Jersey Thread - For all things Jersey

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
xbred herd, with some purish, and x. We serve to oestrus strips for 8/9 days, then prelim, and serve to strips, we do this with the cows, as well. Our autumn block of cows, 55 to serve, 52 caught in 21 days, very cost effective, when compared to the full works we used to do ! This will be block serving number 4, doing it this way.
Jerseys are definitely different characters, one back last spring, went around nibbling all the oestrotect strips, so they were all coloured, halfway through the service period, hassle. We have one, that will walk up to you, and present the 'bit' she wants scratched, if you get it wrong, she will give you a very hard shove ! Luckily, when we first did the sync, our vet told us about the jerseys !

Thanks. What protocol did you have before the above mentioned? At the moment im sitting on £50 an animal 2 x beef straws included. I binned the prids after the first group, someone then told me if cleaned and sealed up you can reuse them up to 3 times. At least the vet is making money 😀
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
PNC, 3 weeks pre service, scratchies on at start of serving, serve for 8/9 days to scratchies, prelim at 8/9 days, serve to scratchies.
The pnc picks up anything dirty, or not cycling, before you start service, rather than a 'not seen bulling' 3/4 weeks into service. So, the cost of the PNC, and the prelim, costs a lot less than full sync. Another thing we do, is use two straws, each service, AA and BB, this autumn, son has used 1AA, and 1 Fr, not sure about that, but up to him, anything that helps to get a high % hold to first service, is cheap. Semen cost, £10 fr, £7 AA, £4 BB.
 

nivilla1982

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have always considered myself a decent stock man with good cattle sense....... untill the Jerseys arrived 🤦🏻‍♂️ I now find myself spending most evenings trying to think like a Jersey and double guessing myself if i shut and chained each and every gate before i left. I have even had a few pull crocodile clips of electric fencer 🤷🏻‍♂️ Makes work interesting and they are nice to look at
Clever devious little cute devils.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Jer X calves and weanlings sold well at local market today. Hoping this new sale will provide some sort of outlet for Jer x beef animals for us on the island.

Speaking to Morgan Evans, they are now hoping to run either a fortnightly or monthly calf sale again.
Will be useful on the back of the massive dairy expansion on the Island plus it will be a great help towards most farmer's calf strategy (which you will ALL have written as per RT, wont you?)
 

nivilla1982

Member
Livestock Farmer
WhatsApp Image 2021-02-22 at 17.38.07.jpeg


This Afternoon's arrival
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Question for you jersey experts do the calves need a coat to keep them warm now the weather is picking up.
Jer X all a bit new to me
no, as long as plenty of dry straw to nestle down in, and free from draughts, or rain, all calves should be fine.
spend the money on making your shed ideal to rear calves in.

Yes, definitely a coat.

Jersey (& crosses to large extent) have a much lower birth weight (25-30kg generally) and less brown fat in their bodies. Ally that to the fact that it is not possible to get much more than 2 litres in to them per feed (maybe 3 on a larger X), and you need to give them additional "help" via a jacket.
We do not remove them until the average 24 hour temp is 10 deg plus so April generally and then back on in October.

Obviously shelter & plenty of nesting material is also a priority but for £20 a coat, it's a gimme
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
that sums them up a treat
our cows are quiet, they won't move out of your way, plenty enjoy a good scratch from you, but the jerseys are the only ones to walk up, and demand one.
 

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
Have outwintered 80 head of Ped Jersey heifers this winter in what has been the wetest since records began. This was largely due to not having enough buildings and was in the process of tendering/aquiring a new farm. I was half expecting to face some disasters along the way, especially with the younger ones but i have been suprised how tough they are as long as they have enough silage in front of them and fields with plenty of hedgerow cover. If they are given the right start and weaned healthily they wont go down without a fight thats for sure!
 
Yes, definitely a coat.

Jersey (& crosses to large extent) have a much lower birth weight (25-30kg generally) and less brown fat in their bodies. Ally that to the fact that it is not possible to get much more than 2 litres in to them per feed (maybe 3 on a larger X), and you need to give them additional "help" via a jacket.
We do not remove them until the average 24 hour temp is 10 deg plus so April generally and then back on in October.

Obviously shelter & plenty of nesting material is also a priority but for £20 a coat, it's a gimme
Thanks that seems good advice to me.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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