Some of the Scenes from California

During the spring semester of 2005, I had the opportunity to use my week of 'spring break' to go on an agricultural field studies trip to California, in the Napa valley and surrounding area. As this so called spring break falls during the second week of March, when it is generally brutally cold in upstate New York, I leaped on the chance. Especially since the trip would include a stop at Ocean-View Holsteins. I had long been using this farms bulls as young sires. Bulls from Zenith to Extra Special, all the way up to Zander and Zebra. When we got there, the cows we saw were absolutely incredible. Just amazing. I wouldn't have ever left if it had been an option. Unfortunately, we did have to leave. But I got a bunch of photos of their stellar cows.

This photo is of Ocean-View Juror Hay-ET. She goes back to the legendary To-Mar Wayne Hay, the dam of the incredible To-Mar Blackstar bull. Juror Hay's dam is the daughter of Blackstar's full sister. Juror Hay was classified EX-93 with a lifetime production of over 100,000 lbs of milk and she was still going strong at the time.

This is Ocean-View Integ Dixie. She is an Integrity daughter with a classification score of 92. Pretty darn nice cow. This photo really doesn't do her justice.

This cow here is the full sister to Ocean-View Extra Special. Her name is Ocean-View Outside Sheen-ET. Sorry the photo is so terrible. She wasn't too big on cooperating. She was really lovely though.

This is an Extra-Special daughter that the Nunes' had in a pen with two of his other daughters. Unfortunately, she was the only one who would stand still long enough for a photo. The three of them were consigned to a sale the next week. The whole group of us was really wishing we could have gotten to it, but we were back in NY by then.

The animal on the left in this photo is a bull calf out of Ocean-View's incredible Zandra family. This is the same family that Zenith, Zander and Zebra are out of. Impressive bull. If my family had lived closer I would have worked very very hard to get my father to buy him as at the time he was for sale. The heifer on the right is a Fustead Emory Blitz daughter, who was I believe out of the farm's Jewel family, but I'm not certain. They were a lovely pair of animals, and though you can't see her, farther to the left was a gorgeous daughter of Zenith. She was awesome, and the farm was getting her ready for the summer's shows.

All in all the trip was incredible. I'll post more photos from other places that we visited, including Alcetrez, vineyards, and a massive fish hatchery.