Celebrating 60 Years part 4

Well I got a little more then a little bit behind with the Christmas Season and then a nasty cold in our family. So you may have noticed that parts 3 & 4 are back to back, hopefully you don’t mind! So without further delay here is the last of our standout farm history from our 60 Years with Registered Guernseys Celebration. These were first posted on our facebook page, I hope you have liked us and are following along! Also make sure you didn’t miss parts 1 through 3!

#46 Paul and Delores celebrated the official sale of Abiqua Acres to their youngest son Alan and his wife Barbara in 1985.

#47 The best farm dog ever, Tippy, joined our family on August 1st 1986!

#48 Back when cow picturing took an entire
crew of people and pretty much a whole day to get that perfect shot!
Thank goodness for digital! This picture from October of 1986 was of
Naomi-VG88 taken for Select Sires Inc., as she was the daughter
of the hot young sire that year Kenmir Nance’s Baker. Naomi put up a
decent 2-11 record of 17,412M, but the picture was the highlight of her
career, didn’t even get a daughter out of her!

#49 Alan and Barbara welcomed their second child to Abiqua Acres in 1987, a daughter, Darleen! <—-That’s me Your Farmer’s Daughter! 😉 Now you all know how old I am! Haha

#50 Also in 1987 Alan and Barbara were recipients of the Outstanding Young Guernsey Farmer award, presented by the American Guernsey Association.

#51 Lots of construction around the farm in
the late 80’s and early 90’s. In 1988 we finished the new heifer shed
(pictured). And also converted an area into our “special care” pen,
which has been a vital addition for our cow care!

#52 This construction also included remodeling the freestall barn to include loop stalls and “rubber mattresses” for the Ladies.

#53 Since 1981 Abiqua Acres has been
distinguished for breeding over 25 Gold Star Cows and have been honored
with Gold Star Breeder over 21 times.

#54 Seeing black and white on our farm became a
thing of history when the last Holstein was finally sold in 1993. We
are the only 100% Guernsey herd in Oregon and one of the few in the
nation.

#55 As these breeding decisions that have
yielded awards continue the Guernsey industry has started to take notice
in recent years. This has resulted in 5 young sires entering AI
sampling programs- Abiqua Acres Banger Martini, C Marksman, Banger
Verdict, Grumpy Sergeant and Alstar VIP. The first bull to ever be
sampled was born 8/8/88, Abiqua Acres Pender Milkman-Twin. His mother,
the super sweet Mignon-EX90, is pictured here during classification in
1987. She completed a lifetime record of 143,684M 6,328F 4,977P and is
fondly remembered.

#56 Born in 1998, Abiqua Acres Goliath Velma
is the oldest cow in our herd, at 14 years young! Velma is the dam of
Banger Verdict and Alstar VIP mentioned below. She is the number one NM$
Guernsey, holds the Oregon Guernsey Breeders Association Living Lifetime award for two years in a row, and holds places on the American Guernsey Association‘s
Top 10 Living Lifetime list for milk, fat and protein. Velma has
produced 210,922 milk, 10,800 fat and 7,178 protein and is still going
strong!

#57 The 900-gallon tank that was installed in
1976 was large enough to hold an extra days worth of milk, three days
total. In 2009 that milk tank had to be replaced as it was regularly
running over with just two days milk. We are looking forward to the day
when we have to replace the new 1,350-gallon tank due to the same number
of good Guernsey cows filling it up!

 #58 In 2010 Abiqua Acres was featured in The Guernsey Breeders Journal.
At the time of the article we had 11 Ladies in the herd that had
surpassed the 100,000lbs mark! Together they produced 1,809,397lbs of
milk! That’s 210,395 gallons!! All
bred by Abiqua Acres, Left to Right: Goliath Loralee: 126,465
Hotshot Miracle: 177,216 Showdown Happy: 138,394 Goliath Mari:
174,216 Lorry Lonna: 158,081 Lord Sprinkles: 167,775 Saber
Bluebird: 161,930 Goliath Velma: 210,922 Rueben Monster:160,985
Lorry Speckles: 181,150 Liberty Meredith: 152,437

#59 2012 marked our 60 year anniversary with
registered Guernseys, and what a huge year it was! As the Oregon
Guernsey Breeders association hosted the 2012 National Guernsey
Convention and one of the stops on the tours was Abiqua Acres. We opened
our farm to more then 200 people from across the country for a tour and
dinner. Truly memories to last a lifetime from that day!

And last but definitely not least we come to
#60 Convention week concluded with Alan & Barbara Mann being awarded
Master Breeder! This lifetime achievement award is the highest honor
bestowed from the American Guernsey Association.