The eight-year-old Drewholme Supershot Leisure EX-92 (94 udder) – a powerful descendant from the Lustre family – produced more than 90,000 kg/198,000 lb and is the great-grandam of popular Drewholme sires like Leyhigh-PP, Logic-PP, and Leyton-P.

With the purchase of a Gibson daughter out of Idee Lustre, Andrew Martin, who was young at the time, laid the foundation for all the exceptional breeding success that is being enjoyed at Drewholme Holsteins today: With thanks to Supershot’s contribution. His eight-year-old daughter Drewholme Supershot Leisure has proven herself multiple times as a brood cow. Especially via her Zipit descendants, who introduced the polled gene in the Canadian herd and thus gave breeding sales a real boost. Andrew Martin tells the special story.

BERT WESSELDIJK HAN HOPMAN

The milking equipment is running as we enter the barn at Drewholme Holsteins – the high-producing herd owned by the Martin family is milked three times daily. Andrew comes towards us with big strides and after a warm welcome, we immediately walk towards the impressive and charming photo cow: Drewholme Supershot Leisure EX-92-4E. The now eight-year-old Supershot daughter with a fantastic 94-point udder has produced >90,000 kg/198,000 lb 4.4% 3.6% in six lactations and turns out to be the hub of the strong breeding cow family, which put Drewholme on the national and international map in rapid tempo and resulted in the first Master Breeder title in 2020.

‘Polled is the way of the future.’

SUPERSHOT

The story of the L family at Drewholme began with the purchase of the 2002 born Wedgwood Lena Gibson. ‘At the Stanhope-Wedgwood Sale, a VG-88 second lactation Gibson daughter of Idee Lustre was offered. She was a full sister of the popular bull Stanhope Sovereign, who I marketed at the time for Foundation Sires. I was able to buy her for C$17,000. Subsequently the Gibson was flushed various times, she scored EX, and completed a superior lactation,’ explains Andrew about the purchase back then, which via Goldwyn, Windbrook and McCutchen leads to Drewholme Lemon VG-85, the dam of Leisure. ‘Supershot was a bull that we were enthusiastic about, in order to again bring more balance and milk into our herd. We combined the McCutchen with Supershot twice. This resulted in Drewholme Leisure EX-92 (94 udder) and Drewholme Lemonade EX-92 (93 udder). Supershot is the bull that changed this family.’

Lemonade was able to transmit her outstanding conformation to various descendants, including a VG-88 Delta daughter, and Lambda daughter Drewholme Lambda Lemonade, who classified EX-91 in her third lactation. In terms of genomics, Leisure turned out to be the highest of the two Supershots and as a heifer was flushed with OCD Eraser Zipit-P. ‘Zipit was a new polled sire who intrigued me right away, because I wanted to introduce the polled gene into the Leisure family and since I really liked the family behind Zipit,’ continues Andrew, who received just one Zipit heifer calf from the flush: Drewholme Zipit Leisure-P VG-87. And out of a natural pregnancy from the same Zipit, yet another one: Drewholme Zipit Leysure-P EX-90.

LAMBDA LEYSURE-P

The VG-87 Zipit was combined with Delta and the EX-90 Zipit with his son Lambda – just like Supershot, both are among Andrew’s favorite bulls. ‘Delta and Lambda are very good sires. They provide balance, balance, balance: With very strong udders,’ explains Martin, who was asked by Dave Eastman to test more animals from the Leisure family. Eastman (Validity Testing) subsequently purchased the highest testing at the time, Drewholme Delta Leisure-P. ‘At precisely that moment, Lambda drew tremendous interest with his new index, which placed Drewholme Lambda Leisure-P in the spotlights,’ adds Andrew. He decided not to sell the popular Lambda daughter, but to flush her instead: Unfortunately, without success. ‘Later I realized that we are dairy farmers in the first place, so I bred her to Illustrator-P. We had never done IVF before, but I thought this heifer was too unique not to give it a try. So we scheduled two IVF sessions with her.’ From the IVF with A2P2-PP originate the popular Drewholme sires Leyhigh-PP at Semex and Logic-PP at Blondin Sires. And a heifer calf, ­Drewholme A2P2 Leysure-P. The other IVP session was with Conway. This resulted in a polled sire being sold to Semex, while four heifer calves stayed in the Martin herd, of which three are polled. Plus: Drewholme Leyton-P at Blondin Sires is the Illustrator son from the natural pregnancy of Lambda Leysure-P, who after calving was sold for $55,000 to Blondin and Quality Holsteins, scored VG-88, and became Res. All-Ontario Junior-2-Yr 2021. Andrew: ‘It was amazing to have Lambda Leysure-P at our place. She provided three sons for AI and I hope that various grandsons will follow. Hopefully breeders all over the world will be happy with the Drewholme sires.’

BALANCED & POLLED

What immediately stands out during a tour of the Drewholme herd is the uniform, strong udders; all udders have high and wide attachments. And the uniformity of the build of the cows; strong frames, nicely balanced. ‘We are not fond of tall cows,’ says Andrew. ‘We prefer to have just as much stature as chest width.’ That’s the reason why for conformation figures on bulls he prefers to select on the Canadian base rather than the American. ‘I prefer the TPI over the LPI, but not the American conformation system. In the American system, high conformation sires often transmit too much stature and insufficient balance in the cows.’ Balance is an important trait in Martin’s breeding philosophy. ‘It is so important to have cows that produce milk easily, that are balanced and polled. That makes them so easy to work with. I truly think that polled is the way of the future.’

YOUNG MEMBERS

Of course, the Martin’s herd contains other good cow families, such as the Drewholme Avery family, which traces back to Shoremar Alicia. However, most of the attention goes to the L family, with eye catchers such as Supershot Leisure completing a recent record of 7.00 365d 3x 20,458 kg/45,101 lb 4.9% 3.5%. And her excellent Zipit daughter Leysure-P, with a four-year-old record of 18,539 kg/34,257 lb 4.5% 3.5%. ‘Zipit Leysure-P has been flushed regularly. Lots of embryos have been sold, but we still have two pregnancies by Parfect,’ explains Andrew, who has a milking VG Aristocrat daughter out of the Zipit, while among the young stock, there are still four Zipit Leysure daughters, one by A2P2 and three by Lambda. ‘The combination Lambda with Zipit Leysure-P has worked so well. We have a promising yearling who is also polled.’ Andrew is referring to Drewholme Lambda Leysurely-P (3516 gLPI, +14 conformation). There are more young members of the L family with whom Andrew is pleased, such as Drewholme A2P2 Leysure-P. ‘The full sister of Logic-PP and Leyhigh-PP is just fresh and looks terrific. She has an outstanding udder and lots of strength. We hope to be able to flush her a lot.’ Of the three polled Conway daughters of Lambda Leysure-P, Drewholme Spare Time-P is drawing the most attention. ‘She has already provided four bull calves and two heifer calves, by AltaHothand and Lucius-P. A flush with Logic-PP resulted in eleven pregnancies.’ It is very clear: we are going to hear about Drewholme’s L family more often.

Drewholme in Canada

The Martin family is thankful to be able to work with this herd: ‘All of the glory goes to God, the one who made us and gives us all that we have.’

Located in Gowanstown, Ontario, 150 km west of Toronto Owned by Andrew and Gwen Martin 70 milking cows and 30 head of young stock Ration: corn silage, hay from Sudan grass, corn gluten, and protein blend Average production: 3x 15,439kg/34,037lb 4.59% 3.41% Current sires: Blondin Destination, Drewholme Logic-PP, Genosource Captain