World eyes on local jerseys

STANDING in the middle of her family’s Jersey herd having her shoes licked it is easy to see why Jane Sykes loves the breed.

Ms Sykes has grown up with Jerseys on her family’s operation at Ringarooma, where they run their Minstonette Jersey stud and dairy.

The family have been breeding Jerseys for more than f ive decades. In recent years, she has stepped up to promote the breed at a national level. 

She became a member of the Jersey Australia board in 2016. In 2018 she took chairing its promotions and marketing sub committee. “What we do is come up with plans around promotions and marketing of the breed both in Australia and internationally,” she said. 

Jersey Australia was to host the World Jersey conference in 2020 but had to cancel due to Covid. Now it is planning to hold the event next year. 

“We’re hoping to have somewhere between 60 and 80 international visitors come to Australia,” she said. 

Ms Sykes said Australian-bred Jerseys were now highly sought after in international markets. 

“Australian Jerseys have been really hot on the inter national market the last couple of years,” she said. 

“We have diverse production system in Australia… Aussie Jerseys perform well in so many systems and in a lot of different environmental conditions. As a breed they’re pretty robust.” 

Ms Sykes said Australian breeders were open to trying genetics from different areas, which made the herd able to adapt to different production systems and environments. 

She said the number of high ranked cows bred in Australia going up was a real testament to the breeders. 

“The breed has come so far and for that to be recognised internationally is fantastic.” 

Ms Sykes said the percentage of Jerseys in the Australian herd was rising and was about 15 per cent, excluding crossbred cows. Jerseys have been in Ms Sykes’ family for three generations and the current stud was established by her father, John, who recently received his 50-year breeding award form Jersey Australia. 

The family have been long term supporters of local shows and have won major titles across the state with their cows. 

She decided to get involved with Jersey Australia when there were board vacancies. 

“It’s important to recognise that whichever society or breed or whatever you’re interested in, you need to step up because these organisations need people to lead them.” 

She recently travelled to the United States and attended the World Dairy Expo at Madison, Wisconsin, one of the main dairy events in the world, as part of a contingent from Jersey Australia. 

She said the expo featured a lot of products related to cow health and comfort as well as data collection.