America awaits for a Pembrokeshire dairy farmer who has scooped the top prize in a competition.

John Harries, of Velindre, St Nicholas, has won a trip to America to visit dairy units in Wisconsin and to the World Dairy Expo show in Madison in September.

Mr Harries is one of two winners of a challenge run by cattle breeding company World Wide Sires, where producers were quizzed on their knowledge of the company’s mating service (WMS).

He said: “It’s a great prize. I’m keen to go and see how units are run over in the US and look at the quality of the cows, and to see the results of breeding programmes where WMS has been used.

“It will be good to see what’s happening on US farms and hopefully witness the sort of results I can expect in a few years time.”

Mr Harries, who runs the 400-strong Strumble herd of pedigree Holsteins on his 450-acre farm began using WMS for more precise breeding.

He added: “We breed for type and there are a lot of individual traits to consider and we felt we may be overlooking some.

“We also like WMS because we can select bulls for protein production which is important as our milk is used for mozzarella cheese production.

“I feed and breed for milk protein but WMS will make sure I don’t pursue this goal at the expense of type traits.”

WMS takes account of 17 individual traits for each cow in the herd and all sires. It has the ability to consider specific criteria and make the best match far more accurately than is possible manually and to breed a more balanced animal.

Uptake of WMS, which is available for free to all UK producers, is steadily increasing.