15th February 2005

The World Jersey Cattle Bureau has announced the winners of the JETA programme and five fortunate young people will be attending the 17^th International Conference in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada at the end of June 2005.

This is the first time that the award has been presented and it is fitting that the conference theme "Shaping Tomorrow" should feature these five winners as part of the "Farmers Forum" portion of the programme on Monday June 27^th – the very first day of the conference.

Each representing a region of the world, the winners are Waweru Gathecha of Kenya, Mark Shaw of New Zealand, André van Weerdenburg of Denmark, Eduardo Kashiwagi of Brazil and Aaron Ray Tompkins of the USA.

• Waweru Gathecha is a 33-year old Kenyan who is a practicing architect and also manages the family farm, Tigoni Farm Ltd situated 30 km north-west of Nairobi.. The herd at Tigoni is mixed but more than half of the 74-head herd are registered Jerseys. Waweru currently holds the chair of the Jersey Cattle Society of Kenya, and is a driving force in the current trend towards increasing Jerseys in his country.

• Mark Shaw is a fourth-generation Jersey breeder in New Zealand and now farms with his wife Judy on their 150-hectare farm with 650 milking Jerseys. Mark and Judy also host the Jersey JET scheme, where two-year-old heifers from around New Zealand are milked together to compare different genetics. Mark has a high profile in New Zealand dairying having been featured on national television and being named the Westpac Trust NZMP Farmer of the Year in 2002.

• André van Weerdenburg, 36, was born and raised on a Dutch Holstein dairy farm, and moved to Denmark following education at agricultural school. He worked on several Danish dairy farms, until 1994 when he bought his own farm with a mixed herd of cows. It was not long before André expanded the enterprise and considering the economics, decided on Jerseys. Today, the herd has 95 cows plus young stock with plans to increase to 130 cows. André is the chair of the local Jersey Cattle Club and is a Danish A.I. Centre representative as well as a Jersey judge at local and regional shows.

• Eduardo Kashiwagi manages the family-owned dairy farm with 170 Jersey cows and 100 followers. He graduated as an Agronomic Engineer with emphasis in Dairy Management in 1997 at the University of Sao Paulo, before attending a Dairy Science course at Virginia State University in the USA. He has since had work experience with Jersey herds in New Zealand and the USA. Eduardo is working hard to bring his international experiences to the Brazilian dairy industry.

• Aaron Ray Tompkins began his registered Jersey herd just ten years ago and now operates a 125 head dairy in North Carolina. Described as a unique young person, Aaron attended Virginia Tech while leasing a dairy about 10 miles from the campus to milk 60 cows! He has a vast knowledge of dairying and the industry and is extremely enthusiastic, winning a range of awards in national and regional competitions.

Congratulations to these five young men who have already proved their value to the Jersey business, and we wish them well in their future. We will also welcome them to the 17^th International Conference of the Jersey breed in Canada in June.