Dairy cattle specialist, Amy Hamlett, has joined the team at Mastergen where she will run the company’s mating service and offer bespoke breeding advice.

She joins the breeding company at a time when demand for mating programs is escalating as dairy producers seek to fine-tune their breeding decisions and avoid inbreeding in the face of a fast-moving market for dairy bulls.

Ms Hamlett's new role involves discussing breeding objectives with dairy producers and helping to tailor a breeding package to help meet their specific goals. As an expert evaluator of dairy cattle with a deep knowledge of pedigrees and a passion for the Holstein breed, she is well placed to do so.

Ms Hamlett has been passionate about Holsteins throughout her life. She was brought up in Warwickshire with her family’s Panda herd, now operated as an elite show herd by her sister, Molly Westwood.

She was only 16 when she talked her way on to the dairy management degree course operated jointly by Harper Adams University and Reaseheath College, because she had been training and showing calves for her family and other breeders from such an early age.

With this specialist degree, she went on to work as an assistant herdsman for 18 months and then as a reproductive management technician for Genus ABS. She moved on to work as an evaluator for the company’s mating service until 2016. Throughout her study and career, she has always worked part-time on dairy farms which she continues to do today.

Ms Hamlett said: “I am absolutely delighted to be taking on this role as it is my passion to help dairy farmers breed the type of cows they want to milk. Producers don’t generally have time to look through pedigrees or to work out which bulls meet their breeding criteria, and many are also struggling with inbreeding.

“My aim is to listen closely to what they want to achieve and find them the bulls which will help them reach those goals.

“I am particularly impressed with the number of traits which can be scored with the Mastergen package – up to 19 conformation traits and eight management traits such as temperament and milking speed.”

Amy lives in Somerset with her husband Marc, a dairy farm manager, and their daughter, Rosie.