WINCHESTER — Dairy farmer David Fawcett is the third generation of Fawcetts to earn the Holstein breeders’ most coveted prize, the master breeder shield.

But this year Holstein Canada announced that not only did 46-year-old Fawcett earn this distinction, so did his 85-year-old father Alliston, who earned his first master breeder honour in 1975.

It is also the first time that a father and son each earned a Master Breeder award while owning separate cows but milking them all in the same barn. Together they milk 38 cows.

The two men competed with 1,003 other farms in the same category – which relates to herd size and records of production and animal type over a 16-year period. Holstein Canada does not rank the top three breeders, honouring each as a master breeder.

Pleased to finally take his first break of the day from the barn, David Fawcett smiles as he walks the few steps to the house, the sun beaming in a cloudless sky, offering the first rich panoramic sea of blue above the silos that these parts have seen in a number of weeks.

It’s mid-afternoon when Fawcett sits at the kitchen table for a little shop talk.

"You have to pay attention to type and production," Fawcett says, of his breeding philosophy. "They are not much use if they don’t give milk."

He notes, however, that breeding and technology have advanced so far today that you rarely get a poor milking cow, which 30 years ago would have been a great milker. "We have some strong cows – good udders, good feet and legs" and praises Eastern Breeders for the semen he buys. "We’ve had really good quality bulls for years and years... and you have to be lucky."

His favourite EBI bull is Comestar Lheros, which is still in the EBI line-up and more than one-million doses have been sold. Comestar Lheros has sired five excellent daughters in Fawcett’s herd.

A TMR mixer to control feed and pasturing the animals also contributes to production, he said. "We put in the TMR five years ago and that definitely increased production and helped to qualify animals that wouldn’t have qualified before."

Pasturing animals in a tie-stall barn is very beneficial, he said. "That’s a huge thing. It’s labour intensive but the benefits more than offset the loss of production from heat stress and balance being off because you’re not sure of what they’re eating."

David and wife Sandra, a nurse, might have a fourth generation master breeder in the making. They have two children: William, 15 and Abby, 12. Williams "has an instinct for cows," Fawcett said.