Ferme Lashburn

The beginnings of the McCaig family’s Lashburn herd go back to 1952, when Alex’s father bought the farm in Ormstown. Today, the farm consists of 500 acres of farmable land. Since 2006, the 50-50 owners are Alex and Judy McCaig as well as Chris and Valerie McCaig. The arrival of Chris at the farm in 2006 assured the continuity of the Lashburn herd. The McCaig family is very well known in the Ayrshire world. Just recently, Alex became a member of the Board of Ayrshire Quebec; he has also been involved in the Ayrshire Canada’s Marketing Committee for many years. Alex is an official judge of the Ayrshire Breeders’ Association of Canada and besides having judged in the country, he has judged in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Finland. As for Chris, he is very involved with the Howick-Huntingdon Ayrshire Club. For the past years, he’s been the Club Sale Manager and he selects most of the animals for this sale. The McCaigs are known for being incomparable hosts and it’s always pleasant to stop by their place, alone or with visitors. In July 2011, they will host the Ayrshire picnic and we can bet that the event will be crowned with success. These breeders never hesitate to invest in good animals and they have many animals in co-ownership with other Canadian breeders and also with breeders from foreign countries. The Lashburn herd consists of about 42 cows in milk. In January, the production average was 8,686kg of milk with 4.2% fat and 3.4% protein for a BCA of 251-249-255. The herd’s classification is really impressive; there are 14 Excellent, 30 Very Good and 6 Good Plus, with the average score per cow being 87.8 points. In the future, the McCaigs expect to keep the herd at its present size. They want to continue raising cows with exceptional type, producing even more while remaining in remarkable health. They also want cows that produce milk with high levels of fat and protein. Enthusiastic breeders, they use the best bulls available in the breed. They flush the best cows in the herd and many embryos were sold to the United Kingdom, the United States and Finland. Participating in shows is an integral part of life for these people; they show their animals at exhibitions in Ormstown, Quebec, the International Dairy Showcase and the Toronto Royal. Over the years, many animals with the Lashburn prefix did extremely well in the show rings, such as Lashburn Bella ET EX-92, her sister Lashburn Belinda ET EX-92 who was sold to the Chelsey Syndicate in the USA and Lashburn Faith EX-94. Some bulls with the Lashburn prefix were also sold to insemination centers, like Lashburn Karamello ET and Lashburn Jeopardy. One cow that has largely contributed to obtaining this title is Lashburn Diamond EX-6E-91 1*. This Forever Schoon MM Cornelius daughter produced over 92,000kg of milk in 10 lactations. Her two best daughters are Lashburn Ruby EX-3E-92 and Lashburn Dazzle ET TB-86. Another cow that has also contributed rather well is Lashburn Peony TB-88, a Haralan Etro daughter that produced over 60,500kg of milk in 5 lactations. For the McCaig family, obtaining the Master Breeder title represents a great honor and an extraordinary accomplishment. They are very proud of deserving this award and sharing it with other great Ayrshire breeders. For them, receiving this prize and the opportunity of working all together is a great joy. Ayrshire Canada congratulates the McCaig family for their passion, their devotion towards the Ayrshire breed and is pleased to award them the title of Master Breeder.