Dairy icon, Jim Cavanaugh, passes away

One of the most successful leaders of the purebred dairy cattle industry passed away April 6 just eight days shy of his 93rd birthday. James F. Cavanaugh joined the American Jersey Cattle Association in 1947 and went on to become the longest-serving executive secretary in Association history, heading the organization from 1956 to 1985. Under his leadership, Cavanaugh helped guide the 1953 purchase of the Jersey Journal, the 1957 formation of National All-Jersey, the 1967 creation of the AJCC Research Foundation, and the 1971 addition of the Jersey Marketing Service. Truly a pioneer, Cavanaugh pioneered the adoption of the USDA sire summary for recognition of bulls and was a vigorous campaigner against using minus bulls. Additionally, he was a vocal supporter of the multiple component pricing movement. There is no doubt that today's popularity of Jerseys can be traced directly to Jim Cavanaugh.

Born and raised on a Kansas farm, he graduated from Kansas State University. In 1939, he was selected by the Borden Company to work at the company's exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair where he cared for the famous "Elsie" the Borden cow. Cavanaugh is shown in the photo during a 2007 reunion of the Borden Boys in New York. During World War II, he flew 50 missions as a bomber pilot. Cavanaugh joined the Hoard's Dairyman editorial staff prior to entering military service and remained on the staff until 1947 when he joined the national Jersey association as assistant secretary. And it was Jim Cavanaugh who encouraged Eugene C. Meyer to join the Hoard's Dairyman editorial team when he left the Hoard's staff for his new position at Jersey.

Soon after Cavanaugh's retirement from the American Jersey Cattle Association, Cavanaugh was persuaded to accept an 18-month appointment as secretary-treasurer of the American Guernsey Association on January 1, 1986. Then Cavanaugh was named acting secretary of National DHIA in April 1987 and stayed on until March 1, 1988.

Cavanaugh served as President of National Dairy Shrine in 1962. In 1975, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Dairy Science Association, and, in 1977, was World Dairy Expo Industry Person of the Year. The very next year he was honored as the National Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor.

His wife, Virginia, preceded Jim in death. Visitation is at the Egan-Ryan East Chapel at 4019 East Livingston in Columbus, Ohio, on April 8, from 2 to 4 p.m., and from 6 to 8 p.m. The funeral will take place at St. Catharine Catholic Church on 500 South Gould Road in Columbus at 10 a.m., Friday April 9. At the request of the family, in lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to The J.F. Cavanaugh Fund of the AJCA Research Foundation, 6486 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 43068-2362.

He helped bring Elsie to life article.

It was a dynamite decade for Jerseys

It is not going overboard to say that so far during the 21st century, Jerseys have been one of the dairy industry’s hottest trends. Not only does the soaring popularity of small brown cows not show any signs of slowing, but it only figures to increase as producers continue looking for ways to boost feed efficiency and profitability.

One obvious yardstick of this enthusiasm is the number of new animals registered with the American Jersey Cattle Association each year, which set an all-time record in 2009. New records don't happen very often at organizations that are 142 years old, but this was the second one in a row for AJCA.

Cherie Bayer, the breed group's Director of Development, said total registrations in 2009 were 95,557, breaking the previous record of 94,774 in 2008. She noted that registration numbers dipped as low as 33,104 in 1973 and did not regularly exceed 60,000 per year until the late 1990s.

What happened to suddenly make headstrong small brown cows the belles of today’s commercial dairy ball? There's little doubt that the answer is Multiple Component Pricing of milk, which went into effect in Federal Milk Marketing Orders on January 1, 2000. Switching volume-based milk pricing to a system that rewards protein and butterfat clearly caused interest in Jerseys to soar, and has boosted their retail value onto a par with Holsteins as well.

In addition to greater demand for Jersey cows, Jersey A.I. semen sales have also surged as many dairies have started crossbreeding programs to boost protein and fat production in their herds. Bayer points out that between 1997 and 2008, Jersey A.I. semen sales increased 183 percent.