2003 Honorary member

Armand Bilodeau
Armand was born in 1936 in St-Agapit. He is the youngest of a family of 14 children. At a very young age, he is involved with the “Club des jeunes agriculteurs” (Young Farmers Club) where he enjoyed showing Ayrshire calves. He also participated at the county fair with his father.
1958 was a big year. He bought the family farm « Ferme du coin de la route », a 100 acres farm with an Ayrshire herd of approximately 50 head. He built himself a house and married Madeleine Bergeron, also of St-Agapit.

At that time, he had a very good Ayrshire herd. He owned good cow families, namely « Du coin de la route Rougette » a cow that was known for her high production. She produced 132,750 lbs of milk in 12 lactations. That was a lot at that time.

In 1968, a terrible ordeal struck the 32 cows herd; a contagious disease, brucellosis. Every month, veterinaries from the Federal came and took blood samples from the entire herd. The cows found positive had to be slaughtered. I remember seeing 12 cows leave the same month. In total, 64 animals were slaughtered over 3 years.

Starting up again was difficult. A few years later my father bought very good cows at herd dispersions. As time went on, with the genetic improvement of the bulls from the insemination center, he was able to rebuild his herd. It’s then that he started showing, in St-Agapit, Trois-Rivières, Montmagny, Quebec and a few head in Toronto.

Armand is also very much involved socially. He was President of the Etchemin Ayrshire Club in 1981 and 1982. He was also Director of the Agricultural Society for six years. He sat as Director of the Coopérative St-Agapit. He was also President of Ayrshire Quebec in 1988. He is also involved in his parish, he was President of the Lions Club, Grand Knight, Faithful Navigator, Director of the Caisse populaire, volunteer fireman and many more.

In 1990, Armand and Madeleine decided to sell the farm to their son Roger, who continued breeding Ayrshires. The herd is still 100% Ayrshire and not goes under the prefix “Ro-Ann”. Following the transfer, Armand continued to be very active at the farm. Over the last twelve years, Armand invested a lot of time in his small flock of sheep. He attended different exhibitions with a lot of pleasure and success until last fall. He also kept an eye wide open at the Ayrshire shows.

We are very pleased to thank and congratulate this couple who, by their energy and their courage, were able to recover from terrible ordeals. Now retired, their greatest joy is to spend quality time with their children, their 10 grand children and numerous friends.

The Ayrshires have served me well. When I first started farming after World War II I had Ayrshires and when I came to Canada in 1961, I had the opportunity of buying the farm Joe Saville had started to build up on Vancouver Island. This was an Ayrshire farm and Joe had purchased Oak Ridge Royal Jo at a sale in Portland.

Royal Jo became the brood cow of the farm, she lived for twenty years and for a long time was the highest milk producer in Canada. Many of our cows have her blood in their pedigree, as for instance Starman Kathleen who has just completed 100,000 kg of milk. Balme Ayr Farms is primarily a milk farm and if the cows do not milk, they do not stay. We have twice been at the top of the table for large herds, the first time with modest BCA’s of 140. The breed has come a long way since then and indeed Royal Jo would have done much better if I had known as much as I did later about feeding.

Notable about our animals is Balme Ayr Leslie who had BCA’s of over 300 and another Milkman cow, Tanya 5, who gave over 11,000 kg on a recent lactation.

Joe Saville had bulls. We still have bulls, some we have bred and some came from bob and Ellen Saville and others in Alberta.

A few years ago, I passed the farm on to my son Oliver who is showing himself an innovative farmer and I am proud of his progress. I still manage to do a small amount of tractor driving to keep my hand in.

John Balme   

Royal Jo became the brood cow of the farm, she lived for twenty years and for a long time was the highest milk producer in Canada. Many of our cows have her blood in their pedigree, as for instance Starman Kathleen who has just completed 100,000 kg of milk. Balme Ayr Farms is primarily a milk farm and if the cows do not milk, they do not stay. We have twice been at the top of the table for large herds, the first time with modest BCA’s of 140. The breed has come a long way since then and indeed Royal Jo would have done much better if I had known as much as I did later about feeding.

Notable about our animals is Balme Ayr Leslie who had BCA’s of over 300 and another Milkman cow, Tanya 5, who gave over 11,000 kg on a recent lactation.

Joe Saville had bulls. We still have bulls, some we have bred and some came from bob and Ellen Saville and others in Alberta.

A few years ago, I passed the farm on to my son Oliver who is showing himself an innovative farmer and I am proud of his progress. I still manage to do a small amount of tractor driving to keep my hand in.

Henry Bryant 

Harry helped on the family farm and was a member of the Chilliwack 4-H Club for a number of years. In 1950, upon graduating from agriculture at the University of British Columbia, Harry bought ten Ayrshire cows from his dad for $5,000, and established Brookwyn Farm at Mission, BC, across the Fraser River from Chilliwack.

Harry and his wife Susan, and their three children, operated a family farm until retirement in 1995, when Brookwyn Farm was purchased by son Ken. Both Susan and Harry were active leaders of the local 4-H Club. Harry was a Director of the BC Artificial Insemination Center for a number of years.

The Brookwyn herd was on official milk recording continuously and classified producing several Excellent cows. They exhibited at local Ayrshire fairs and at mayor show including the Pacific National Exhibition at Vancouver and at Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta.

The Bryants took an active part in the BC Ayrshire Breeders’ Club, with Harry becoming President for two terms. Harry also was Western Director of the Ayrshire Breeders’Association of Canada for four years. Traveling in the World Ayrshire Conference meetings was a highlight for the Bryants.

The Ayrshires of Brookwyn gave us a satisfying and interesting life-style which was appreciated by all members of the family.

Robert E. Ness
Most of you know Robert Ness, so we thought we would tell you some things that you may not have heard before. Second to Ayrshires, our Dad’s other interest as a young man, was sports:
• he loved to play softball...even when the uniforms were sponsored? by Raeburn Holsteins;
• his hockey team once played an exhibition game against the? Montreal Canadians and he scored a goal against Jacques Plante;
• his third sport was curling and his team once badly defeated a? team of local doctors who advised him not to get appendicitis? later that night.

Our favorite story from Mr. Ness’ years at Macdonald College is one he would tell us when we were having trouble training a 4-H calf. In the lottery for the Mac Royal Show, he drew the wildest cow in the barn. He was given the option of drawing again but that only made it a bigger challenge. After weeks of perseverance, she behaved nicely for him in the ring. His reward came when the finalists were asked to switch animals and on one else could handle her. In fact, she bolted out of the ring.

Carnell Pearlstone was a successful herd sire at Macdonald College but he was old and fat. Professor Alex Ness offered him to Mr. Ness who brought him home and put him on a diet and exercise program. It took a year and a half before he bred a cow but he went on to sire many high lifetime production cows that bred extremely well. A lot of those cows were part of a bred and owned million pound herd, which was achieved in 1965 with 10 cows and later with nine, eight and seven cows. He was always proud of these million pound herds as proof of the longevity and profitability of Ayrshire cows.

He learned to speak Scottish and French in the same summer. In 1951, he was sent to Scotland by Burnside Farm to bring home a shipment of Ayrshires. Fortunately, for him, the ship was put into dry dock for repairs and he got to stay in Scotland for 26 days instead of four. It was a chance of a lifetime to see Scotland and leading Ayrshire herds. His six-week French Immersion began as soon as he was back in Canada. He stayed at the quarantine station in Lévis where he looked after the cows and played softball with the local team.

He also traveled, by train, to several US shows with the Burnside showstring. Once, they had the bad luck to be placed in the first car behind the locomotive. They arrived at their destination with Ayrshires looking more like Aberdeen Angus.

Most of you know that Mr. Ness has been on the boards of CIAQ and SEMEX but you may not know that his interest in AI goes back to the years when he housed the imported Ayrshire bulls for the Howick Breeders Club. He collected and checked the fresh semen and delivered it to Oakley McRae who did the inseminations.

We are very proud of his many achievements, and the time he has given to share what he knows with 4-H kids, and fellow breeders. We are amazed by the number of people he knows all over the world. Our mother always said she got to go to a lot of places as long as there was an Ayrshire cow at the other end.