~ President's Update November 2011 ~

G’Day Fellow Jersey Members,

At a recent JA Board meeting it was decided that some regular communication with the membership concerning current issues being undertaken by Jersey Australia might be a good idea.  So we thought that combining an information session with an early Christmas greeting might be a good way to start this undertaking.

We did have a bit of a slow start to the year given that the planned June Board meeting had to be postponed due to the Chilean ash cloud.  That particular meeting ended up taking place in mid-July where the board decided to co-opt the current JA Queensland President onto the board up to and including the next annual meeting.  Mr. Shane Paulger, whoattended the September meeting as that co-opted member, brings with him, not only boundless enthusiasm and passion for the development and growth of the Jersey Breed, but tremendous industry knowledge and a huge network of contacts within the mainstream agri-political area of the national dairy industry.  Indeed his positive contribution to the areas of agenda covered was a highlight of the September meeting.

One thing that has happened recently has been the appointment of both a Jersey Australia representative and a Holstein Australia representative onto the Board of Dairy Futures CRC.  The JA board took the opportunity to oversee the signing of the CRC agreement between both parties at the September board meeting.  This is regarded as a very exciting development for the JA Board as it signifies further industry acknowledgement of the role Jerseys and Jersey Breeders play in the Australian industry.
Members will be pleased to know that the official Australian Jersey Judges list, while it has been on the website for some time, now has a role specific tab so as to encourage more utilization.  This list includes all qualified judges and highlights those that feel confident in handling the responsibility of bigger regional and city shows.

The Central Sires sponsored “I Jersey” online pedigree viewing and download facility is now up and running with pretty much all of the bugs ironed out.  The Jersey Australia Board is certainly grateful to members of Central Sires Co-operative for agreeing to transfer some of the funds generated by their business to development of Jersey specific projects that otherwise might not get the opportunity to see the light of day.  Central Sires provided in excess of $32,000 to get this project up and running.  Jersey Australia have undertaken to cover the annual administration fee of $1,200 pa which is mainly made up of costs related to the upkeep and “rent” of the online drivers behind the program and as such have put a small download charge of $2.50 per download to assist in payment of this.  At the time of the September meeting, I Jersey had 88 registered users of which 9 were industry based and the rest were Jersey Breeders.  That is a wonderful uptake of this service in such a short time.

You, the Jersey Australia member, are going to be reading this message in the very first journal compiled by our new editor, Clark Graffix.  After 10 years of Journal Production the project has been moved out of the office and outsourced.  We congratulate Clark Graffix on winning the contract to produce the Australian Jersey Journal and look forward to a successful undertaking in the production of this wonderful Australian Jersey Icon.
Two projects that Jersey Australia has been very involved in have been the JSI 2 index and the JERNOMICS project, both of which are scientific research projects.

The JSI 2 index is a revamp of our JSI which has been undertaken by Dr Jenni Price from DPI in conjunction with both Jersey Australia and JA Victoria doing the leg work.  Superbly led by Chris McKenzie, this project is designed to build an index that will give us the kind of cow we believe the industry will need in 20 years’ time.  Thus there is a focus to build size and strength together with milk production while maintaining the current Jersey advantages including component percentages and health and fertility advantages.  This project is now in the process of gaining industry support before it is released for mainstream use.
The Jernomics project, involving the analyzing of the DNA material (genomic) of some 5000 cows is nearing completion with pretty much all the field work done and the lab hoping to have finished reading the genomic information by Christmas time.  This analysis will then be handed over to ADHIS where they will convert the genomic information into Australian Breeding Values and put it into the reference database with the information already gained from the work done on the male reference set. We are hopeful that this combined reference set will give the Australian Jersey Breed enough reliability to be able to release Genomic ABV’s next April.  Fingers crossed.
Some members may not know, but after the phasing out of herd books in Victoria and at least some other states, the ground breaking technology known as Microfiche was used for some considerable period of time to store the registration data on.  (From the late sixties to mid-eighties it appears).  The Jersey Australia Board has determined that this information needs to find a better home other than boxes in the garage and have set about exploring options designed to get these registrations onto a hard drive somewhere.  Well, Scott has found a company that actually specializes in such things and can transfer them onto a “Read only PDF File” for a very reasonable price.  I have to admit that it was somewhat concerning as there appears to be in excess of 150,000 registrations listed on these things.  At least now they will be safe from aerobic deterioration.

On a final note, the next Jersey Australia annual meeting will be held in South Gippsland, Victoria and will be just one of many wonderful events that the South Gippsland Jersey Breeders Club runs to celebrate a historic milestone.  ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF JERSEY EXCELLENCE.  Yes, the club is one hundred years old.  28th to 30th May 2012 the event occurs, so make sure you plan to be there.
On behalf of the Jersey Australia Board and staff I wish every Jersey Member, Breeder and Associate a wonderful Christmas and New Year and I hope to catch up with you all at International Dairy Week.  Oh, we have Jersey Showcase back in our own right so make sure you are part of that, too.