Delta Dewy impressive from the very beginning

The appearance of Delta Dewy P didn’t immediately catch the attention of Arjan and his wife Saskia van Erp. But that’s not the first these dairy farmers from Midwolda in the northeast of the Netherlands notice when another group of in-calf Delta donors arrive from Wirdum at their farm.

We feed them for three months before calving at my parents’ farm, two kilometers away. There’s also some young stock there. That way they can still go outside, and learn what an electric fence is,” explains Arjan van Erp. He prefers to evaluate heifers after they’ve calved a month earlier. “By then, they have developed an udder and lost the oedema. A heifer can be beautiful, but if she doesn’t develop a good udder, she becomes much less appealing to me.” Still, Van Erp always keeps an eye on pedigree. In that respect, Delta Dewy (by Launch PP) did stand out. “We used her full brother, Lead Out P, as a young bull. We have four heifers from him,” Van Erp explains. “I also always monitor new bulls closely. That’s how I saw that Chiptuner and Steadfast,
two sons of Dewy, performed well with high scores. Then it’s exciting when their mother calves on our farm.”
The fact that Dewy is a Launch daughter was another plus for Van Erp. “We milk ten Launch daughters and are quite happy with them. They give milk easily and have a broad front, robust type, and strong legs.”

Delta Dewy fits that picture well, according to the Dutch dairy farmer. “Test heifers often calve at an older age and sometimes need an extra calving before they’re fully developed. But Delta Dewy impressed me from the very first moment. She is a heifer I like - flawless and strong, yet attractive and dairy. She has chest width and deepness of rib, but you can also see she can give milk,” Van Erp says.The Launch daughter received 87 points for frame, 86 points for type, 85 points for udder, and 86 points for legs. This resulted in VG 86. “She easily deserves those 87 points for frame and 86 for legs. Almost all Launch daughters reach that score for legs, but Dewy clearly scores better than her half-sisters in udder attachment,” Van Erp notes. He is even considering taking her to the Groningen Winter Show in early March next year. “She’ll calve again in November. If she stays like this, she’s a candidate for the show in my eyes.”

Type is an important focus in Van Erp’s breeding goal. “I dislike very narrow heifers. They must at least have enough strength in the front and also meet certain standards for udder and legs. I hardly look at top NVI bulls at the moment because they don’t score high enough for conformation.”Production, however, remains the top priority on the Dutch farm with 200 cows. Whether production comes from volume or content is less important to Van Erp. “Ultimately, it’s about kilos of fat and protein. We only use bulls with good production inheritance in our SireMatch system. We apply a weighting of 20 percent production, 40 percent conformation, and 40 percent health.”

Van Erp chooses both black-and-white and red-and-white bulls, including currently Chiptuner. “We now have seven gestations from both Chiptuner and his half-brother Steadfast,” Van Erp says. “When I was young, we moved from the provence of Brabant to Groningen with 45 MRIJ cows. We still want to maintain red-and-white cows. It’s been tricky at times, but with the current supply of red-and-white bulls, choosing a bull is no problem.”The red-and-white Delta Dewy comes from an exceptional cow family. Her pedigree traces back to the renowned American dam Markwell Blackstar Raven, a black-and-white cow classified with 95 points. This family has produced several breeding bulls, including the widely used Danillo in the Netherlands. More recently, Delta Developer RC (by Skippy) has also achieved many inseminations, while besides Dewy’s sons Chiptuner and Steadfast P, their uncle Delta Botic P RC (by Fair Play) is currently gaining attention as an InSire bull.

Back to bull dam Dewy, whose production pattern clearly shows traits of her father Launch, Van Erp notes. Her high protein content and persistence are striking. Dewy is predicted to produce 9,755 kg of milk with 4.55% fat and 4.02% protein. “She started with 33-35 kg of milk. Now, nine months into lactation and nearly seven months in calf, she still produces over 30 kg of milk with 4.60% fat and 4.18% protein. In November, the Launch daughter will calve for the second time, exactly one year after her fi rst calving. “Because she
easily maintained condition, we inseminated her on time with Delta Party P. She became in calf on the first insemination,” Van Erp says. “Party is a Borax son with 114 for udder. We chose him because udders are still a focus for Launch daughters. I’m curious to see how Dewy will develop after her second calving.” l