words: Michael Porteus
Australian Jersey Journal continues its series on classification discussing the five traits in a cow’s middle section with Jersey Australia classification panel member Roger Heath:
Jerseys score on length, depth and width A
fter they gain an overall picture of a cow’s “dairyness”, Jersey Australia classifiers score her different traits in a report they can discuss with breeders. The classifiers score five traits in a cow’s middle section: • body length • rib • loin • chest, and • body depth. Jersey Australia classification panel member Roger Heath likes to see plenty of length in the middle section of a cow between her shoulders and hip bone.
“If the cow has got plenty of length in the body with a good spring-of-rib, then there is plenty of room for her feed to be processed into milk,” he says.
“For a cow to have plenty of length and spring to her rib, then she generally needs a good strong loin to hold up all of the feed that she’s converting.” Roger says this is important to a cow’s productive longevity: “A weak loin means a broken-down cow in my view.” He says that a cow has to have plenty of chest width, “that gives her plenty of room for a big heart”. “Given the amount of blood that a cow has to pump to produce the milk, then the cow needs plenty of heart room.
“No chest width to me is a small heart, frail cow, and short life span.”
Roger says a cow also needs plenty of body depth for fore-udder attachment: “If the cow has no body depth, then it is quite likely she will have a poor foreudder attachment, and therefore the cow isn’t going to be around very long. “If she has got good body depth, then she has got room for a good capacity udder capable of producing lots of good Jersey milk.”
12 Jersey Journal – May/June 2012
Roger grew up with Jerseys Roger says he is fortunate to have lived with Jerseys all his life at the Wanstead Jersey Stud founded in 1943 by his great grandmother and his grandfather Peter Heath Snr. “Having lost his father at an early age, my grandfather and his mother got the stud going, and it has been in my family ever since,” Roger says.
“It seems that I fell in love with the Jersey cow long before I left school. I knew that I wanted to be a dairy farmer and I wanted to milk Jersey cows.
“So at the age of 15, after completing year ten at the Cobden Technical School, I took on a dairy apprenticeship at the Wanstead Jersey Stud, which was run by my grandfather and my parents. “After completing my apprenticeship, I continued on as an employee and now I’m a part owner of the Wanstead Jersey Trust as a trustee.
“My grandfather was always responsible for most of the cattle duties, and
over time I have taken over that responsibility.”
Roger says Peter Heath Snr was a Jersey classifier who was president of the Australian Jersey Herd Society in 196970. He also judged at many major shows.
“I guess you could say the love of the Jersey cow is in my blood,” Roger says. The Wanstead Jersey Stud is located about 15km north of Camperdown, about 200km west of Melbourne.
The 650-acre dryland farm now milks 200 registered Jerseys.
“After having got to 300 cows about four years, ago, we had to decrease in size due to the drought conditions,” Roger says.
“We plan on increasing numbers back up to about 300 in the next few years. “The farm has the potential to milk around 350 cows, and also rear all replacements at home.