LIC sires named best in season
Two of LIC’s artificial breeding bulls were named sires of the season by Jersey and Holstein-Friesian breed societies at
their annual conferences last month.
South Land Jericho received Jersey New Zealand’s JT Thwaites Sire of the Season award and San Ray FM Beamer received
Holstein-Friesian New Zealand’s Mahoe Trophy.
LIC bull acquisition manager, Malcolm Ellis, said it is an honour for the co-op’s sires to be recognised by the
societies again, after LIC sires took out both awards last year also.
“It’s fantastic that two of our top sires have been recognised with these prestigious awards and I know the breeders are
equally as pleased.
“These awards acknowledge the enormous contribution that the sires are making to New Zealand’s dairy industry and they
also recognise the expertise to breed these elite animals for LIC and our farmers.”
Jericho was bred by Mark and Megan Heslop (Bay of Plenty, recently relocated from Cambridge), and Beamer was bred by Ray
and Sandra Hocking (Takaka) with Stewart and Kathryn Anderson (Otorohanga).
Jericho is currently the sixth ranked Jersey bull, with 253 breeding worth (BW) and Beamer is the number one ranked bull
across all breeds with 328BW.
The bulls are already proving popular with farmers for this coming mating season, Malcolm said, both sitting high on the
industry’s Ranking of Active Sires (RAS) list for their breeds.
Both bulls are expected to form part of the co-op’s Premier Sires teams for 2015, to be confirmed next month. Jericho is
also available through the Alpha Nominated frozen service while Beamer has already sold out.
Beamer is a second generation winner of the Mahoe Trophy after his sire, Fairmont Mint Edition, took out the title in
2009.
Last year’s winners of the breed society awards were LIC sires Willand SIA Duetto (JT Thwaites Sire of the Season) and
Hazael Dauntless Freedom (Mahoe Trophy).
ENDS