One of the most successful innovations at the 17th World Jersey Cattle Bureau Conference held in Jersey last May was the launching of the very first one-breed cheese festival ever to be held. The first World Jersey Cheese Awards attracted 100 cheeses from ten countries and was an extremely successful and powerful promotion for the Jersey breed. This article was written by Dr Cherie Bayer, Vice President for North America of the World Jersey Cattle Bureau. Cherie was one of the innovators of this cheese festival and her article was published in the July 2008 edition of the US Jersey Journal.

You can now get more comprehensive information on all our sires by viewing our printed catalogue online. Just click on the mini brochure below and a full screen version will open in a new window.

It was a fitting way to celebrate 50 years of farming at Laneside Farm for Ian and Sally Macalpine when they beat all others to win the coveted NMR/RABDF Gold Cup this month.  Finalists for the past three years, Ian and Sally Macalpine from Clitheroe, in Lancashire, rose to the top spot this year and won the UK dairy industry's most prestigious award.  This was the first time that a Jersey herd has won the trophy. It was exactly 50 years since Ian’s father purchased the farm and started a dairy herd!

 

Ian and Sally Macalpine run the 200-cow Ribblesdale Jersey herd at Laneside Farm, Waddington, near Clitheroe. They restocked their 68-hectare grass farm with Jersey cows, switching from Holsteins, five years ago after the FMD outbreak in 2001.
The move to Jerseys was driven by Ian Macalpine's determination to produce a value- added milk rather than continue to sell milk into a commodity market. Five years on, production has exceeded the Macalpine's expectations. NMR yield averages are 6,200kg per cow at 6% butterfat and 4% protein. Cell counts are running at 165,000/ml and herd longevity is high with 30% of cows in at least their fifth lactation.

Making the best use of available land is important to the Macalpine's business and the Jersey breed fits in well. “Jerseys are very efficient producers of milk solids out of dry matter,” says Ian Macalpine. “They can be up to 30% more efficient than a Holstein cow. We can keep 200 Jersey milkers where we could only have 150 black and whites.”

Since the outset, when a herd of Danish imported cows was purchased in the UK, milk has been supplied to J and E Dickinson's Longley Farm Dairy at Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, where the price is based on butterfat and protein content. A review of the herd's diet last year led to the introduction of a more energy dense TMR  based on grass silage, molasses, grain beet, concentrate and some fat, and fed at a flat rate all year round. In just a year the new diet increased herd margins by 23% with no increase in cow numbers.

JISEX International assists Ian and Sally in their breeding programme and all herd replacements are home bred by Danish and American sires with the intention of building herd numbers up to a maximum of 220 with an average yield of 6,500kg. Heifers leave the farm at six months old and are reared on contract, during which time they are served, and returning a month before calving at 24 months old. Their calving index is currently running at between 365 and 370 days.

 

Ian and Sally Macalpine also won the Lilyhill Cup for the third year running, awarded to the highest placed Jersey herd in the Gold Cup competition.

Jersey’s Autumn Show was held over the weekend of 13 & 14 October with Steven Bland of Cumbria judging the cattle on display.  Winning the Supreme Championship of the sow was Alices Geni Margarethe bred and owned by Trevor Barette and family from the parish of St John. This fine young cow won the three-year-old class and best udder on her way to Championship honours. Trevor’s daughter, Sarah also owned the winning two-year-old and Reserve Champion. She was bred by Don Le Sech of St Brelade. The Barettes’ success was a feat which was made even more worthy by the fact that they have only shown cattle from their herd once before, some years ago.  Congratulations to the Barette family and their new herdsman Richard Waters for “storming” the Island Show with these top cows.

Winning the annual “SuperCow” competition was Trinity Kings Rosie, Ex 94%.  A veteran of Jersey showrings, the seven-year-old “Rosie” was bred and owned by Trinity Manor Farm Ltd. She was the Spring 2006 Island Supreme Champion.  Combining good type with prolific production, “Rosie” was also named the UK’s winner of the John Ibbotson Trophy for the best “Excellent” production cow against strong competition from all Jerseys in Great Britain. She was the highest producing “Excellent” cow of the breed in Great Britain.  Congratulations to Paul and Pam Bell, owners of Trinity Manor Farms, and the Farm Manager, Rob Stevenson on breeding and owning this outstanding individual.

The 44th Pennsylvania All American Show held in mid-September was the scene for 106 Jersey heifers that were paraded before the judge.  Heading the pack by winning the Fall Heifer Calf class and going on be named Junior Champion of the show was Santanas Ringmaster Surprise.  She is owned by Ernest Kueffner and Terri Packard from Connecticut.
 
Half a dozen daughters of Ringmaster were also shown at the USA’s leading dairy show, the World Dairy Expo.  Although they did not win their classes they certainly made their presence felt and made an impression.

On the production front, the first daughters to calve are in Wisconsin, USA where the heaviest producing daughter is a member of the high producing Norse Star herd of the Fremstad family.  She produced 96 pounds of milk on test and was their highest milking two-year-old.

The first British Ringmaster daughters are starting to calve with good reports coming in – especially on their good udders and quiet temperament.  Watch this space!

Worldwide proofs have been released and the MDC statistics show that JISEX again leads the way in the UK with ten sires (out of a total of 20) that are in the top 1% of the breed for £PLI. Included on the high PLI list is Sunset Canyon Maximus at No.1, Ahlem Lemvig Abe at No.2 and Wilderness Blueprint at No.5. Our Danish sires have performed spectacularly with Jas Hot at No.6, Q Zik at No.7 and D J Hovborg at No.9. We continue to explore the world for new and exciting sires that will take the Jersey breed forward in the United Kingdom.. Check the revised sire pages on this website.

That superb six-year-old cow, Quintrell PJSM Ultra Marine Ex 93, dominated the 2007 Royal Cornwall Show once again, gaining her fourth breed championship and her second interbreed championship which she first won in 2004.  Bred and owned by the Colwell family at Redruth, Ultra Marine has had a glittering show career along with two lactations over 7,000 kilos milk.

 

Ultra Marine’s granddam, Itaska’s Fillpail Magenta, came from the Island and was purchased by John and Jenny Colwell at the 1990 Royal Show.  Magenta was bred to Midnight Storm, a highly rated milk sire of the 1990s and she in turn was bred to Perfection Judes Style Master, a very successful Canadian type sire.

Michael and Claire Colwell run a very efficient 200-cow herd in Cornwall and are terrific supporters and promoters of the Jersey breed.

Ian and Sally Macalpine switched to Jerseys following the devastation of Foot and Mouth disease in 2002 and have consistently built one of the country’s leading herds since.

 

Recently, the results of the 2006 Lancashire County Championship Herds Competition were announced and the Ribblesdale herd placed second as well as taking the winner’s prize for the Best Herd on Twice daily milking.  Considering the strength of the Lancashire Holstein herds, this was a remarkable result. 

 

The herd completed 188 lactations with an average of 6,189 kgs milk 5.98% fat 3.96% protein and a very creditable Calving Index of 362 days.  These figures compared with the Holstein herds with much higher milk production but less than 4% fat and 3.1% protein.  The most significant difference between the breeds was that the winning herd had a calving index of 114 days more than the Jerseys!

 

In line with their breeding programme, the Macalpine’s herd posted a PIN of +23, demonstrating their use of top proven sires.   

 

Congratulations to Ian and Sally on achieving this remarkable accomplishment to add to their success in the NMR/RABDF Gold Cup competition last year.

The 2007 Agromek Exhibition - Denmark’s huge agricultural show held each January in Herning - again staged an outstanding display of Jerseys which were shown in front of hundreds of interested onlookers.  Judging this year’s show was JISEX director, Derrick Frigot who commented on the high standard of dairy quality, well-attached udders and excellent teat placements on the animals exhibited.

 

An admirable example of encouraging young people into dairying is the way that almost all of the Jerseys were shown by youngsters who spent the whole week tending and preparing the cows for the show. 

 

At the end of the day, the three top cows all came from the same farm, owned by Vagn Lindy Petersen and his family at Skjern.  The Champion cow, a Jas Hot daughter out of a Greenwood Sooner Khan cow, had a superb dairy frame and showed a slight advantage over the Reserve Champion cow in the balance of the mammary.  The Reserve Champion was also by Jas Hot and out of a Fyn Tanic cow and while she was a little deeper in the body, the cleanness of bone structure and udder of the winning cow gave her the top honours.

 

Winning the SuperKow competition which is based on points for conformation and for production was a third cow from the Petersen barn.  This younger cow also demonstrated excellent dairyness and superior udder qualities – she was by Q Handix and out of a Jas Hot daughter.

 

Congratulations to the Danes for displaying such good quality Jerseys and demonstrating the superiority of the Jerseys in Denmark over other breeds at the Agromek Show.

JISEX International Director, Derrick Frigot will be judging the Jersey show at Denmark’s largest agricultural show – Agromek 2007 at Herning on 16th January.  Denmark’s annual Winter Show, it includes their best elite cows and progeny groups as well as the open Jersey show.

 

The show runs from 16th to 20th January in Herning, which is situated in the middle of the Jutland, Denmark’s second largest island.

At a time when the global dairy industry is generally declining in both farm and cow numbers it is exciting to see that in the USA, the American Jersey Cattle Association has again processed more than 70,000 registrations – the third year in a row!  This is the Association’s ninth best year in its 138-year history and achieved at a time of a national background of low milk prices and higher costs of production. 

 

The national herd, with 72,076 lactations processed, created further M.E. (Mature Equivalent) records of 18,337 lbs milk (8318 kgs) 838 lbs fat (380 kgs) and 651 lbs protein (295 kgs).

 

Sales of Jerseys at auction realized an average of $1,671.99 (over £900) for nearly 6,000 animals – the third highest average in history.  Domestic sales of Jersey semen passed the 1.3 million mark which represents nearly 7.5% of the national market and considering the Jersey share of the total dairy market is about 4%, this demonstrates the use of Jersey semen on other breeds to improve components, calving ease, longer life and all the attributes the Jersey has over the larger dairy breeds. The average productive life of a Jersey in the USA is 1,053 days against only 870 days for other breeds. Export sales of Jersey semen has also climbed to an all-time high of 646,912 units of semen.

 

The AJCA has set organization goals for 2010 which aims to process 90,000 registrations annually and to raise the percentage of U.S. cow population to 5.5%.  The Association has historically been leaders in urging equitable milk pricing so that all milk is purchased on a component basis and this has been a major reason for the switch from black and white to brown cows across the USA.

Jersey Canada – the national association for Jerseys, is a lively organization led by its Chief Executive Russell Gammon, known to many UK Jersey breeders.  With a very similar Jersey population to the UK, Canada is experiencing a renaissance in breed activity.

 

2006 recorded an increase in registrations by 2.8% ahead of 2005 totals, and a significant increase of 12.4% in transfers, indicating the encouraging switch from other breeds to Jerseys.  Jersey Canada has 887 members of which almost 60 are junior members.  They registered 201 new prefixes in 2006 – a remarkable increase of 158% ahead of the 2004 level which was a turning point in the trend of dairying in Canada following the highly limited discovery of BSE in Canada and the restriction on cattle exports.  Most of the new “herds” include the addition of Jerseys to Holstein herds.  This is particularly noticeable in the eastern part of the country.

 

Like its southern neighbours, the expansion of the Jersey breed in Canada is amplified by the well-known superior features of the Jersey cow – she matures quicker and enters the milking herd earlier, she has virtually no calving problems with lower veterinary costs, fewer feet and leg problems and her milk commands a premium price in the marketplace.

Canadian Jerseys, with their recognized excellent conformation is certainly attracting breeders of other dairy cattle to introduce them into their herds.

The World Jersey Cattle Bureau is the global organization for the Jersey breed and was formed in 1951 to bring together Jersey Cattle Associations and breeders in all parts of the world. Throughout its history, the WJCB has organised highly successful international conferences every three years, and in 2008 it is the turn of the home of the breed, the island of Jersey, to host the 17th international conference. Plans are well in hand to entertain hundreds of Jersey breeders in the Island, and a pre-conference tour of England followed by a post-tour of France are also planned.

A full three-week tour starts on 11th May 2008 in England and the conference week in Jersey starts on 18th May, continuing to France on 25th May. Anyone interested in Jerseys will be welcome and details can be found on the WJCB website by clicking on www.worldjerseycattle.com.

The 2007 World Jersey Cattle Bureau Council Meetings are being held in Brazil and those interested in the Jersey cow are invited to join a tour which includes visiting the leading Jersey herds in this fascinating country. Alternative departure dates are being offered - the first week which starts on June 22nd tours the southern region of Brazil starting in Porto Alegre. The second week starts on June 29th in Sao Paulo and includes visits in this vast state and goes on to Rio de Janeiro for a couple of nights before moving north to Belo Horizonte and Mina Gerais, one of the leading agricultural areas of the country.

The final week of the tour is spent in the wonderful Amazon and includes sightseeing some of the remarkable highlights of the world's largest jungle.

Derrick Frigot is working with Farm Tours of Loughborough to escort a group from the United Kingdom and Jersey for the second two weeks of the WJCB tour which is organised by the Brazilian Jersey Association. Please contact the JISEX office for more details if you are interested in joining this rare opportunity to enjoy one of the world's fascinating countries while studying the Jersey breed in Latin America.

We often are asked which are the most popular sires used in the United Kingdom. Well, according the JCS of the UK's website statistics of calf registrations, the four most popular sires in 2006 were JISEX sires, SHF Centurion Sultan (360 female registrations) Q Zik (359), Family Hill Ringmaster (185) and Family Hill Avery Signature (183). The bull with the fifth highest number was Q Impuls with 156 daughters registered in the year.

To date, Sultan has nearly 900 registered daughters and Zik has a little over 850. Still available are Paramount (he now has over 1300 daughters in the UK) and Jas Hot with just short of 2,000 daughters.

The major national shows of the United Kingdom in 2006 provided a high profile platform for a number of daughters of JISEX sires.

 

The Jersey Breed Champion at both the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, and the Royal Welsh Show was Osberton Genevive 21, bred by G M T Foljambe and owned and shown by E M & E & Morgan. This outstanding daughter of Sooner Centurion was also Interbreed Champion in Wales and Reserve Interbreed Champion at the English Royal.

 

The Champion Jersey at the Royal Highland Show was a granddaughter of Rock Ella Remake, J & I Wilson’s Wellhead Rocket Boo.

 

In September, the Dairy Event at Stoneleigh provided the industry with a superb show of Jerseys – the largest number displayed by any breed!  Bluegrass Jazzman Pams Panama – bred by Barry & Jenny Daw and owned and shown by the Wilson Family from South Wales was Champion Jersey, followed by Ellerdine Lesters Amberlight, a well-known show cow bred by David Harris and owned by Smiddiehill Jerseys.  Three of the six classes were headed by daughters of JISEX sires and of particular note was Holmfirth Trac Fiji bred and owned by J & E Dickinson.  Fiji, a Fyn Trac daughter, won the Junior Heifer in Milk class and was Reserve Champion Heifer – a triumph she repeated at AgriScot in November. 

 

AgriScot is staged at Edinburgh in November and has become one of the major dairy shows in the British calendar.  The Jersey Champion in 2006 was S & S Murray’s Warninglidgold Trac Charity, another excellent daughter of Fyn Trac, and she beat the Royal Highland Show Champion, Wellhead Rocket Boo into Reserve place.

 

Rounding off the major shows for the year was the Royal Ulster Show held in December.  The Champion Jersey was Potterswalls Paramount Glamour, bred and owned by the Fleming Family.  She is a Rock Ella Paramount four year old.

 

Congratulations to all breeders and exhibitors who showed their Jerseys at UK shows during 2006, and thanks for keeping the Jersey breed in the forefront of the dairy industry and promoting the breed visually to the thousands of consumers who visits Britain’s agricultural shows.

WF Brook Bomber was named “Premier Performance Sire” at the 2006 All American Jersey Show in Louisville, Kentucky.  His daughters featured high in many of the classes, including the winner of the Junior Three-Year-Old Cow class, BRJ Bomber Pitino Eilene.

 

In the UK, Bomber’s daughters are really impressing farmers up and down the country.  They are calving in with outstanding udders and teat placing, while producing well above average.  They have good stature, legs and feet, but a little narrow through the body although as young cows they have lots of time to grow into broader dairy cows.  Opinion leans towards cows that will last a long time and mature into sound, practical dairy cows.

Heading towards the climax of yet another wonderful display of Jerseys at the 2006 All American Jersey Show, “Circus” – the cow that exemplifies the best qualities of a dairy cow, paraded the green shavings of the world’s largest show of Jersey cattle – maybe for the last time.  At eight years of age, her style and grace drew the spectators’ eyes across the ring to watch her proudly being led by her breeder, Ryan Lancaster of Washington State.  She went on to win the Aged Cow class, the Senior Championship and finally named the 2006 National Grand Champion, collecting the Best Owned and Bred Cow and the Best Uddered of Show awards along the way.  This was the climax of a truly spectacular display of Jerseys added to by the professional and very enjoyable judging of Larry Schirm, one of the world’s foremost dairy cattle judges.

 

355 head of Jerseys were exhibited at the NAILE’s spacious showgrounds in Kentucky, and most classes had between thirty and forty head for the judge and his associate to methodically sort through.  There were many highlights for the ten UK breeders to enjoy throughout the 2006 activities, and of special note was to see three Sambo daughters winning each of the first three milking classes with two of them, KCJF Sambo Molly, bred and shown by Keightly and Core Jersey Farm, Kentucky and Ratcliff Sambo Martina bred and shown by Christy Ratcliff of Kansas being named Intermediate and Reserve Intermediate Champions respectively.

 

Sires marketed by JISEX International were well in evidence in all classes with Sambo, Bomber and Signature daughters placing high, and an Intermediate Heifer Calf, DF Sultan Burganne, a daughter of SHF Centurion Sultan, named as Reserve Junior Champion of the show.  The Premier Performance Cow of the show was WF Centurion Calista, a Sooner Centurion daughter owned by Claire Dufford Burdette of Pennsylvania.

 

JISEX International had a special interest in the 2006 All American as Director, Derrick Frigot, is co-owner of some Jerseys with Ryan and Freynie Lancaster on Family Hill Farm in Washington State, and Doug and Lee Mahovlic of Vancouver Island. Two cows, a Senior Yearling in Milk, Family Hill Kaptain Farrah, was placed third in a class of 38 in-milk heifers at the All American, and the four-year-old, Family Hill Sambo Fern was placed eleventh in a strong class of  28 cows.

 

Along with Family Hill F Prize Circus, the dam of Ringmaster and Signature, both marketed by JISEX, and the remainder of the team from Family Hill, these cows travelled for 54 hours to get to the show! With a farm stop on the way in Utah, and pulling in at several Truck Stops on the road to milk the cows, the team - both cattle and people - arrived at the show on the Tuesday before the main All American show on the following Monday, November 6th.

 

This gave the cattle several days to rest before the build-up to show day and one of the interesting features of the All American is the way all the different farms display their animals in the cattle barn along with well-planned photographic booths showing off their noted herds and successes.

The next few days are a frenzy of preparing the cattle for the show – fitting (clipping) and walk-training the animals in preparation for the big-time. The feed for the cattle is usually varied with a range of different types of hay and feed to keep the cows interested and eating.  As show-day looms, more and more interest is taken in the barn and the cows that will be contending for honours – it’s a nervous time for exhibitors and exciting for the visitors to choose their favourites before the judge does his selection.

 

Family Hill Farm, the home of the Lancaster family, is located very close to the Canadian border in the north of Washington State and is one of the furthest distances to travel to Louisville, so close attention is paid to the selection of the show team and to the careful handling of the cattle throughout the two weeks they are away from the farm.  Two Jerseymen, Derrick Frigot and Paul Houzé, were fortunate to stay at Family Hill after the show and to see the Lancaster family working with their outstanding herd of Jerseys was a real privilege.  They have 116 milking Jerseys in the herd, 81 of which are classified Excellent and the remainder Very Good!  To see these cows go through the milking parlour and to watch them loafing and eating in the barn was a very rewarding experience.

 

And to study at close quarters that great cow “Circus” was a Jersey breeder’s dream!

This Bomber daughter picture was recently received from Bob Bignami of Brentwood Farms in California where they milk 1,200 Jerseys. She has been calved 43 days, calving at 1-11 and averaging 91.6 pounds milk (10-day average) daily! Classified at Very Good 87%, she is out of a Ex.92% Centurion, who was out of a Ex.90% Avery -all sires marketed by JISEX International at one time or other.

Bonita is very typical of many Bomber daughters that we have seen in the UK and the USA.

The 2006 Agromek Show – Denmark’s leading dairy event was dominated by the excellence of JAS Hot daughters.  Held at the extensive showground facilities at Herning in the middle of Jutland, the huge show attracted 65,000 visitors from more than 60 countries in mid-January.

The Jersey cow selected by judge Lars Kloster, who did a slick and efficient job, as Champion was Per Hansen’s Lemvig daughter, No. 19194-03217.  Her dam was by “Hot”.  Reserve Champion was a “Hot” daughter from Anders Levring’s herd.  There were seven cow classes, three of which were won by JAS Hot daughters and the winners of the other four classes were maternal granddaughters.

 

Following the show, a small group of UK Jersey farmers visited several herds where again JAS Hot was recognised as the most popular sire among Danish farmers.  JISEX International Director, Derrick Frigot visited Agromek and spent further days inspecting cattle on farms with the intention of finding a new sire to add to the company’s Danish Jersey portfolio.  He visited another 14 herds in early March during a cattle-buying tour with a leading UK Jersey dairyman.  The result of these two visits to Denmark this year reinforced the popularity of Lemvig and Hot as the two most influential sires of the Danish Jersey breed.

 

The second crop daughters of Q Zik are near calving and stand out among other in-calf heifers for their cleanness of bone, sharp front-ends, and very well-balanced bodies.  We are confident that Zik’s proof will enhance his reputation later this year. 

The well-known Wellhead Jersey herd of Ken Timbury Farms was dispersed at the Bristol Sales Centre on 31st January.  The herd had a high concentration of Canadian bloodlines with original imported stock purchased on behalf of the Timbury family by JISEX International as well as subsequent selections made by Philip Timbury.  The majority of the top priced animals were bred from these families.  The top bid was 3,000 gs paid by Robert Hunter of the Clydevalley herd in Lanarkshire for the milking two-year-old Wellhead Just Wait Marie who was the winning in-calf heifer at last year’s Royal Show.  She originated in the famed Enniskillen herd in Ontario.  A total of eighteen head sold for 1,000gs of more and the average for the sale of 148 lots was £684.91.  The auctioneers were Norton & Brooksbank.

 

Footnote:  The penultimate animal to go through the ring was a six-week-old Family Hill Ringmaster calf … she caused quite a lot of interest around the ring and was eventually sold on the ‘phone for 300 gs!

The Hillside Jersey herd of G M & A J Harrison near Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales has won the County Championship Interbreed Herds Competition. The Yorkshire County Milk Recordings competition is based on inspection points with yield (Fat & Protein) and Cell Counts. It is the first time a Jersey herd has won this all-breeds competition and Adrian Harrison also won the Best Herdsman award.

The Harrison's had a very good Holstein herd which was lost in the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001. They re-stocked with pedigree Jerseys and have achieved a remarkable standard for the herd in the past four years with the use of leading international Jersey sires. The 85-strong Hillside Jersey herd averaged 6256 kgs milk 5.23% fat 3.71% protein in the 2004/5 recording year.

The "Raylands" Jersey herd at Slough in Berkshire, owned and operated by brothers John and Stephen Whitby hosted the JCS classifiers workshop in December. The classifier returned on January 6th to score the herd with some excellent results.

Sixty-six cows and heifers were classified with eight Ex-90 cows, one Ex-91 and one Ex-92 to add to three other previously scored Excellent cows.

The 92- point cow is six-year-old Raylands Sambo Rem, daughter of Lester Sambo who has a group of outstanding daughters in the herd. "Rem's" dam was by Huronia Jody's Galaxy.

John Whitby who is responsible for the dairy herd in the mixed-enterprise farm added a postscript to his email saying that more importantly the herd is currently rolling at 6700 litres at 6.00%fat and 4.10% protein!

JISEX International has advised the Whitby family on their herd breeding programme and supplied semen to the Raylands herd for the past fifteen years.

JISEX International director Derrick Frigot presents the JISEX International Award to Claire Dufford-Burdette of Waverley Farm Jerseys, Virginia at the 2005 All American Jersey Show. The award is presented to the Reserve Intermediate Champion of the show and was won by Infinity Shade of WF - EX 91%.

Undoubtedly the greatest show of Jersey cattle in the world is staged annually in November in Louisville, Kentucky. Held at the North American International Livestock Exposition which boasts more than one million square feet of climate-controlled exhibit space,  the All American Jersey Show is part of the world’s largest all-breed, purebred livestock exposition.

With 365 Jerseys exhibited, the 2005 Jersey show was no exception to the normal high quality of this event, and the group of British visitors on the annual JISEX tour were overwhelmed with the quality and depth of the classes.

JISEX is linked with much of the breeding that was on display but none more so than the dam of Family Hill Ringmaster and Family Hill Avery Signature – the world-renowned “Circus” cow. Looking better than ever, her breeder and owned, Ryan Lancaster led her around the ring to win the really strong Mature Cow class and follow on to be the Breeders Champion and Reserve Grand Champion of the show.  The judge, Charles Luchsinger of New York, who was assisted by Eric Lyon of Iowa, was highly complimentary of “Circus” describing the seven-year-old as “an extremely large framed cow, and for a cow with that size to have that kind of style and balance while she walks and that great udder, it all just comes together in a beautiful package”.

When it came to selecting the National Grand Champion, Luchsinger pulled out Llolyn Jude Griffin-ET and “Circus” for Champion and Reserve.  His comments were interesting…”It is hard to say which one is better than the other.  They are tremendous cows, tremendous frames and cows that you try to find something wrong with and you can’t.  Both of these cows are great cows, and both deserve to be champion.  We have waited all day to get them side by side.  You can’t pick them apart.  We tried!”

In the end, Judge Luchsinger gave the nod to the four-year-old with seven-year-old “Circus” as Reserve National Grand Champion for 2005.

For the second time in three years, Rock Ella Remake was named the Premier Performance Sire of the All American Jersey Show. This award is given on the basis of class placing and yield deviations for no more than six daughters, plus 25% of the sire JPI (Jersey Performance Index).

Admired in the barn this Bomber daughter was 1st Jr.2-year-old,1st Best Udder and 1st Premier Performamce Cow in the All Amercian Junior Show.Owned by Rick Doran of South Carolina, the judge in the Junior Show, Mike Stiles, described her as "a cow that excels in dairy quality and mammary system".

The recent All-Breeds All-Britain Calf Show held at Stoneleigh was an outstanding success with 62 calves and 31 young Jersey handlers taking part.

Congratulations to Jo Stubbs for triumphing over nearly all others – Jo was the Reserve Inter-Breed Champion Handler!  In the Jersey classes Jo, from Derbyshire, was Champion with Louise Lilburn from Northern Ireland in Reserve place, and Claire Daw of Hertfordshire gaining Honourable Mention.  Well done to all the enthusiastic Jersey youngsters who took part.

Winning the first Jersey class – for calves born on or after 1st March 2005 – at the All-Britain Calf Show was Clifton Sultan Delphinium, one of the first-born calves by SHF Centurion Sultan in the UK! 

This smart calf was bred and owned by Stephen and Claire Bland of Clifton, Penrith, Cumbria, where they are developing a highly productive Jersey herd matched with sound type features.  The “Clifton” herd was started following the loss of the Bland’s Holstein-Friesian herd in the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, with their purchase of one of the country’s high production herds – the “Ventonwyn” herd of Richard and Christine Tonks.  Stephen and Claire, with their children, Robert and Elizabeth,  have been very aggressive in promoting the Jersey breed and the Jersey product since they started, with the development of a fine herd, and Claire’s enterprising business of making and selling delicious Jersey ice cream from their farm. If you get an opportunity to visit the beautiful “Lakes” county in the north, drop in and experience the Clifton Ice Cream Parlour and taste the wonderful Jersey ice cream!  And take time to see their fine Jerseys too!