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Elliff Family Gift
Officials of the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society and the World Jersey Cattle Bureau are pleased to
jointly announce an exceptional gift received in 2004 from the family of the late Chester and Mary Elliff of Tulia,
Texas (USA). Mr. Elliff received the AJCC (now AJCA) “Master Breeder” award in 1958, at that time one of the youngest
honorees ever to receive this prestigious award.
Among those items now on permanent display at the WJCB headquarters are the plaques awarded to Observer Signal Lady Jean
and The Trademarks Sable Fashion when they placed 4th and 5th, respectively, in the 2000 Jersey Journal “Great Cow”
contest. Both of these cows were bred in the Victory Jersey Farm herd, owned and operated by Chester and Mary Elliff
for over forty years; theirs was the only herd to have bred two cows placing among the top five finalists in this contest,
designed to recognize the most significant Jersey cows of the 20th century in the United States.
Several other unique original items of Jersey history are presented in this display, including the AJCC Gold Medal won by
Frangipani Fawnette—an early brood cow at Victory Jersey Farm—for her 1943 production record, and the Judge’s Badge worn
by Chester Elliff when he judged a portion of the Spring Show by invitation of the Royal Jersey Agricultural &
Horticultural Society in 1987. A narrative presentation, providing for visitors a brief history of the development of
the Victory Jersey Farm herd and its continuing impact on the Jersey breed world wide, is an important component of this
display.
Breed historians will recall that Victory Jersey Farm developed Welcome Volunteer as the highest-ranked “Tested Sire” of
the breed in the mid-1940s, and also was the home of the “Sable” family, the first ten-generation direct maternal line in
the Jersey breed to each complete one or more lactations of 1,000 pounds butterfat. From the ranks of this maternal family
also came five of the ten cows that won the annual AJCC “President’s Trophy” for Victory Jersey Farm between 1945 and 1974.
For those desiring to engage in serious study of the production history of the Jersey breed in the United States, the
second major component of this gift may be the most significant. Now included in the World Jersey Library as a gift from
the Elliff family is a set of historical reference books providing the actual lactation records of cows enrolled in the
formative years of official production testing programs in the United States – the AJCC Performance Registers.
Accompanying them are several additional books, including the complete six-volume series “The Thousand Pound Story of the
Jersey Cow” compiled and published by the late Jens Svinth, a well-known Jersey historian. The Svinth series details the
records of high production cows in the United States and elsewhere in the world, including pedigrees of up to three
ancestral generations on many of the early production champions. “All of these early books are now out of print, thus
their availability in our library for research by future generations of Jersey enthusiasts is a particularly welcome
development,” according to Derrick Frigot, WJCB Secretary-Treasurer.
In presenting this gift, the Elliff family explained that their decision was made “in recognition of our parents’
accomplishments with Jerseys, and in appreciation for the deep friendships with fellow Jersey breeders and their
families that continue from those early years.” Acknowledging these gift items, Derrick Frigot responded to the
Elliff family by noting, “Your late parents were effective promoters of the economic advantages of Registered Jerseys,
and encouraged others to become serious breeders of productive profitable Jerseys. We like to believe they would be
pleased that the material you donated will be permanently maintained in this historic setting, available for present
and future Jersey breeders to learn about the Jersey breed. We are honoured to have been entrusted by you with the
assignment of maintaining these items in perpetuity.”
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