Extreme production bull winner of the 2022 Mahoe Trophy

A 2017-born bull that has hit the ground running as a sire to watch has won the 2022 Mahoe Trophy.

Rivendell MFU Scotch, bred by Owen and Cathy Copinga of Rivendell Holstein Friesians, Otautau, was awarded the prestigious title at the 2022 Holstein Friesian NZ Awards held in Palmerston North on Monday, June 20.

The Mahoe Trophy is awarded to the breeder of the New Zealand-bred Holstein Friesian bull with the highest aggregate points for breeding worth (BW), protein BV, fat BV, and type traits.

Scotch is one out of the box; not only does he have excellent parentage, but his progeny is already making waves in both production and type. He has been a high achiever since birth, chosen as part of the 2018 HFNZ Genetic Leaders team and being marketed by CRV in 2022 as a daughter-proven sire.

Scotch’s dam, Rivendell Justice Suzy GP83, was the top cow in the Rivendell herd in her time. She produced 12,714L milk in the 2017/18 season as a five-year-old, including 463kg protein, and 534kg fat.

Scotch’s sire is popular LIC-marketed bull Maire Mint Fire-Up, who won the Mahoe Trophy in 2020. He has outstanding type traits and longevity. Fire-Up’s dam was Maire Oman Fire VG85, and his sire was Fairmont Mint-Edition.

Scotch, an A2A2 bull, now has 146 daughters over 54 herds.

As at the May 2022 AE Run, he was ranked 17th on the Ranking of Active Sires (RAS) list with a BW 327, protein BV 66, fat BV 56 and milk BV 1,857, backed by an udder overall BV 0.89 and overall dairy conformation BV 1.02.

Scotch’s daughters will be cows to watch. Of his 146 daughters that have been Traits Other Than Production (TOP) inspected to date, his progeny are very tall, capacious cows. Udder overall BV is very desirable, with close rear teats, high rear udders and strong udder support.

CRV Genetics Product Manager – NZ Market Mitchell Koot says Scotch is an exciting addition to the CRV product offering.

“He is an extreme production bull that will increase the efficiency of New Zealand dairy herds through excellent production,” he says. “Scotch is a bull that will produce strong robust daughters with great capacity, rump width and udder traits.”

The top two heifers in the Rivendell herd last season were Scotch daughters: Rivendell Scotch Sandi GP83 (BW 239) and Rivendell Scotch Bertha GP84 (BW 289).

Owen Copinga added: “You know what they say… you can’t beat a good Scotch.”