GUERNSEYS ACROSS THE POND.

As your GGGS Overseas Liaison Officer I thought it was about time I sent you all some news. Looking through the members list I note there are many new members in recent years, so I hope the long-standing ones will bear with me if I repeat info they already know.

Newer ones may not be aware that we have pure-bred, BGS registered GG’s outside of the mainland and Channel Islands. Back in ‘95/’96 I organised a collection of GG embryos for a client in New York State USA. Mr.Skolnick had seen GG’s at the Cotswold Wildlife Park and was determined to add some to his private collection of rare breeds. That was the beginning for me of a long relationship with his farm manager Laura Burnside which continues to this day.

I approached as many breeders as possible but had great difficulty getting together a small group of typical, sound GG’s that represented a selection of bloodlines. Most owners were understandably anxious about the anaesthetic, the hormone treatments and time involved. I did finally gather together five females and two males who went into quarantine at Edinburgh Genetics (now Innovis) at Malvern in the autumn of ’95.

The males were Ambrosia Archimedes Br.Ch and Scawton Hadrian. The latter had been specifically bred by Ruth McIntyre to be useful for both her A6 Marmaduke line and my A2 Rudi line. Marion Conisbee-Smith’s gorgeous, curly-eared “Dessie”, owned by Lynn Johnson up near Peterhead, carried a lot of the Rudi line with a direct line to B2 Barnaby.

I had females of Scawton, Tambo, Cykewell, Elmshott & Peaclond breeding covering A6/A4/A8/A5/A2 bloodlines. The aim was to give the US herd as wide a genetic base as possible. Best laid plans.

In goat breeding things are rarely straightforward and the embryo collection was no exception. Sadly the Tambo female produced nothing at all of freezable quality and tragically the lovely young Elmshott milker had a heart attack under anaesthetic and died during the first flush. A post-mortem revealed no obvious cause though she had an unusually high quantity of internal fat around her organs. This was unexpected as she was a long, lean looking goat. Naturally all concerned were devastated at her loss but for the sake of the collection we agreed to try a second flush.

Only the Scawton, Cykewell and Peaclond goats produced export quality embryos with R136 Peaclond Progress*3, the oldest goat there, saving the day with a stack of them!

BUT everything we had was by Hadrian. None of the Dessie embryos made it. This was a huge disappointment but in this business there are no guarantees.

So in due course 32 embryos were shipped across the pond to Canada. This route was the only one possible as the USA has no health protocol for embryos. We can ship semen but not live goats or embryos.

In Canada the embryos were implanted into Spanish meat goats and these recipients then entered the USA under USDA’s strict quarantine rules which lasted several years! No progeny could be sold during this period. The whole operation was a huge undertaking on Mr Skolnick’s behalf and a steep learning curve for Laura.

The success rate after implantation was excellent but sadly there were losses. A couple of does were lost in transit to the USA (probably stress) and later on quite a few kids succumbed to cocci. But a small foundation group of four bucks and four does survived to tell the tale. Three does were out of Progress and one out of R116 Scawton Pixie the last daughter of Les Annesville Marmaduke (A6).

Three of the bucks were also out of Pixie and one out of Cykewell Chive.

The latter was Swind Copper who has proved a lifesaver genetically for the Swind herd as he is the only male who carries some different blood. Chive (born ’92) was by Cykewell Charles out of Inhurst Rosa.

Copper himself is a magnificent looking buck who had a fantastic set of huge horns, until he broke one some time ago!

While the Swind herd was busy establishing itself in quarantine other US breeders were also becoming interested in the GG’s. I was asked to source two more males and took Goldicroft Peter (A6) and Janig Major (A5) down to Malvern for semen collection. Thankfully both produced good export quality semen which was duly shipped direct to the USA in ’97 for a small group of breeders led by Linda Campbell of Khimaira Farm in Virginia.

One member of this group Diane Gray has had spectacular success with this semen and founded her Bluecollar Guernsey herd with AI-sired twin daughters by Peter. She used an Oberhasli foundation doe called Blinken and from that combination has developed a line based on Peter and Major progeny that is currently only one generation away from British Guernsey.

The other very active member of the group is Joan Stump. Joan started a bit later than Diane but has made great progress using a buck from the Swind herd that became available when the long quarantine period ended. Swind Panzer has been mated to some of Joan’s top class Alpine does and Joan is now up to Foundation Book stage en route to BG. She has recently added a second young buck from the Swind herd to her grading up programme to introduce some fresh blood and is also milk recording her grade Guernseys with excellent results.

Quite a few more are also grading up using foundation does from Toggenburg, Sable, Saanen, Alpine and Oberhasli breeds. All involved have joined the BGS as Overseas Members and are registering foundation stock as IR (Identification Register). Their GG sired progeny then progress to SR (Supplementary Register) to begin the climb up the ladder.

A couple of grades have made their first appearances in the show ring. Dar Addington from Washington State won Best Junior Doe with her Palomino Spungold. A grade wether bred by Diane Gray gained a first place on his first outing too. Both got a lot of attention from other breeders who had never seen Guernseys of any description.

Unfortunately we cannot export any more embryos to supply pure-bred GG genetics as Canada closed the door shortly after the ’97 import due to the BSE crisis in the UK and that door remains firmly shut. But by using American foundation stock and GG semen/bucks many more enthusiasts are now able to be involved and in due course it will be interesting to see how their BG’s compare to ours.

Fresh blood was supplied to the Swind herd in late ‘03 with the export of semen from Crimea Pembroke. A son of Scawton Solo out of the lovely R109 Crimea Promise Q* Br.Ch. He already has a young son who will be used on the Swind does this autumn. Semen from $$130/139 Peaclond Pureglow ($139/109 Peaclond Pureluck/RM130 Peaclond Puregold) crossed the pond in ’04 for Kathy Noble in Oregon who also breeds Suffolk Punch horses. Kathy hasbeen distributing straws around the US which will hopefully supply more fresh blood for the growing band of Guernsey enthusiasts.

I will keep you all updated with the progress of the Guernseys across the pond in the next Journal.

                                                                                                Christine Ball.                                                                                                     June’05.
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