FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2015
Contact: National Dairy Shrine
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Ahlem Farms honored with 2015 National Dairy Shrine Distinguished Dairy Cattle BreederAward
Ahlem Farms Partnership, Hilmar Calif., has been selected as the National Dairy Shrine Distinguished Dairy Cattle Breeder. The partners are William and Carolyn Ahlem and Sabino Ahlem Herrera, DVM.
Ahlem Farms is home to 6,000 registered Jersey cows on three farms; of these in addition to their 8,399 replacements, 99.5 percent carry the Ahlem prefix. The Ahlems strive to breed cattle that produce high yield for cheese while looking good at the same time.
Their Jersey genetic journey began when William Jr. (Bill) graduated from Oregon State University in 1966 and he joined his father, William Sr. on one of the two family farms. The operation later expanded to include more family members and locations but eventually split off into separate dairies. Bill is also one of the founding members of the Hilmar Cheese Company.
In 2002, Herrera joined the team after he completed his doctorate of veterinary medicine. With his doctorate in hand, hebrought experience in management and was able to aid in increasing production from 15,832 pounds per cow at his arrival, to more than 20,000 in 2014.
The farm consistently ranks in the top for milk, fat and protein yield when compared with similar sized herds. In 2014, Ahlem’s Jersey cattle boasted a lactation average of 20,891 pounds of milk, 1,005 pounds of fat and 777 protein, putting them in the twelfth, seventeenth and twelfth rankings, respectively. To add to those averages, 2,805 cows have lifetime records of more than 100,000 pounds and five with more than 200,000 pounds of milk.
In addition to their outstanding herd records, Ahlem Farms has strong interest in breeding and marketing quality males and females. The fully registered herd takes part in the American Jersey Cattle Association REAP program, where they excel in the Jersey Performance Index (JPI) rankings. About half of the cows and heifers are genotyped. To date, 1,638 cows that have the Ahlem prefix have been scored excellent with 38 scoring between 93% and 95%.
When the Ahlem’s started their journey in 1979, they brought on Ed Fisher, a retired agriculture teacher at Hilmar High School and former teacher of Bill’s, to work with the herd genetics. Primarily grade at the time, Fisher helped transform the herd to 100 percent registered through the Genetic Recovery Program and thoughtful genetic selections.
Today, sire selection is based on a very complete approach to breeding. Top traits considered include Jersey Performance Index, Jersey Udder Index and Cheese Merit dollars. Other traits such as production, type and health are also reviewed. While choosing young sires, the Ahlems evaluate pedigree depth for confirmation of their choices. Additionally, they have been using embryo transfer and most recently in vitro fertilization (IVF) to increase the number of animals that have their desired characteristics.
The dairy’s most widely known bull, Ahlem Lemvig Abe-ET, quickly rose to the top of the JPI rankings ultimately reaching the number one spot in August 2005, and he remained there for the next four proof runs. Abe is a son of one of Ahlem’s most prominent cows, Ahlem Sky Line Cora, EX-91.
Cora has had four sons enter A.I. and produced 10 daughters with 21,000-pound records or higher. Not to mention, she is the fifth dam of Ahlem Plus Cherokee, a Plus x Valentino son currently sampled by Select Sires.
Ahlem Legal Vernon-ET, Legal x Jace, is Ahlem’s current top-ranked bull for JPI. Like many others in the dairy breeding industry, the farm is getting more involved with polled genetics with Ahlem Nikon-P, a polled Critic-P son from a VG-85 Allstar.
Other notable cows include Ahlem BSB Princess 6112, EX-93, Ahlem B John Princess 3183-ET, EX-91, Ahlem Avery Buttons, EX-94 and Ahlem Barber Tiffany 6200, EX-93. All are farm favorites for their own respective accomplishments and traits.
Genetics from these and other animals are marketed primarily from sale consignments and contract bulls. Each year, they consign animals to the All American Jersey Sale, National Heifer Sale and the Pot O’ Gold sale. They have also been able to offer three production sales of their own.
Ahlem cows have not only performed well in the parlor but on the tanbark. In 2012, two juniors purchased Ahlem Action Winsome EX-93 through the farm’s production sale. Winsome was awarded Overall Premier Performance Cow at the 2013 All-American Junior Show and was Reserve All-American Senior Two-Year-Old in 2012.
Off the farm, Bill is very involved in a number of dairy-related and community organizations. In 1999, he was appointed to the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board where he became chairman in 2005. Other involvement includes Western United Dairy, California and American Farm Bureau Federations, Hilmar Unified School District, Board of Dairy Management, Inc. and Benevolent Ministries of the Evangelical Church.
The annual National Dairy Shrine Awards Banquet will be held in Madison, Wis., Oct. 1. For more information about those being recognized by National Dairy Shrine or tickets for the awards Banquet, contact the NDS office at . Information on National Dairy Shrine membership or other activities is also available on our website at
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Pictures are available if desired. Please contact to obtain photos of the honorees.