By Tom Collins
HASTINGS — A strong placing at this year’s World Dairy Expo at Madison, Wisconsin, is a boost for business for Kingsway Farms.
Located at Hastings, an hour northwest of Belleville, Kingsway scored a second-place finish for junior best three females at the World Dairy Expo and was also named premier breeder of the heifer show and runner-up for overall premier Holstein breeder.
Gord McMillan, who runs Kingsway with his wife Pauline and two sons, Morgon and Ethan, said there is always interest in their calves and embryos when they do well at other shows, but World Dairy Expo could push interest over the top.
“It certainly helps, for sure,” said McMillan, adding it was the farm’s most successful showing at the World Dairy Expo. “It’s an advertising thing, is what it is. We like to participate at shows, and if good things happen, that’s great.”
McMillan’s two sons brought only seven cows to the World Dairy Expo but other exhibitors brought Kingsway-bred cows to the show, which added points to Kingsway’s overall premier breeder score.
Much of the farm’s success can be credited to Kingsway Allie, a cow bred at the farm in 2002 that produced three excellent and seven very good daughters, he said. Kingsway Allie was reserve all-Canadian in 2006 and hit the 60,000 kg production award in 2012. McMillan estimated about 30 to 40 per cent of his 80 to 85 milking herd and several animals at the World Dairy Expo can be traced back to the Kingsway Allie family.
Kingsway wasn’t the only Ontario farm to come home with some hardware from Madison. Barrvalley Doorman Liz, owned by Brighton’s Vogue Cattle Co. & Silvercap, was runner-up for summer yearling heifer, while Lindenright Gold Anebel, owned by Hodglynn and Crackholm of Kincardine, placed second for senior two-year-old cow.
