Blaarkop of the year 2023 is Jacobien 3 from the Goudbeek family in Epe, Gelderland. The Blaarkop Foundation has decided that. The foundation speaks of a ‘very beautiful, evenly built cow of beautiful dual-purpose type with a strong, long udder’. ‘A good example of how we like to see the blister heads.’
According to the foundation, she is ‘definitely a good dairy cow with a lot of strength in her pedigree’. Jacobien 3 has been at the Goudbeek family farm since July 2015. She was born on May 31, 2012 by Jo Wichers in Heerde. She is from a female twin. Jacobien 3 is a daughter of AI bull Sjoerd, a very high protein-producing son of Appie van Luxemburg. With Sjoerd, Jacobien 3 has the same father as Gerdina 35, the Blaarkop of the Year in 2021.
The mother’s father of Jacobien 3 is Gijs, a natural breeding son of Willem 5 from a daughter of Rik van Luxemburg. Her mother’s mother was born to Theo Warmerdam and moved to Wichers as a calf. She comes from the Tetske cow family and is distantly related to Tetske 153, the Blaarkop of the year 2022.
Complete milk list
Due to the move of Jacobien 3, the milk production registration is interrupted. At the age of 5 she has her first complete milk list. “She proves to be a very persistent and problem-free cow,” the Blaarkop Foundation reports in a press statement. At the age of 9, Jacobien reached the highest production with 9,899 kilos of milk, 4.39 percent fat, 3.74 percent protein and a lactation value of 104. In most years production was between 7,000 and 8,000 kilos. When she was 10, she was still above that at 8,010 kilos.
Jacobien 3 is now eleven years old and has calved nine times. There are two young daughters on the company. The Goudbeek family’s company is a small-scale dairy farm with approximately ten dairy cows in a group stable. In addition, since this year there has been its own dairy processing; Goudsbeek dairy. There is also a small shop and a carpentry company.
The Blaarkop Foundation has existed since 2002. For the fourth year in a row, a Blaarkop of the Year has now been appointed. The foundation says its main goal is the preservation and development of the Groningen Blaarkop cattle breed for an ecological, landscape-managing dairy farm with grazing dairy cattle in the Netherlands.
