DAIRY industry stalwart Colin Ekers, Port Elliot, was one of a small group recently awarded honorary life membership to the federal Holstein Australia group, in recognition of his contribution across many years.
Mr Ekers has been involved in the dairy industry for 55 years, formerly running Colena Holsteins, and was involved in HA activities and promoting the Holstein breed for much of that time.
While announcing the award, HA president David Johnston, Boorcan, Vic, said the organisation was nothing without the contribution of its members.
“We rely on members from all levels to help organise events, attract and retain members and run the association,” he said.
“Honorary federal life membership recognises members who have given valuable service, time and effort to the association over an extended period.”
Mr Ekers was a member of the HA SA state committee for 27 years, and was vice-president for seven years and president for nine, as well as a classification co-ordinator for 14 years and a member of the the state judging panel.
He then sat on the federal council for 18 years and was an official breed inspector for 20 years.
The Colena prefix is well known in the industry and bred 198 bulls, including 15 that classified Excellent or Very Good.
Mr Ekers and his wife Kay farmed until their retirement almost 20 years ago.
“In about 1969 I decided I wanted to become a stud breeder,” he said.
“We appendixed the whole herd and after four generations we had pure Holsteins and we started the Colena Holstein Friesian stud.
“We milked about 130 cows, but they had to travel too far, so we started having an annual dairy sale to reduce numbers.”
Their 12 successive Holstein Friesian dairy sales still stand as the longest running annual sales event in SA.
Mr Ekers was a regular exhibitor on the SA show circuit for 27 years, during which time he officiated at numerous country shows, field days, heifer competitions and calf shows. He was also heavily involved with the Mount Compass and Adelaide show societies.
He has actively encouraged Holstein breeders across many years, hosting numerous events at the family farm including field days, training days and junior handlers’ days.
His contribution to the dairy industry did not end with retirement.
In recent years, Mr Ekers has been involved with a project to create a permanent exhibit of the history of dairying at the Southern Fleurieu Historical Museum at Port Elliot and later the push to have Port Elliot declared the dairy capital of SA.
“We had an opportunity to improve the museum that wasn’t being fully-utilised at the Port Elliot Show in 2009 and it just went on from there,” he said.
“We’ve now got a lot of retired dairyfarmers coming every Thursday to help us build something for the dairy exhibit and other restoration.
“We’ve got more than 40 members and probably half of them are ex-dairyfarmers.”
Mr Ekers said being named the Legendairy Capital of SA really helped the town of Port Elliot.
“This was one of the first areas in the state to start dairying,” he said.
This latest honour joins others including life membership of Mount Compass Football Club, the Great Southern Football League, Southern Agricultural Society and the Holstein Friesian Association of Australia, SA Branch. He was also named Alexandrina Council's Citizen of the Year in 2014.
Other HA honorary federal life membership recipients were Ross Somerville, Clydebank Holsteins, Timmering, Vic, and Ray Blackburn, Burnvale Holsteins, Cookernup, WA, while Ray Kitchen, Carenda Holsteins, Boyanup, WA, received the distinguished service award.
