About Us

From the arid grape and olive growing coastal belt of Calabria in Southern Italy to the lush green grass-growing pastures of Southern Ceredigion in West Wales. That's the route Gino Vasami took half a century ago when his father Antonio brought him back to Wales to start a farming career with just one field and two cows.

After many years in the dairy industry the Santa Maria Herd of Pedigree Holstein was eventually established more than 20 years ago. Owned by the partnership of L G & G Vasami and successfully managed over the years by Mr Tony Hack. Together they have relentlessly built up the enterprise to today's 80-cow award winning herd on 250 acres of land, which has been helped by the return of Gino's son Tony Vasami to the farming business 2 years ago.

The herd comprises of 15 Excellent cows and 55 VG cows. Our average yields to date are 10,800kgs for the cows and 10,500kgs for the heifers in 305 day lactations at 4.30 per cent fat and 3.37 per cent protein.

Within the herd there are many well known cow families such as the Bevels' and Snowdrifts' which were the first bloodlines to be introduced into the Santa Maria herd, where there are now 4 Ex cows and 20 VG cows in the herd at present.

Today there are many other well known PI bloodlines such as the Cherise, Lara, Dolly, Marissa, Tara, Bonny, Dellia, Spottie, Tobie, Miss America, May, Sugar, Karess (Canada) Hilda (France) Edelweiss (Germany) Alina (Holland) Rene, Tury, Betty (USA) to name just a few.

The breeding program consists of using sires with a strong emphasis on type, believing that a cow that is well balanced has the greatest potential for productivity and longevity. Our aim is to breed cows of high quality which is represented by our latest classifications of 14 VG two year olds of which 8 were homebred.

At present the herd has a 10 year history of major Cardiganshire and South Wales Herd Competition achievements, including 40 top trophies and representing South Wales and West Midlands in the annual National Dairy Herds Championship Gold Cup competition in 1997 and 1998. The Santamaria herd came first out of a total of 1558 NMR recorded herds in the South Wales and West Midlands region for production and genetics boasting the highest lactation value for all herds in the region; £2,432 per lactation, compared to a regional average of £1,498.