Robthom Farm, Missouri: continu

Where should we start when talking aboutRobthom Farm? Should we start with all

the breeding successes this phenomenal breedingherd has achieved over the past decades? Orshould we start with the remarkable story of howthe Thomson’s ended up in the state of Missouri?Or should we start by telling you about the specialcommitment of three generations that are on thefarm at the same time? Yes, that’s a good place tostart, because – besides all those impressive cows– that is the image that lingers in our minds. Thatimage, on a warm day in July last summer, closeto Springfield in the American state of Missouri.There, in the shadows of the house of the Thom-son-Ling family, we talk to three generations: ascan be seen in the photo. Three generations, eightpeople, and each and every one has a tremen-dous passion for their own farm, for their herdand for every Robthom cow. What an experience,to witness such a broad, intense commitment! Toevery question we ask, all of them would haveliked to answer, at the same time. For genera-tions, they have been brought up on the love fortheir cows and the dairy farm. And that is thepriceless foundation for a successful family breed-ing-farm…. as Robthom has been for generations.

show cow (later EX-95). And right there in theherd, with the other cows!

CIVIL WARThe city of Springfield is located in the southwestof Missouri, many hundreds of miles from most ofthe well-known Holstein centres in the U.S. Howdid the Thomsons end up here? Robert ThomsonJr., 85 years old, tells us the story. It starts with hisgreat-grandfather, Samuel, who was born in Scot-land. He emigrated to Minnesota in America, andthen had to join the fighting in the civil war (1861– 1865) which took him to Springfield in Missouri.Samuel survived the war, returned to Minnesota,but told his twin sons: ‘Go to Missouri. The climatethere is a lot better than it is here in Minnesota.’And this is what happened. Together with theirfamilies the twin brothers Frank and Fred Thom-son moved to Springfield in 1904, the place wheretheir father had fought. They took their Angus cat-tle with them, but they soon found out there wasno market for them in Missouri. They then madethe decision to start milking Holsteins. It was aremarkable choice because this region in Missouriwas a real Jersey area in those days. That was backin 1905 and Frank’s son Robert (the father of thestory teller, Robert Jr.) was 6 years old at the time.And even in those days, some of their Holsteinswere already herd-book registered. Then the year 1936 came along. Robert had mar-ried in the meantime, and his son Robert Jr. wasalready 13 years old. The teenager of those days –and today’s 85-year-old story teller – will neverforget the tremendous drought that rampagedthrough this area. There was hardly any feed avail-able anymore, and the cows were fed old straw. ‘Itwas a horrible time. Everyone wanted to sell theircattle. Nobody had any feed left. Beautiful, bigdairy cows were sold for only 60 dollars,’ Robertnow explains, 72 years later. For many farmersthese prices were reason to stop herd book regis-

Robthom Integrity: One of a quartet of exclusive bulls from which more than 1.5 million

units of semen have been sold. Robthom Suzet Paddy: The world-record holder for pro-

duction in 1994. Robthom Moscow: Since 2007 the super popular proven bull at Select

Sires. These are just three magnificent Holstein individuals that were all born in the

same special herd: Robthom Farm in the U.S. Travel with us to this special farm in Mis-

souri where family power carries a double meaning.

Unique total champion: PaddyAs the daughter of a Robthom-bred sire and dam,Robthom Suzet Paddy clearly demonstrated themany aspects of Robthom breeding. Both her sireand her dam trace back to foundation cow BessSegis. Paddy was capable of doing everything,capacities that reached a climax in 1993, whenshe set a world record for production of 5.9 365d59,300 lb. (26,955 kg) 3.9% 3.4% as an EX-93

Three generations of passionate breeders at Robthom Farm: in the back row Mariann, Robert, and

Mark Thomson, in the front row Janice and Alton Ling with their children Monica, Kelsey and Eric.

On the way to the milking parlor from the

pastures around Robthom.

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ous global focustrations, but Robert’s parents decided not to giveup. ‘Registered cattle will always hold its value,’was their motto, even though the registrationscost them $35, the value of half a cow! But theirprediction held: precisely because they had regis-tered cattle, in the following years other farmerscame to Robthom to buy young bulls for theirherds.

Exclusive bestseller: IntegrityFrom only 5 bulls in the world have more than 1.5million units of semen been sold: Integrity (Black-star x Ivory Mark) is one of them. It’s a sign of hislimitless popularity. Type was the trademark ofIntegrity, who even today still has a PTAT of+1.63. His daughter Vandyk-K Paradise becameWorld Champion in 2002 and his daughterRobthom Georgia is the dam of Moscow.

PERFECT CHOICEIt is a tradition with the Robthom breeders, formany generations already. At a young age the kidsget a cow or calf of their choice from their parents.Also for Robert Jr., who got to pick a calf in 1937.He picked Robthom Bess Segis, a daughter of theOrmsby-bred bull Campus Fredmar Aaggie Segisand out of a cow his father had purchased: BessCalamo Wayne. Robert Jr. picked her for her hardi-

Fresh blood: SweetieThree quarters of the herd trace back to the unfor-gettable Ivory Mark. But at Robthom they alsointroduce some fresh blood, via VT-Pond View-Sweet for example. She was mated to their ownbull, Integrity, with the next generation toDurham. This resulted in the wonderful show cowRobthom Sweetie Durham EX-94, who has onlyproduced bulls so far! One of them, an O-Man,has become a super-sampler at Select Sires.

WHITE BULLAt the same time – it was in the 1950s – AI took off.In Springfield, MFA Dairy Breeders was foundedand one of their popular bulls was ThonymaVoyageur Veediction, born in the famous herd ofThonyma breeder Ed Reed in Kansas in 1953. ThisVeediction hadn’t gone to MFA directly fromReed’s; first he was in active service in anotherwell-known herd in Kansas, the herd of GlenPalmer. Palmer was of the opinion that his cowswere getting too black, and therefore he purchasedthe almost entirely white Veediction, to breedmore white into his cows. When Veediction (aftersome great results in the Palmer herd) came toSpringfield, he also became popular at Robthom. In the 1960s, a wave of small AI mergers followed,and MFA joined a group of AI-studs from the U.S.

ness and because she was such a tremendouseater. What nobody could have known at the timewas that Bess Segis had some tremendous genet-ics inside of her that would make her one of themost influential brood cows in the world. She wasa tremendous foundation for the herd of Robertand Mariann Thomson, who made their own startin 1954 with 12 cows and 3 heifers. Until thattime, Robert had milked his own cows jointly withhis father’s, and during World War II, they decidedto milk three times per day…..by hand, for that’show it was back then. ‘In those years only half thedairy farms were still in operation. There wasdemand for dairy products everywhere. That’swhy we decided to start milking 3 times a day,’Robert explains; he was 17 when the war started.As mentioned, Robert and Mariann made theirown start in 1954. ‘We were way ahead of ourtime,’ Robert remembers. ‘We had registeredherd-book cows AND we had a lot of animals.There was almost no competition in the area, sofarmers from all over the neighborhood camehere to buy their herd bulls. Those were beautifulyears with a tremendous market. And even moreso because there were still many Jerseys around,and everybody wanted to switch over to Hol-steins.’

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Farmers from states all around and further away have been coming to Robthom Farm for

decades: looking for young bulls from all-round great cows. Like this two-year-old, Robthom

Twinkle VG-85 (Blitz x VG-87 Durham).

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Mid-West called Midwest Genes. As a result Vee -diction was moved to Minnesota. However, overthere the farmers were not at all charmed by thiswhite bull that carried no Burke blood, and so heunexpectedly went to the slaughterhouse. The AIdirector of MFA had not been consulted, and hewas baffled by the decision. He spontaneouslycalled Robert Thomson and asked him whetherhe wanted to buy the 50 remaining ampoules ofVeediction semen. Veediction had done a greatjob at Robthom, so that’s where the last semenwent. And then that great moment came, Robertradiates when he remembers it. ‘Then the firstindexes in America were published, and do youknow who became the # 1 bull? Veediction! All ofa sudden the bull was completely back in the pic-ture. And we had all his registered daughters ANDhis last semen! Oh boy, those were great years!’

Global favorite: MoscowHe is one of BW Marshall’s best sons for longevity,the heavily used Robthom Moscow, with 1781 TPIand 4.6 PL. With every release the stayer fromMissouri is improving, for 11 index rounds in arow already! Moscow’s maternal line traces backto foundation cow Bess Segis via another branchthan the popular Ivory Mark. But via his damGeorgia (a 14 year-old Integrity daughter alreadywith more than 220,000 lb. or 100,000 kg of milk)Ivory is present here too!

HARDINESS IN THE HERDThe sale of young bulls, it is the connecting themein the story about Robthom Farm. Since the startin the first half of the 20th century, the herd hasalways been an appreciated source of herd bullsfor farmers from far around. And it still is today, say

Alton and Janice Ling, son-in-law and daughter ofRobert and Mariann. They now run the farm alongwith Janice’s brother Mark, and herewith are the4th generation of Thomsons to manage Robthom,and to be active bull sellers. ‘For us the sale ofbulls is a very important source of revenue,’ saysAlton. ‘Of course the market for young bulls is get-ting smaller with the reducing number of farms,but the farmers come to us from further away allthe time. In the 1970s we sold more than 100young bulls per year, today 50 to 60. They go toherds in states like Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska,Oklahoma and of course our own Missouri. Themajority of farmers come back every year and ofcourse that is a good sign.’ In this respect Altonand Janice also point out the importance ofshows. ‘Our cows at shows in this area make forgood publicity.’Generally speaking, the clients of Robthom arevery satisfied with the conformation their bullstransmit. Alton: ‘And that is what they are lookingfor: type and hardiness in the herd. Dairy farmerscan see for themselves from which cows they arebuying their bulls - how long these cows are last-ing and how they are performing in a large herd,in circumstances comparable to their own herds.You know, many farmers were surprised to findthe world-record producer Paddy here in the herdwith the rest of the cows. But this is the way oursystem works. And Paddy did not want to be sep-arated, she always wanted to go with the rest ofthe herd.’

Mighty influence: Ivory MarkIn 1997 a header in HI read: “Ivory Mark: themost popular cow family in the world.” This wasno surprise, because the readers of HI fromaround the world had just massively chosen forIvory’s sons in a HI competition, two years in arow. The icon of Ivory’s descendants of course isIntegrity. It says a lot that three-quarters ofRobthom’s own herd traces back to Ivory EX-94.

HOMEBRED BULLSAt Robthom too they use a lot of homebred bulls.‘Take Bess Segis for instance,’ Robert and Mari-ann say. ‘We did a lot of line-breeding with her,and the more of it we did, the better the resultswere. Others advised us to use more AI bulls, butfor us it worked out fine.’ Today, too, they still reg-ularly use a promising homebred bull. One ofthese is Robthom Kold Outside, an Outside froman EX-90 Mandel from Jade, the Inspirationdaughter of Ivory Mark. Kold has 25 daughters inthe herd of which 5 have entered production.Moreover, there are 8 daughters in Nebraska. Butof course: besides fascinating homebred bulls,they also make full use of the international topbulls. Lots of milk, high type and a sound cowfamily are the most important requirements. ‘Ifyou work with bulls from families that consistent-ly breed sound animals, then you can count onthem too,’ Alton explains and goes on: ‘If a bulldid not work out for us, we will not easily use his

The summers are hot in Missouri.

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sons. We only do this when he has truly proven hisworth.’ At the same time Alton says that thebreeding goals at Robthom are not easily redirect-ed. ‘You should not want to follow the fashiontrend too quickly. Breeding does not allow you toshift gears just like that when you think, nowwe’ve found the answer.’ That’s why longevity hasnot suddenly become a “hot item” at Robthom.‘You know, it has always been there. We just didn’thave numbers. But we always worked towardslongevity in our own way. Just by instinct.’

Worldwide choice: MalachiteMany readers of HI will recognize him: RobthomMalachite. In 1996 he was chosen as the favoriteyoung sire by the readers of HI worldwide. That’swhy he received widespread use already as ayoung sire. How did he do? Today the 1993-bornJed son has a TPI of 1203 with 1.39 PTAT, 0.8longevity, 3 lb. fat and -7 lb. protein. Worldwide thisall-round type transmitter has 5,529 daughters.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD KIDThanks to his choice of Bess Segis, Robert Jr. laidthe foundation for a mighty breeding herd. Andhis children and grandchildren now continue tobuild on this herd passionately. We clearly see thatwhen we take a look at the herd together with thefamily: Take a look at the full sisters to the popularproven sire Moscow: At the many cows with showring potential. That’s when you notice the commu-nication between the family members, how theykeep each other constantly informed about mat-ters they observed about their cows or their farm:Matters that may seem very trivial but ensure asmoothly functioning entity. The youngest genera-tion (Eric, Kelsey, and Monica, the three childrenof Alton and Janice) speak joyfully about the ani-mals they got from their parents. Eric’s story isdelightful. How he, as a four-year-old kid, enteredthe show ring with a cow that was older than hewas. And he precisely remembers which one thatwas: ‘Amber, the dam of Ivory Mark. She was

This is one of the EX full sisters to RobthomMoscow: BW Marshall x Integrity. She was dryduring our visit but we still do admire her.

The wonderful Robthom herd is ready for milking – they average 29,000 lb. (13,180 kg) with 3.8% fat and 3.2% protein.

ROBTHOM IN THE U.S.- Owned by the Thomson-Ling family- Located close to Springfield in the U.S.

state of Missouri.- 420 head including 150 milking and dry

cows.- 300 acres (120 hectares), including 40

acres corn, 150 acres grass and alfalfaand 110 acres pasture.

- Ration: mix of corn silage, alfalfa hay,oats or wheat silage and concentratesaccording to production in the milkingparlor.

- Current service sires: Sanchez, Alexan-der, Lightning, Million, Pronto, Moscow,Bolivia, Laurin. 30% of the heifers arebred to homebred bulls (‘But we wantto increase that to 90%,’ – Janice).

exhibited in the dry cow class and I was allowed toshow her!’Yes, new generations are anxious to get started atRobthom. In spite of the many successful provenbulls, it is quiet right now where AI interest is con-cerned. ‘At the moment we don’t have any AI con-tracts,’ Janice says, and she is as surprised aboutthat as we are. Surprised, because the AIs havemade successful bull purchases here for decades.And when looking at the new generation of cows,you see their potential for the future. That’s whythey remain very relaxed about the situation atRobthom. This family and this herd have been intighter spots. And time and again, demandreturned as never before thanks to the sound per-spectives the Robthom genetics continue to offer.That is the strength that has helped Robthomdevelop into a reliable beacon in the turbulentHolstein breeding world. n