PRESS RELEASE
15th October 2014
COGENT ANNOUNCES 2014 ‘FUTURES’ WINNERS
Matt House, a dairy farmer’s son from Somerset, has been announced as the overall
winner of this year’s Cogent Futures programme, with Tom Jones from
Pembrokeshire taking the competition’s runner-up spot.
The annual ‘Futures’ programme is aimed at providing a comprehensive introduction to
genetics and sire analysis for devotees of cattle breeding. Four short-listed candidates (Tom
Riley from Lancashire, Robert McConaghy from County Antrim, Tom Jones from
Pembrokeshire and Matt House from Somerset) were selected and given the opportunity to
experience the role of a sire analyst with Cogent. As part of the experience, the Futures
candidates visited a range of dairy herds throughout the UK and were assessed on their
ability to select potential bull mothers and to match these cows to a suitable sire.
As their prize in the competition, Matt and Tom will be invited to travel to Holland with Owain
Harries, Cogent’s Genetics Procurement Manager and a Futures winner in 2009, to visit a
selection of top herds in the country and to attend the well-known Tulip Holstein Sale in
IJsselhallen. Matt will also receive a package of elite quality Holstein embryos for use within
his own dairy herd.
“The standard of this year’s Futures candidates was once again extremely high,” Owain
Harries explains. “All four participants showed great depth of knowledge, with their passion
for pedigree cattle breeding and their excellent understanding of the dairy industry obvious
from the outset. Selecting an overall winner and runner-up was immensely challenging, with
very little to choose between the four.
“However, Matt and Tom proved themselves to be worthy winners of this year’s top prizes by
exhibiting a real understanding of dairy cattle genetics. They obviously learnt a lot during
their time on the Futures programme and I’m sure all four candidates have a very bright
future ahead of them in dairy cattle breeding.”
Matt says: “I have gained a huge amount of knowledge during my time as a Futures finalist
and am absolutely thrilled and very surprised to have been chosen as the winner.
“It was a privilege to go to some of the UK’s top herds and look at great bull mothers and
working with Cogent sire analysts has taught me so much. I used to just look at a my service
sires’ pedigrees for overall type, mammary traits and to make sure the mating would not be
inbred, but now I look for so much more,” he says.
Matt milks 190 cows plus 150 followers on 450 acres of rented land at Fowlers Plot Farm in
Somerset. With his father, John, focusing on the farm’s arable crops, Matt has a free rein to
focus on the dairy herd’s breeding strategy, using genomic sires and sexed semen on the
herd’s 80 best cows and an Aberdeen Angus stock bull on heifers. In recent years he has
concentrated on cow nutrition to radically improve the herd’s health status, and in doing so
has cut veterinary bills by more than £500 per month. His ongoing focus is to produce a
uniform herd with cows that are long-lasting and with enough dairy elegance to deliver high
milk yields.
Runner-up, Tom Jones returned to his family’s Pembrokeshire farm following his degree,
and has since worked hard to ensure every cow within the herd has full pedigree status.
Over the next five years he plans to expand the dairy herd, which consists of Holstein and
British Friesian animals, from 160 to 300 cows.
Other young cattle breeding enthusiasts wishing to follow in the footsteps of Matt, Tom and
Owain Harries should look out for the start of the 2015 Cogent ‘Futures’ cycle which will be
inviting applicants this coming autumn.
- Ends Photos
Owain and Matt: (l-r) Owain Harries and Matt House
Futures 2014: (l-r) Owain Harries, Tom Riley, Robert McConaghy, Tom Jones, Matt House.
Notes to editors
- Cogent is the pioneering business behind sexed semen technology and supply and is the UK
market leader. It is wholly owned by the Grosvenor Estate, and from its headquarters on the
Grosvenor Estate in Cheshire, has established a market-leading reputation for its world-class UK
breeding programme.
- Cogent's distinguished selection of high reliability UK proven bulls offers dairy and beef farmers an
unprecedented combination of production, type and value.
- In 2011, Cogent acquired the business and marketing rights of World Wide Sires UK, the highlyregarded cattle-breeding business, and Dairy Daughters, the UK’s first direct supplier of Holstein
semen. These businesses remain a key part of the Cogent business, and Cogent remains the
exclusive supplier of WWS US products in the UK.
For more information, please contact Catherine Jackson on 01244 622 074 or via email at
catherine.jackson@cogentuk.com
Issued by Paul Jennings, Agribusiness Communications Ltd
Tel: 01694 731777 E-mail: paul@abccomms.co.uk
The text from this news release can be downloaded directly from the Agriculture/Livestock section of
the ABC Press Centre at www.abccomms.co.uk