AMHERST ISLAND — Bruce Caughey wears many hats and all of them well. He’s secretary-manager of the Amherst Island Mutual Insurance Company, owns Poplar Dell Bed and Breakfast, a strikingly beautiful stone farm house fronting a picturesque beach, opening onto blue inviting water. He advertises the beach on his brochure for farm vacations, managed by his wife Susie.

He’s accumulated three farms, more than 700 acres and tile drained them. Now he gets up to four cuttings of alfalfa-timothy mix a season, attributing his good luck to the high number of heat units – 3100.

He came back to Amherst Island in 1970 and became the fifth generation of Caugheys to farm. The island then boasted 28 dairy farmers and a cheese plant in its last gasps. Today only two dairy farms remain.

Determined not to be left behind by new technology and improving genetics, he began early to clean out the commercial cows and replace them with quality registered cattle.

"My father (Bruce Senior) only milked 12 to 15 cows," he said. But out of that early herd he lucked into an outstanding cow, Brucelbeth Admiral Bewith, whom he bred to the great bull Majesty. He received no points towards his Master Breeder Shield for Bewith because she had his father’s prefix.

In the years that followed, he bred slowly and through the Bewith line came most of the points that earned him a Master Breeder’s shield, the farm’s first. Judges award points to the farm prefix.

Today he has five cows classified Excellent, 23 Very good and 23 Good Plus. An Excellent cow has a score of 90 or over with 100 representing the perfectly shaped cow.

"I breed for type and longevity. I’m not afraid to using a low producing milk bull," he says. Nonetheless, he has very respectable production statistics. His Breed Class Average (BCA) is about 20 per cent above average. His index reads 221 for milk, 247 for fat and 229 for protein.

"I’m not as much involved anymore," he says. His son-in-law, Mike Walhout from Keene near Peterborough, and daughter Jill have pretty well taken over the milking herd.

Mike brought some of the cows from his own farm and does the breeding now. He also uses wrapped hay, something Bruce had never done. The baleage is 18 to 20 per cent protein.

The herd has performed well in the show ring. His Poplardell (the farm’s prefix) Gibson Hagus, three times classified Excellent with a superb mammary system, was Reserve Grand Champion at Maxville in 2006 and in Kingston in 2007.

"I feel very privileged to be on the (Master Breeder) list. It was quite a surprise," he said.

He owes the honour to many people. On the island people are close and you depend on neighbors and industry specialists, including the classifier Don Aylsworth, Dairy Herd Improvement rep. Basil Kelly, and Eastern Breeders technician Alvin Huffman.