WORLD JERSEY CATTLE BUREAU

2006 VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR LATIN AMERICA

by Dr Gonzalo Maldonado (Colombia)

The Jersey World Conference held in Waterloo, Canada in June of 2005 constituted a high category event. The conference, lecturers, the National Youth Heifer Show, the farms visited and the opportunity to share different experiences with breeders from around the world were very important assets taken back home by all.

The participation of Latin American representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Colombia was outstanding. I was assigned to present a report about the milk situation in Latin America compared to the world, the opportunities and advantages of the Jersey breed and the situation of the different associations. In this PowerPoint presentation I emphasized in the investigation work on Jersey inbreeding in Guatemala and the genetic evaluation of the Jersey breed in Mexico.  During the Bureau Council meeting, Agustín Robredo, Argentina’s representative, and I presented the document “Suggestions for regarding amendments to the Constitution and Rules of the World Jersey Cattle Bureau and other operations of the WJCB”.

At the request of the WJCB President, Johannes van Eeden, in October 2005 I sent the document “Target proposals for the next 3 years”.

In order to give a more complete report of the Jersey Associations in Latin America, similar to the information presented in Canada, I asked each country for a summary of their activities, shows and events. A response was received only from Argentina and Guatemala which follow together with the Colombian report.  

It would be fair to thank and emphasize the activity developed by Agustín Robredo, today President of the Jersey Association of Argentina, with whom I maintain a fluid communication and thanks to this all the information received from the Argentinian Association has come to me in an opportune way. I make reference to the investigations held by INTA of Argentina along with the Jersey Association into the results of crossbreeding with Holsteins as well as the work done by H. Gonzalez-Verdugo, JC Magofke, and C. Mella at Orono Experimental Station (University of Chile) comparing the breeding of NZ Holsteins with Jerseys and NZ Holsteins. I also received from Agustín information about the changes made in the Boards of Directors for the associations in Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico which have been reported to the Bureau. As an ambassador, Agustín has been incomparable. We welcomed his visit during the Colombian National Jersey Show held in July 2005 and he has assisted at the most important shows in Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico – in this way improving the relationships between the breeders from these countries and the Bureau.

ARGENTINA
The Association continues to support and organize different Jersey cattle shows in the country, with the biggest Jersey show ever held in 2005, adding to this all the shows where we have been represented. The quality and quantity of animals exhibited ensured very happy attendees, and in some events there where more Jerseys than Holsteins.

We continue doing herd classifications and, from 2006, we have been using the new classification model adopted in Canada.

Each month the Association promotes the Jersey breed in the most important Argentinean dairy magazine.

We continue to support and sponsor research related to the convenience of breeding Jerseys or their crossbreeding demonstrating a better profitability than Holsteins.

Last year the number of members of our association increased, and this adds to the budget we have to help us support breed promotion. 

In our web page we try to transmit the most relevant aspects of the breed and we are constantly updating it.

The interest in the breed is reflected in the difficulty of finding animals to purchase. This demonstrates that the breeders want to retain their livestock. The prices of animals are very good due to the high demand.

With reference to crossing Jerseys and Holsteins, we can report that this has continued to grow, as shown by the quantity of semen units being imported. The production of national semen has also increased a lot and the use of sexed semen has also risen.

There are breeders that have initiated new herds with Jersey crosses thanks to the Jersey’s high yield. This year, as a result of our asking for many years and because of the large numbers of crossbred animals, they will be registered together in a herd book along with the Holstein association.

We are promoting the use of Jersey among Holstein breeders. We consider that, in Latin America, a glimpse of great potential growth in the breed may be seen from the number of requests we receive from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Bolivia.

It is not easy to compete with the Holstein in Argentina, but, now that milk is being paid by solids content and a greater solid production per hectare by the Jersey is being demonstrated, producers are changing their opinion.

We have tried to be present in different parts of Latin America, assisting with Jersey events and supporting associations.  In 2005, we were in the United States, Brazil (3 times), Uruguay, Canada, Colombia and Mexico. All this was thanks to the support of our Jersey breeder friends.

The Jersey Association participates in different forums and committees including:

• Foro Argentino de Genética Bovina
• Comisión Nacional de Trazabilidad
• Comisión Nacional de Control Lechero
• Comisión Nacional de Tipificación de Carnes

As you may see, we there is a lot of work yet to be done.

GUATEMALA

The information received is as follows:

As of 31^st December, 2005 the Association has 96 members. The Board of Directors comprises:

• President – Ing. Carlos Arnoldo Melgar Cabrera
• Vice President - Lic. Carlos Ramón Solís Muralles
• Treasurer Secretary & Vocals - Sr. Rafael Figueroa Castillo, Sr. Guillermo Lainfiesta Martinez, Lic. Filadelfo Chacon Corado, Sr. Hugo Montenegro Solares, Arq. José Billeb & Ing. Mynor Zamora Salazar

There were 785 female registrations and 35 male registrations issued during the year 2005. The XVII National Show took place from 7th to 10th of April, 2005.

COLOMBIA
An indication of the significant role of the Jersey breed in the country is the increase seen in the number of imported doses of frozen Jersey semen. It went from 20,890 doses in 2003 to 30,968 doses in 2005, representing an increase of 48% in three years.

This same situation is shown with purebred registertions which have also increased significantly - between 2004  and 2005 purebred female registertions increased from 565 to 632 while crossbred registrations increased from 80 to 109. In 2005, some 20 new members were accepted into the Association, 8 more than those joining in 2004. Overall, 822 registrations where issued, 17 less than in 2004. It must be taken into account with this overall figure, that there were no cattle imports to contribute to the increase in the number of registrations. 

The meeting held on 6^th December, 2005 to celebrate 25 years from the foundation of the Association was a real success.

Once again Agroexpo 2005 and the National Jersey Show held in July 2005 constituted events of major importance with 106 head participating judged by Mr. Larry Sheardown (sent by the Canadian Jersey Association). The Jersey breed also took part in two regional shows during 2005: Bucaramanga and Catama.

The seventh edition of Jersey Colombia

In 2005, the number of classified animals reached a total of 544, being 103 more than the number of animals classified in 2004.

With reference to the Bureau’s Youth Travel Scholarship, Fernando Delgado returned from South Africa after a six-month period in which he was given the opportunity to live with two families, members of the South Africa Jersey association, and where he could help and support the farmers with his work as well as having the chance to learn a lot about the breed and handling operations there.

Gonzalo Maldonadoo
Vice President for Latin America, World Jersey Cattle Bureaus                                                                                May 2006