Jersey cross ,

Buffalo Jim

Member
Livestock Farmer
Currently milking danish jerseys , pure
Considering going dow the crossbred route,
Wondering what size of an animal I’d end up with crossing the jersey with a Holstein ??
housed intense ish system
 

Buffalo Jim

Member
Livestock Farmer
Why are you looking to change?
The answer to your question is very variable from 450 upto 700.
that was our experience trading down.
Thinking about the “hybrid vigour” aspect but also feel a crossbred cow should get the best of both worlds don’t get me wrong , the jerseys aren’t bad
 
Location
West Wales
Yep. Tells a tale.
@Headless chicken you know why? Holstiens more profitable?
Think the jerseys came about due to a cheese contract, something cute for the kids and a really easy way to get 200 heifers in calf was to Chuck a lot of jersey bulls in.

Martin’s interest would lie in the big pedigrees of the Holstein and cow families.

Heifer accommodation and slurry facilities I suspect may now need updating and they are on another unit joined to it but never the less travelling is required.

Fair foreign staff influence in the past and they tend to struggle with out of the box thinking ie grazing. They like black and white like filling a mixer wagon ( as a very broad sweeping statement)

Calf shed no longer big enough especially if you go down with Tb and the jerseys make for a difficult sell

so I’m assuming they’ll bring the heifers into the cubicles the jerseys and crosses had and breed up a nucleous herd that when the time comes will sell exceptionally well to big pedigree boys.

this is all speculation I should add…… but it’s what I would do.
I don’t think there is any succession at present and Martin would be mid to late 50’s so I suspect he’s going to enjoy doing what he does in a system designed for 900 cows milking 400.
 
A touch careless for the second cow in the video to have red tapes and double red leg bands on.
Screenshot_2022-04-17-11-16-36-750_com.facebook.katana.jpg
 
I used to be purebred jerseys but I've been crossing them since 2017 with various different HF types and I'm a big fan of the crosses. I'm the other end of the scale because we're pretty extensive spring calving but still using quite a bit of Danish Jersey.

My current plan is to maintain 200-250 purebred jerseys and 300 crosses. The very best of the crosses will go to a crossbred bull but 90% will go to a blue bull and I'll just keep making the F1 crosses using sexed semen out of the jerseys.

There's no massive groundbreaking different between the jerseys and the crosses but on average the crosses are marginally better and easier to manage in every way. The biggest single difference would probably be how much easier they are to rear as calves.
 

Buffalo Jim

Member
Livestock Farmer
I used to be purebred jerseys but I've been crossing them since 2017 with various different HF types and I'm a big fan of the crosses. I'm the other end of the scale because we're pretty extensive spring calving but still using quite a bit of Danish Jersey.

My current plan is to maintain 200-250 purebred jerseys and 300 crosses. The very best of the crosses will go to a crossbred bull but 90% will go to a blue bull and I'll just keep making the F1 crosses using sexed semen out of the jerseys.

There's no massive groundbreaking different between the jerseys and the crosses but on average the crosses are marginally better and easier to manage in every way. The biggest single difference would probably be how much easier they are to rear as calves.
See my thoughts are going after the f1 cross but wondering where you would go after if I had no pure jerseys left to breed f1s could you go back with jersey on the cross , or something else ?
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
There's no massive groundbreaking different between the jerseys and the crosses but on average the crosses are marginally better and easier to manage in every way. The biggest single difference would probably be how much easier they are to rear as calves.

Would agree 100% that it’s easier to rear xbreds than pure jerseys especially in the first two weeks.

Getting the right bull is key. We are finding that some xbreds are very prone to turning in to dumplings whilst others on the same regime retain a degree of svelteness
 

Stuart1

Member
Think the jerseys came about due to a cheese contract, something cute for the kids and a really easy way to get 200 heifers in calf was to Chuck a lot of jersey bulls in.

Martin’s interest would lie in the big pedigrees of the Holstein and cow families.

Heifer accommodation and slurry facilities I suspect may now need updating and they are on another unit joined to it but never the less travelling is required.

Fair foreign staff influence in the past and they tend to struggle with out of the box thinking ie grazing. They like black and white like filling a mixer wagon ( as a very broad sweeping statement)

Calf shed no longer big enough especially if you go down with Tb and the jerseys make for a difficult sell

so I’m assuming they’ll bring the heifers into the cubicles the jerseys and crosses had and breed up a nucleous herd that when the time comes will sell exceptionally well to big pedigree boys.

this is all speculation I should add…… but it’s what I would do.
I don’t think there is any succession at present and Martin would be mid to late 50’s so I suspect he’s going to enjoy doing what he does in a system designed for 900 cows milking 400.
A bit of breathing space is a great thing. We where always tight until this year. Now the cow house, dry cow house and heifer house has plenty of room. It’s a dream. I can only imagine how simple it will be for your friend milking 400 cows in a 900 set up, takes a lot of stress out of it.
 
See my thoughts are going after the f1 cross but wondering where you would go after if I had no pure jerseys left to breed f1s could you go back with jersey on the cross , or something else ?

I've got 20 red crosses that have just calved this spring and another 20 to bull next month but I'm not planning on using any more until I see how these get on. For lower input systems it's easy to find Irish and NZ black and white bulls that transmit jersey like milk proteins but I'm nervous the reds will drop my solids more than I'd like.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

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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