The Club was formed in 1999 with the amalgamation of 3 clubs, The Border Counties Holstein Friesian Breeders Club, The Lakeland Holstein Friesian Breeders Club and the North Western Holstein Club. These go back to the 1940’s when a group of breeders got together to form a club to promote the black & white cattle in our area.
Today we have approximately 200 members mostly in Cumbria but ranging from Fife to Somerset. The aims and objectives of the club are to promote & improve the Holstein & the Friesian cow. We strongly believe that pedigree cattle are the way forward & we continue to try to improve the breed using Type Classification & milk recording. Over Many years the value of pedigree stock has been proven to be greater than commercial non pedigree animals. We have many top-quality cattle in Cumbria, mostly having been bred by members of our Club.
The Club hosts monthly sales under Holstein UK Society rules, stock judging events, shows, Herd Visits & other meetings, these are just a few of the ways we try to promote our cattle, as well as a winter & a summer herd competition. Herd competitions give our members the opportunity to promote their herds & the chance to be put forward for the national Premier Herd Award. We currently have 11 herds who have had a Master Breeders Award within the club and 3 herds who have won the National Premier Herd competition.
There is also a very active younger generation who have their own section – Border & Lakeland Holstein Young Breeders (HYB). They also hold stock judging events, have an annual calf show & many social events. Most of these allow members the opportunity to compete for qualification at national level - the All Britain All Breeds National Calf Show being the pinnacle of the HYB calendar. The National Rally weekend which incorporates the National Dairy Stock judging & Field to Photo competitions is also a major highlight of the year and members eagerly look forward to these events. The club provides an Annual Scholarship for a Senior Member of HYB to travel Internationally to study dairy cattle and visit an International Holstein Show.
We would welcome all dairy farmers to be part of our Breeders Club pedigree or not, our aims are to promote profitable long living cows. And we welcome all dairy cow enthusiasts within the area.