Roland Ripley, Cortland, New York
Roland Ripley is a lifelong Purebred Registered Guernsey Farmer from Cortland, New York. He began full time farming at the age of 16, due to the loss of his father in an accident. He raised purebred Guernseys since that time, with his wife, Patty, and five children, 23 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren. There are 66 of them all together with spouses.
Roland has been active in the New York State Guernsey Breeders Association as Secretary for over 50 years, and is involved in other community leadership roles, as well as his church. He has exhibited at local county, state and National shows as well as the World Dairy Exposition. He has several Grand Champions at the New York State Fair, at Pennsylvania All-American Dairy Show, and at a National Guernsey Show. He has bred and raised many All-American cows, as well as judge dairy cattle for many county, district and state shows, as well as the Junior All American Show and National Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky, the Royal Melbourne National Show in Australia, and Royal Winter Canadian Show.
Roland was chosen as the National Outstanding Young Farmer in 1974, and both of his sons, Tom and Dan, followed in that award in 1999. He also has received the coveted Master Breeder Award from the American Guernsey Association in 2011. The award is given annually to an individual or farm that has made a significant lifetime impact towards the genetic improvement of the Guernsey breed through careful and successful breeding of Registered Guernseys. His three daughters, Christel, Sue and Cherie have represented the Guernsey breed as New York State Guernsey Princess, and Christel as a National Guernsey Princess.
Roland partners with this two sons on their 1500 acre farm, and has recently purchased an additional farm to help with crop land. They crop 700 acres of corn and 630 acres of alfalfa/grass. The farm ships 35,000 pounds of milk per day, currently milking 150 Guernseys of which 125 have been tested a2, and 400 Holsteins. There are currently 1050 head of dairy cattle on the farm.
More than 50 Excellent Guernseys have been bred at Ripley Farms. One notable Excellent cow, Low Brook Goldfoot Connie, a cow purchased out of Canada was flushed several times to produce over 100 Connie offspring. Over 20% of the top 100 CPI were Connie's offspring in 2015. Several bulls have been in AI Service from Ripley Farms over the years including Ripley Farms Banner Dallas, Ripley Farms Banner Skytop, Ripley Farms Enhancer Reward, Ripley Farms Royal Oak Royalty, Ripley Farms Aarons Cordell, Ripley Farms Pie C Toby, and several others. Toby has been the #1 CPI bull for several years and Ripley Farms Networth C Theo is currently the top genomic bull in the United States. Ripley Farms ranks in the top 5 Guernsey herds in the United States for production, and one of their Guernseys, Ripley Farms Blaze Yogi is in the top 5 Living Lifetime Cows for production.
Ripley Farms newest diversification is leasing a milk bottling plant where they bottle and market a2 Guernsey milk, as well as an a2 cheese and butter. They process up to 20,000 pounds of milk per week, and distribute their dairy products to local grocery stores, coffee shops and farmer's markets, as well as own and manage a farm store.
Roland and his wife, Patty, winter in Sun City Center, Florida where he is kept busy with his woodworking hobby, supplying cattle auctions with additional revenue from his donated craftsmanship, as well as his many children and grandchildren's requests. He also managed the Mooternity Barn at the Florida State Fair giving fair attendees opportunity to watch the live birth of a calf, as well as answering the questions of the public regarding dairy cattle.
Roland enjoys any activity as long as it includes Guernsey Cattle.