EASTRIVER GOLDWYN DEB 176
A Family Full of Success W
hen the Holstein Association USA announced their 2020 Star of the Breed - Eastriver Goldwyn Deb 176 - it provided a timely opportunity to take a look at one of the most successful, consistent matings seen in North America over the past decade. We all know specific cow and bull matings that are a ‘nick’, but you’d be hard pressed to find one more dependable than using Goldwyn on Homestead Astronomical Deb EX-95-3E-CAN 12*. Born in September 2004, Astronomical Deb was bred in the Nova Scotia Master Breeder herd of the Logan Brothers and carried their Homestead prefix. In fact, she was the eighth generation Homestead-bred out of a VG Jed Approval, then a VG-87 4* Skychief. Behind that, classic Canadian sires such as Hanoverhill Lincoln, Downalane Reflector Emperor, and Seiling Rockman are scattered throughout her pedigree. Like many Astronomicals, she was a fancy, strapping heifer and won the Senior Calf class at the 2005 Atlantic Summer Show en route to HM All-Atlantic 4-H Senior Calf honors at the year end. As a
yearling, she was purchased as part of a package of five heifers by Bruce Wood of Marshfield, PEI to add to his Eastriver herd, where she freshened as a 2-yearold in February 2007. Unlike many Astronomicals, she calved in with a really nice udder and scored Very Good with a VG-MS in her first lactation. “She was a really good young cow, if a touch old-fashioned,” remembers Bruce Wood. “She didn’t work real hard in that first lactation. We were just entering the Goldwyn era, and I thought that would be a good flush mating on her to give her a little more milkiness. She had the width and substance of bone for Goldwyn, and when those first calves hit the ground in 2009, we thought they were special.” In fact, the group of five Goldwyn heifers from Deb born the first week of September 2009 should go down in Holstein history as one of the most successful single flushes of all time! Eastriver Gold Deb 848 scored EX-932E and made almost 170,000 lbs of milk lifetime for Extondale Farms in PEI; Eastriver Gold Deb 866 went EX-92-4E 1* for Windyoaks Holsteins and Valleyside
Holsteins in Nova Scotia and left four Very Good daughters; Eastriver Gold Deb 861 went EX-90 3* at Ferme Maida in Quebec where she has been flushed extensively and has eight VG & EX daughters with several more to calve. Arguably, the best two cows resulting from that flush landed in the US: Eastriver Gold Deb 851 ended up scoring EX-93 3E at Feltmann Dairy in Minnesota and has six VG & EX daughters by five different sires, including an EX-93 Stanleycup; and Eastriver Gold Deb 850 EX-95, who became well-known for her show ring resume. She was Junior Champion at the Atlantic Summer Show in 2010 as a fall calf for Eastriver, and was the Reserve All-American and Reserve All-Canadian Milking Yearling in 2011 for Butlerview, Durrer and Borba. Sold to Milksource Genetics in 2013, she scored EX-95 there at the young age of 5-10. Her daughter, Milksource Sid Desire, was purchased by David Dyment as a winter calf and was 2nd at Madison in 2015 on her way to being named Reserve All-American Winter Calf. Velthuis Farms bought her before the Royal that year and had a
We were just entering the Goldwyn era, and I thought that would be a good flush mating on her to give her a little more milkiness. She had the width and substance of bone for Goldwyn, and when those first calves hit the ground in 2009, we thought they were special.” BRUCE WOOD referencing an early mating of Homestead Astronomical Deb
Homestead Astronomical Deb EX-95-3E-CAN 12* 10 « COWSMOPOLITAN Summer 2021