The Hoard Farm Jerseys get their first score
This October and November we added 71 Jerseys to the Hoard Farm herd. Those cows which came from three Wisconsin herds are settling in quite well in our old tie stall barn which we are operating as a free stall barn. The 68 lactating Jerseys in the group are fed in the existing outside feed bunks and milked in our 2-year-old parlor. They are adapting quite well even with the one foot of snow we received the prior week and the subzero temperatures we are now experiencing. (To read more about the Jerseys, download the PDF with an editorial from our November issue at the bottom of this page).On the afternoon of December 15, we appraised 68 Jerseys (did not score the dry cows). It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to put scores on the cows as we milled around the feeding area on the very cold, but sunny, winter day that had temperatures eventually drop below zero later in the evening. The cows had about 10 to 12 hours of milk in their udders as we evaluated them just before milking time.
When we were done, the American Jersey Cattle Association put scores on 68 head. The entire group averaged 80.4 points. When looking at the herd by lactation number, we had:
• 32 first-lactation cows that averaged 80.4 points
• 19 second-lacation cows that averaged 79.9 points
• 14 third-lactation cows that averaged 79.6 points
• 3 fourth- and fifth-lactation cows that averaged 86.7 points
When looking at the three groups of cows we bought, it was quite uniform with Group A's 19 cows averaging 82.2 points (1.95 lactations); Group B's 30 cows at 79.3 points (1.6 lactations); Group C's 20 cows at 80.2 points (2.2 lactations).
Like our Guernsey 2-year-olds, our first-lactation Jerseys have taken to their new environment the best with their 305-day ME (mature equivalent) at 20,142 milk, 1,121 fat, and 773 protein. The second-lactation cows are just shy of 18,000 milk, while the third-lactation-and-greater group is just short of 17,000. By the way, the cow shown in the photo went VG-85.
hdm-2009-11-10-0-704.pdf
Labels: appraisal, Hoard Farm, Jersey
posted by Hoard's Dairyman at
2:32 PM
3 Comments:
Why the low scores? Or is type not an important consideration for you when making purchases?
When buying cows, our primary focus is economics and cash flow. We developed a budget prior to purchasing our group of Jerseys. We followed it and that helped us meet our business objective. As we bought cows at public auction and via private treaty, purchasing sound, commercial Jersey cows was our main focus. We also paid attention to type but we were not looking for show-ring type.
Given the fact some 115,000 first lactation Jerseys scored by the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA) averaged between 78.71 and 78.95 during the past three years, we are pleased with our 32 first-lactation cows that averaged 80.4 points. That is nearly 1.5 points higher than breed average.
On the other hand, our second lactation cows averaging 79.9 points are slightly below the three-year average of 80.58 to 80.78.
Overall, the entire herd (which is on the young side) averaged 80.4 which is right at the breed average which ranged from 80.04 to 80.34 during the last three years.
Final scores for Jerseys are also on a 10-point scale: Excellents are 90 and above, Very Good is 80-plus, and Desirable, 70-79.
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