Emerald is Spencerville's super cow after chewing up a 15-year-old New Zealand record for milkfat production.
The supreme milker, owned by the Wakelin brothers on the Belbrook Friesian Stud just north of Christchurch, left her herdmates in her dust last season with a new holstein-friesian butterfat benchmark of 764kg.
A flick through
the record books has confirmed this has overtaken the old record of 670kg by Matawai TC Paloma.
Emerald's illustrious pedigree can be traced back to the 1920s and, apart from the injection of North American blood before her time, she is home-bred.
Owner Trevor Wakelin said he and his brother Murray were still trying to work out the reason behind the friesian's performance during a 305-day season that also yielded 11,363 litres of milk and 355kg of protein.
"Emerald has already done over 400kg several times but her butterfat test went really high. Why this happened we cannot quite pinpoint. She's had no special feed and she just ran with the rest of the herd. It must have been just one of those things that clicked."
Most dairy cows are retired at between seven and nine years, but the 11-year-old friesian with an excellent two classification shows no sign of stopping. Her dam and grandam milked until the ages of 18 and 19.
Emerald has calved again since the record and is already milking well, Trevor Wakelin said.
Emerald's progeny are also showing signs of a similar milk-producing prowess. She has five daughters that are already starting to produce up to 400kg of butterfat a season.
- NZPA
