Jersey genetics and good grass

Date: 2009-07-16 | Category: Dairy News

When a Taranaki lad helped drove four heifers home decades ago, little did he know he was laying the foundation for what is today one of the country’s foremost Jersey studs.

Farm location: Okato
Owners: Tony and Maureen Luckin
Area: 97ha
Stocking: 240 Jersey cows
Breeding worth (BW): 93
Production worth (PW): 101
Production: 85,000kg milksolids (MS)
Supplements: Maize, barley, triticale, turnips
Regrassing: Fescue variant and Revolution

The Taranaki farm owned by Jersey breeders Tony and Maureen Luckin started out as a 32.3ha block at the end of World War II as land was broken into rehabilitation farms for returning soldiers. Tony’s late father Ray took up a rehab block in Leith Rd, a few kilometres north of Okato and, since taking over the farm, Tony and Maureen have bought neighbouring properties to restore its original 97ha.

The farm is home to Leithlea Jersey Stud, formed by Tony’s father after he bought four pedigree Jersey heifers to add to the original herd he began milking in 1945.

“They came from Patua Stud and I can remember Dad and me droving them home,” Tony said.

“He originally didn’t think much of them, as they were skinny little things compared to our other cows, but when they started milking they outperformed all the others, so that was the start of pedigree cows.”

Today the Luckins’ 240-cow herd, with breeding worth (BW) of 93 and a production worth (PW) of 101, are all pedigree animals and Tony is to the forefront of Jersey breeding. He’s a member of the genetics committee of Jersey New Zealand and in his third year as president of the North Taranaki Jersey Club, which hosted the JerseyNZ annual meeting and conference earlier in June.

As a pedigree Jersey breeder, Tony is particularly interested in udder traits, believing cows with poor udders are never going stay in the herd long and much of his breeding programme takes this direction.

Like his father before him, he is an “eye man” and can tell by looking at a cow whether it is a good performer, and invariably his opinion is borne out with scrutiny of the cow’s genetics.

Ready to share

Tony’s and Maureen’s cows regularly dominate the annual competition held by the North Taranaki Jersey Club, and Tony is ready to share his thoughts and tips on breeding. He has received good advice himself from Taranaki Jersey breeders, including the late Jim Thwaites, and Te Henui Stud’s Lex Spencer, whose herd Tony bought when Lex and Beryl retired.

Tony also uses current herd sires from Lloyd and Anne Wilson’s Densendale Stud in Southland and from Richard and Pauline Adams’ Carnmore Stud in Te Awamutu, to ensure exposure to the best cow families available. He’s prepared to look anywhere for the right traits in a sire.

“I don’t mind stepping outside the square as far as bulls are concerned – LIC, AmBreed, Vision Genetics, Semex – I’ve used them all looking for the traits I’m after, good udders in particular.”

Tony has grown numerous supplements on-farm – maize, barley, triticale, turnips, with new pasture to follow.

Now that the farm is up to the original 97ha, regrassing is more important than ever, some of the grasses being still the originals from 1945 and earlier.

Tony, helped in developing and running the farm by son Jay and daughter-in-law Kelly, has settled on a programme of growing turnips or maize in three paddocks each year and, after harvesting, they regrass with Revolution.

“The early grasses we planted included tall fescue, which did very well in the area, so we looked for a fescue variant and Revolution has been ideal,” Tony said.

Although close to the coast, the only time pastures suffer any salt burn is from a summer southerly.

Being in the western lee of Mt Taranaki, lack of rainfall is not normally an issue, though in the 2007/08 season the property was affected by drought, in common with most dairy farms in the province. “Funnily enough, that season we had our best production,” Tony said.

Grass, genetics

He puts that down to the regrassing programme kicking in, as well as the genetic strengths of the herd.

“We did 88,500kg of milksolids (MS), and this season we did 85,000kg,” Tony said. However, the decline was not so much a drop in production as a conscious decision to dry off earlier, rather than paying for unshared production, and to have the herd in top condition for calving.

The Luckin property has, in common with a number of Taranaki coastal farms, a problem with facial eczema, as the combination of autumn warmth and moisture sends spore counts soaring.

Tony learned early about the efficacy of zinc to control the problem.

While Jersey numbers had declined with the move by farmers to crossbreds, he said that with the identification of traits offering more size and stature to Jerseys, that trend could reverse in time.

“People who think of Jerseys as ‘little’ cows might get a surprise if they look at a herd these days,” he said.

“We have a lot of cows that are tall and strong and there will be more of these as the traits are developed. The membership of Jersey New Zealand is rising again and the future for the breed is looking positive, which is pleasing to see.”

Caption Top Right: Tony, Maureen and Jay Luckin - stepping outside the square.

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