The A2 milk scenario is gaining momentum with interest coming from South America to purchase 1,000 Jersey embryos from Australia. South Pacific Biotech have been contracted to source 1000 embryos from quality registered Jerseys where the cow or heifer and her dam are tested positive A2. The production of the candidates sought by South Pacific must be equivalent or higher to the national average of Jersey in Australia.

The government of Botswana have identified certain industries in which they are not self-sufficient. One of the industries that will get preferential treatment to receive funding from the government for development is dairy production. Botswana’s average production is 2 litres per cow per day. Most of the dairy farmers are traditional farmers and they are only self-sufficient regarding dairy products. There are more or less seven commercial dairy farmers (the biggest dairy is milking 70 cows).

South Africa signed a cooperation agreement with the Botswana government to assist them in achieving their goal to enlarge their dairy industry to 2000 milking cows in the next five years. The function of South Africa will be to help finding breeding stock and to assist in the education of the potential dairy farmers.

The climate in Botswana is advantageous towards Jerseys, and the 2000 cows to be imported will include about 80% Jerseys.

Following the devastating Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain in 2001, the re-building of the national herd has prompted a swing to Jerseys. The national map of dairy farms has also changed with many new Jersey herds being established in the north of England and Scotland as well as Wales, while the traditional dairy areas of the south west and south east, where smaller dairy herds prevailed, have reduced.

It is estimated that less than 1,000 Jerseys were lost to the disease, but since the beginning of 2002, in excess of 5,000 Jerseys have been imported to Great Britain from two sources – Denmark and the Island of Jersey. Denmark, with Europe’s largest National Jersey herd have exported about 4,000 head to various parts of the UK and Ireland, and Jersey, in a downsizing programme of the Island herd, sent more than 1,000 cattle to England in the autumn of 2002, and smaller numbers are still crossing the English Channel.

Niels Jørgensen, the General Manager of Danish Jersey Export, the company responsible for the majority of Danish Jersey cattle exports, confirmed that they have exported 3,800 head to Great Britain since December 2001, and still have orders for more than 1,000 head to ship in the coming months.

More than twenty large Jersey herds have been established, many of which were converted from original Holstein-Friesian herds, and many more groups of Jerseys have been introduced alongside black and white cows in existing herds to bolster the low components of those herds.

During the past two years it is estimated that the Jersey herd in the United Kingdom has increased by nearly 15% to approximately 40,000 milking Jerseys, which makes it the second largest population of dairy cows, and also the second largest national Jersey herd in Europe.

It must be obvious that Santa Claus is becoming more particular about the milk that is poured on to his daily Cornflakes as Greenland have recently imported a small quantity of Jersey semen from Denmark! Not a country easily recognised for its dairy industry, Greenland’s only dairy herd imported three animals from Iceland – one cow, one heifer and one bull in the mid 1990s. The original Icelandic cattle are very similar to the Jersey. Greenland now have twelve females from the original importation and have recently taken delivery of forty units of Danish Jersey semen to continue the development of the herd.

Richard Gibson, WJCB Vice-President for Asia-Oceana has reported that in New Zealand, his home country, a big drop in payout to dairy farmers has occurred this season. This is a result of a fall in international dairy product prices and a 30% strengthening of the NZ dollar against the US dollar. The most immediate effect has been the average price of dairy cows, which has fallen by 30%.

The season was mixed with two thirds of the upper North Island having a record season, and the lower North Island having one of the worst seasons on record, and overall the South Island having had an average season.

The main highlights for the Jersey breed is still in the economic advantage of Jerseys in the cross breed and animal evaluations which in turn still sees a good demand for Jerseys, and with a lot of Jersey semen being used for cross-breeding.

The A2 milk scenario has been interesting with claims still to be substantiated, that it has better proteins which do not cause heart disease and diabetes troubles, as maybe A1 milk does. The good part is that approximately 70% of Jerseys have the A2 milk, against approximately 40% for Holstein Friesian. Most bulls marketed by the AB companies have been tested for either A1 or A2 milk.

South Africa has the largest population of Jerseys on that continent, but other African countries are turning to the Jersey cow to develop the growth potential of their national herds. WJCB Vice President for Africa, Poena van Niekerk reports that Kenya and Tanzania are two countries that are increasing in Jersey cattle numbers rapidly, but countries such as Rwanda and Angola are also working to improve their dairy farming structure.

Heifer Project International initiated a programme in Rwanda to supply every household with a dairy cow. They chose Jerseys for this purpose as the cow most ideally suited for the conditions of the country. In the last three years, Rwanda have imported 500 Jersey heifers from South Africa.

In the build up process in Angola dairy farming will form an important role in developing the country. The aim is to import 1000 Jerseys from South Africa and the initial pilot project now underway will include 500 cows.

Poena van Niekerk, the Manager-Secretary of Jersey S.A. has reported that 155 delegates from 18 countries will be attending the WJCB Council Meeting tour in South Africa in September. A varied and interesting programme of farm and industry visits, alongside some of the outstanding Nature Reserves of the Cape awaits the international group of Jersey breeders. The tour starts in Port Elizabeth and winds its way westward to Cape Town, taking in some of the world’s finest scenery, and also some of the country’s largest Jersey herds. A feature of the visit will be to see the motivation for crossbreeding Jerseys with Holsteins in South Africa.

A post-meeting tour will take the visitors from Cape Town to Bloemfontein. The highlight of this part of the tour will be the judging of the Northern Jersey Championships at the All Africa Dairy Expo.

The RJA&HS (the breed association) in the Island of Jersey have agreed terms with Holstein UK (HUK) to undertake Type Classifications in Jersey. The Island now uses all UK scores and categories, which are scored by HUK’s team of classifiers, who already classify the United Kingdom’s Jerseys. This makes for better comparison between the Jersey populations and Island Jerseys results will be included in the MDC national evaluations system. The first results will be included in the November 2003 run for the first time.

The first visit to Jersey of the HUK classifiers was in mid-July. Four hundred and forty-nine animals were classified, 208 cows and 241 heifers. Thirty-five cows were made Excellent and 127 were Good Plus or better. Thirty heifers made the top heifer grade of Very Good, and 199 made Good Plus or better. On these very early results it appears that Jersey’s heifers have scored slightly above the UK average.

HAVANA (AP) - A shipment of livestock including 140 cattle - one born during the trip - arrived in Cuba, on July 25, 2003. This is the first significant batch of American animals to be sold to Cuba.

The shipment was made under a 2000 exception to the long-standing U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. American agricultural products can be sold to the island as long as transactions are done in cash or by financing from a third country. “This opens a new road for American farm sales to Cuba”, said Pedro Alvarez, president of Cuba's food import firm Alimport.

After a drenching tropical rainstorm, the containers holding the Jersey and Holstein dairy cows, three bulls, 12 bison and one shorthorn sheep were unloaded Thursday afternoon from the cargo vessel operated by the American firm Crowley Liner Service. The livestock, largely from Homedale Farms in St. Charles, Minn., left Gulfport, Miss., Tuesday.

“More such shipments, all negotiated during an agribusiness fair in Havana last fall, are expected in the coming weeks”, Alvarez said.

Alvarez didn't have specific figures on the value of Thursday's shipment. But Alvarez said that since Cuba began buying U.S. farm goods in late 2001 it has signed deals to spend $481 million on agricultural products - including transportation costs.

The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which tracks trade between the two nations, reported in its newsletter this week that about $233 million in sales had been completed thus far.

June 5, 2003 - For the third time in four years, a new world record for milk production by a Registered Jersey cow has been recorded by the American Jersey Cattle Association.

On May 9, Cottonwood Merry Violet completed a 365-day lactation of 44,120 lbs. milk, breaking the record set in 2001 by Normandell Khan Ariel of 43,023 lbs. milk. The record is also the fourth time in AJCA production testing history that a Jersey has produced more than 40,000 lbs. milk in a single lactation.

“Violet” also set a world record for Cheddar cheese yield of 5,509 lbs., 539 lbs. better than the previous mark.

The complete lactation, begun at 6 years, 4 months of age, was 44,120 lbs. milk, 2,070 lbs. fat, and 1,593 lbs. protein (94DCR). Based upon Tillamook County Creamery pricing, the gross dollar value of the lactation was $8,587.

Owned by Maack Dairy, Cloverdale, Ore., the Excellent-93% granddaughter of Soldierboy Boomer Sooner of CJF was bred by Cottonwood Farm, Chehalis, Wash.

The record-breaking lactation began May 10 last year, when “Violet” calved with her third daughter. She was managed in a herd of 250 cows fed a TMR of 22 lbs. silage, 14 lbs. hay, and 12 to 14 lbs. frozen vegetables balanced with field corn, with summer pasture. Like all cows in the Maack herd, she was given rBST every two weeks starting at 60 days fresh. She also received oxytocin at every milking, a common practice for extremely high producing cows. She had 11 test days over 100 lbs. milk, peaking at 157 lbs. on September 10.

Cottonwood Merry Violet is one of three U.S.-bred world record Jersey producers. The fat production record of 2,421 lbs. was set in 2000 by Golden MBSB of Twin Haven-ET, Excellent-94%, bred by WF/L&M Jerseys, Clear Brook, Va., and owned by David Franzer, Coldwater, Ohio. The protein champion is Butterfield Reward Caladium, Excellent 91-3E (Canada), who produced 1,642 lbs. in a record completed at Piedmont Jersey Inc., Coaticook, Quebec, in April of 2002. She was bred by Roger Mabry, Bentonville, Ark., and is now owned by George Jutras, La Visitation, Quebec.

The American Jersey Cattle Association was organized in 1868 and has provided herd production recording services since 1928. The organizations offer a comprehensive service package through REAP (registrations, Equity, appraisal, and performance testing), which also includes the state-of-the-art JerseyMate™ program. For more information, visit the website at www.usjersey.com or call 614/861-3636.

Mr Levan Alpaidze, the Agricultural Coordinator for UMCOR in Georgia, the former USSR republic contacted the WJCB last year to enquire how and where to buy Jerseys for a proposed new cattle project. The outcome of this enquiry has prompted the delivery of 40 Danish Jersey heifers to two project sites in Eastern Georgia – Tsnori and Giorgitsminda. The Jerseys were selected and delivered by Dansk Jersey Eksport.

Mr Alpaidze writes “ We, a US Charity mission in Georgia – United Methodist Committee on Relief, UMCOR/Georgia, are operating and implementing a cattle project with the funds produced by the US Department of Agriculture.

Currently, we are caring for the cattle which are due to calve in the coming summer months. We have also imported Jersey bull semen from World Wide Sires for winter breeding”.

He explained that since the introduction of the Jersey projects a number of interested cattle farmers have visited UMCOR with the idea of creating a Jersey Cattle Association of Georgia. This will help to promote and increase the number of Jerseys in Georgia and Caucasus.