WORLD JERSEY CATTLE BUREAU

1^ST MEETING OF THE WORLD JERSEY HARMONISATION GROUP

 Held from 14^th to 18^th March, 2006 in Bloemfontein, South Africa

 by Poena van Niekirk (South Africa)

The first World Harmonisation Meeting for Jersey Classifiers was held in Bloemfontein in March 2006 as part of National Jersey Week. Participants from seven countries attended the meeting, with the USA representative sending her contribution by DVD because she was unable to attend.

The Jersey breed is rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing dairy populations in the world. It is, therefore, important to ensure that the type of cow supplied by breeders is the correct type which the commerical dairy farmer is looking for. It is for this exact purpose that the World Jersey Harmonisation Group came into being, so that classifiers from the various countries in the world use the same classification criteria when looking at type traits for Jersey cows.

The international participants were Poena van Niekerk, manager of Jersey SA, who co-ordinated the meeting; John Gribbon, chief classifier of UK Holstein; Poul Vestergaard, chief classifier of Denmark; Wade Pringle, CEO of World Wide Sires SA; Tim Sneddon, Vice President of Jersey New Zealand; David Harvey, Dairy Development program manager for  Land O'Lakes in Zambia; Gary Bowers from Canada; and Dr Johan Jooste of South Africa.

The idea of trying to harmonise the way in which classifiers of different countries judge the type traits of Jersey cattle originated in Denmark when a classifiers’ workshop was conducted in June 1996 through the World Jersey Cattle Bureau. This was attended by classifiers from the USA, UK, Jersey Island, Canada, South Africa and Denmark. This was followed by a meeting in South Africa in 1997, which coincided with the annual Council meeting for the Bureau.

In November 1998 this was followed by a meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, USA where the main discussion point was  MACE (Multiple Across Country Evaluation) analysis for type traits in the Jersey breed. After this meeting INTERBULL started to supply MACE values on type data.

In 2002 and 2005 smaller meetings were held by the WJCB in Denmark and in Canada. It was in Canada that the decision was taken to form an official World Jersey Harmonisaton Group. The Bloemfontein meeting was, therefore, the first meeting of the formal World Jersey Harmonisation Group.

On the agenda were issues such as the progress made with the Holstein breed’s harmonisation programme, classification variations in the different Jersey breeding countries, the inclusion of locomotion and udder balance in the existing classificaiton system, the economic importance of linear traits, which linear traits are sought after by farmers, the important traits for pasture farmers, and the ideal cow for Africa. The first day was spent on the more theoretical aspects of type classification, including discussion of the above-mentioned subjects.

The second day was spent on the practicalities of classification. The day began with the classification of one of the champions from the recent Bloemfontein show. The biggest discussion was on the measurement of rear udder width and body depth. The discussion was not that serious with the champion cow, but it got more serious when a group of two-year-old cows was classified. Each participant classified each cow and then a discussion followed on the traits in which most differences occurred. The differences were less than what was initially thought. It was decided that each country would start to collect exact measurements on some traits and that these would be put forward at the next meeting of the Harmonisation Group.

The discussion and practical demonstration of locomotion was the highlight of the day. The two experts on this - Poul Vetergaard and John Gribbon - gave the group a practical demonstration on how to evaluate this trait. Actual footprints were evaluated and compared between cows. It turned out to be one of the most accurate measurable traits.

At the conclusion of the meeting the following decisions were taken:

1. Poul Vestergaard was appointed as the official Jersey representative at INTERBULL for type traits
2. The next meeting will be held in New Zealand in December 2007
3. Particular effort will be put into the Jersey associations of Australia and the USA being represented at the next meeting
4. The list of traits evaluated by INTERBULL will be obtained and specific definitions work out for discussion in New Zealand at the next meeting.
5. Locomotion will be included in the list of traits to be classified by all countries. A motion should be put to INTERBULL to include this trait as an official type trait.