EPOCH MAKING PRODUCTION CHAMPIONS – 1880 TO 1935 By E.Y. Morwick [The second in a series looking back at purebred dairy production champions that helped shape the early days of their breeds in North America. For part one, please see the Late Spring 2021 issue of Cowsmopolitan!] 9. DOLLY DIMPLE Dolly Dimple, a Guernsey, was sired by Imp. Yeoman, the son of Hayes Rosie already referred to. Her dam was Dolly Bloom who had a record of 17,298 lbs. milk, 836 lbs. butterfat. Dolly Dimple was bred and owned by Langwater Farms of North Easton, MA. As a 2-year-old in a record that was started in 1910, Dolly Dimple made a record of 14,009 lbs. milk, 703 lbs. butter. Tested as a three-year-old, she closed with a record of 18,459 lbs. milk and 907 lbs. butterfat. Then as a five-year- old she produced 18,809 lbs. milk and 876 lbs. butterfat, the highest milk and butterfat records of a Guernsey cow to that time. By her three successive records, Dolly was credited as being the greatest longdistance dairy cow in the world under Advanced Register supervision.
tests, exceeded only by the American record of 14.67 lbs. butter made in 1904 by Pontiac Rag Apple. As a two-year-old, Jenny Bonerges Ormsby in a full year produced 833 lbs. fat and 16,849 lbs. milk, a world’s record for both milk and butter. In her long and productive lifetime Jenny completed five more 30-lb. butter records on seven-day test. These full-pail attainments led Bill Prescott, associate editor for the HolsteinFriesian World, to call her “one of the dairy queens not only in Canada but in the entire Holstein world.” Prescott could not comprehend how an animal with Jenny’s lackluster pedigree could be so prolific at the pail. Prescott, had he done a little more research, would have discovered that Jenny’s sire, Sir Admiral Ormsby, was a son of Duchess Ormsby Butter King who had several daughters above 1,000 lbs. fat. His dam, Duchess Ormsby, was the first cow to bear the Ormsby name, while his sire, Piebe DeKol Burke, was the best son of DeKol Burke, Helena Burke’s famous son. The “Piebe” bull was sired by DeKol 2d’s Butter Boy, the son of DeKol 2d and Sir Abbekerk. Jenny Bonerges Ormsby was bred by that Holstein pioneer Joseph Fletcher, Oxford Mills, ON, and was born in 1907 in the barn of Charles Robinson, South Mountain, ON. 11. AUCHENBRAIN BROWN KATE 4TH
DOLLY DIMPLE Tested as a 5-year-old, she produced 18,809 lbs. milk and 876 lbs. butter, records for a Guernsey cow to that time. Owned by F. Lothrop Ames, Langwater Farm, North Easton, MA.
Auchenbrain Brown Kate 4th reigned as the world’s Ayrshire production champion through the early 1900’s, having produced 23,022 lbs. milk and
917.6 lbs. butter on yearly test. The exact year she finished her lactation – some say it was 1911, has been lost in the mists of time. What is known is that her owner was Percival Roberts, Jr., Penshurst Farm, Bryn Mawr, PA, and she was the centre of his breeding program. Brown Kate’s sire was St. Simon of Auchenbrain, well-known as a sire of productive daughters. Her dam, Yellow Kate of Auchenbrain, had another fruitful daughter, Auchenbrain Yellow Kate 3rd whose mature record was 21,123 lbs. milk, 881 lbs. fat, average test 4.21%. Mr. Roberts’ Penshurst Farm was the birthplace and proving ground of Penshurst Man-O-War whose 1940’s proof showed 167 daughters with an average of 9,360M 4.14% 389F, mature equivalent, 2X, 305 days. As the sire of 19 sons designated Approved by the Ayrshire Association, and as the sire of 2,000 grandsons in service, the influence of this bull was significant. Penshurst Man-OWar traced to Auchenbrain Brown Kate 4th on both sides of his pedigree, most of those connections coming through Kate’s Champion of Penshurst, her son. 12. JEAN ARMOUR Jean Armour 25487 (A.R. 635) was born in 1901 in the herd of her breeders, H. & J. McKee, Norwich, Ontario. In a lactation she commenced as an 11-year-old “Jean” produced 20,174 lbs. milk and 912 lbs. butter, the equivalent of 775 lbs. fat. She came back at age 14 years to pump out 18,382 lbs. milk and 843 lbs. butter (716
10. JENNY BONERGES ORMSBY Jenny Bonerges Ormsby in the Summerhill herd of D.C. Flatt & Son, Millgrove, Ontario, first freshened at 2 years 9 months and on official test produced 19.51 lbs. butter and 457 lbs. milk in seven days. Continued on year test, eight months after freshening she produced 14.39 lbs. butter and 274.6 lbs. milk in seven days, winning her first Canadian championship. This record, completed in 1910, was the second highest ever made by a North American 2-year-old in the special eight months’ 86 « COWSMOPOLITAN Fall 2021
JENNY BONERGES ORMSBY In 1910, tested as a 2-year-old, she produced 14.39 lbs. butter and 274.6 lbs. milk on sevenday test, winning her first Canadian championship. During her long and productive life Jenny completed five more 30-lb. records, the first North American cow to do so.
AUCHENBRAIN BROWN KATE 4TH 23,022 lbs. milk, 917 lbs. fat, a world’s record for Ayrshires (1911).
