The award was won by cow Raymac Oman Tansy EX2 3* SP at the 2023 Holstein Friesian NZ Awards in Nelson.
The cow, known as Tansy, was born in 2007 and died in April last year.
She had been a top-six finalist for the award four times.
Tansy did her best production as a 9-year-old.
The production figures were 10,588 litres (737kgMS — 385g fat, 352kg protein) in 291 days.
Mrs Ray said they bought Tansy as a heifer when they first started sharemilking in 1987.
"Perhaps a little bit more specially, she came from my father’s herd, as part of a group of heifers we bought from him.
"Cows you buy in that do well for you is thrilling, because often they don’t fit into your system.
"Persistence is the word with these older cows, in terms of if they hang around long enough, keep their udder, produce heaps of calves and you end up with a good bunch of animals from them.
"With Tansy, that’s been the case."
Nathan and Amanda Bayne, of Oamaru business Henley Farming Company, was the winner of the Holstein Friesian NZ Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health senior and junior progeny competitions with San Ray FM Beamer-ET S2F and Meander SB Arrow-ET S2F teams respectively.
Both awards were presented to the junior and senior progeny teams with the highest points for classification based on the 2022-23 seasons inspections, scores for udder overall and final score, production worth and protein biological value.
