farms where families with names like Reid, Gunn, Ross, Schaad, MacLanders and Cock had milked cows. At the Cock's Norwall farm a cow named Norwall Castor's Anda had been bred. She spawned a bevy of great cows at Pine Haven. One branch of the Anda family had yielded the Miss Pixie line at Norval Acres in Quebec. As we drove to Oxford we were not aware that, on that afternoon, Don McCaig of Norval Acres was leaving this earthly life.
At Tatamagouche, just a few miles west of Brule and that cluster of former Jersey farms, we passed the Balmoral Inn-scene of many NS Jersey meetings and then the former Weatherby Jersey farm.
In life it is always important to be active today and to plan for and be expectant about the future. Then again, it is always helpful to be reminded of your past and where you came from back in the mists of time.
Thanks to Dean Cole for starting this walk down memory lane!
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