Kelly Allison has a warning for those using bulls to mate heifers – don’t skimp on the numbers.
“It’s a low payout year and I know some people will try to get away with using less bulls but they could pay for it in the long run,” the Outram dairy farmer says.
“They say you should have one bull for 25 heifers but we like to run one for every 20. Even if you have only 25 heifers to mate, use two bulls. If you have only one bull and something is wrong with it then it could be a very expensive mistake.
“The bull might look like it’s doing the business but it not might not be and you won’t find out until pregnancy testing and by then it’s too late.”
Allison and his wife Amanda run the Bonacord stud in Otago with Kelly’s parents (Dairy Exporter, March 2012, pages 110-117) and they raise all the bull calves from the Jersey cows. He has about 150 Jerseys in his 600-cow herd, the rest Ayrshire. Some of the bull calves are the results of contract matings but with the average BW of the Jerseys about 150, all have potential.
Those not taken by LIC or used for his own heifers are sold each year to Southland and Otago farmers for heifer mating. They leave the farm as yearlings from mid-October to early November.
“We still get a few people ringing us up late November and early December because a bull has broken its leg or something has happened but our bulls are mostly gone by then.”
Some he buys back afterwards and then sells again as two-year-olds.
“We buy them back at about half the price that we sell them for. It’s still better money than what the farmer would get at the works for them.”
The bulls are all tagged at birth and their parentage recorded. At the time of sale they are TB-clear, blood-tested for BVD and EBL and vaccinated for BVD and leptospirosis.
“That all adds about $50 to $80 to each one. We could do a fertility test as well but that would make them even more expensive so we don’t.
“They’re also debudded when they’re several weeks old. We’re pretty pedantic about that. You don’t want a bull with a horn, or even part of a horn, because they know how to use it.”
He also breeds for temperament.
“We only have quiet cows in the dairy. Anything that is a bit toey gets kicked out. We run the bull calves together in a mob and you can walk through them easily. During the winter they’re on daily shifts so they’re used to being around people.”
Allison started supplying yearling bulls when he added Jerseys to his herd about 15 years ago.
“They bring in some extra cashflow at a time of the year that you need it and it fits in with our breeding programme. You don’t get much for a Jersey calf on the bobby truck.”
The farm bought cow families from Cardrona Jerseys at Ashburton and nominates as many as 60 Jersey and Ayrshire bulls each year for AB mating – selecting for protein, udders and conformation.
“We like a cow that is efficient but it also has to look nice. You spend too much time with them for them not to look nice.”
LIC is selling semen from five of his bulls this year with four in the Alpha team and Bonacord Murmur Bolt (BW 267) a genomically selected bull in this year’s LIC Jersey Forward Pack team. He will be daughter-proven next year.
“We do a 50:50 split with either selling the bulls to LIC or getting the royalties. With Bolt we’re getting the royalties because we think he’s going to do really well.
He’s especially proud of Bolt because he’s not the result of a contract mating.
“He has a really good mum from a good cow family and we chose the sire, Okura Lika Murmur S3J, so he’s pretty special.”
Allison estimates about 80% to 85% of dairy heifers throughout the country are naturally mated using Jersey bulls.
“They get the heifers in calf and then there is the ease of calving. You can’t guarantee that with any other breed.”
With enough Jersey breeders now in the south, gone are the days when truckloads of Jersey bulls would arrive from the North Island.
He says some farmers pick their bulls on BW, while others come into the paddock and choose the bulls themselves.
“They both pay a premium for that.
“Usually we are working through an agent and we just get a request for five bulls and I try to put an even line together. You don’t want two big ones and three little ones together.
“When Cooks, the transport company, come to pick them up there can be bulls going everywhere. It gets complicated.”
He’s often left with the smaller yearling bulls to use himself.
“It’s surprising though, they always do the business. I think they’re keener.
“When we sell our bulls they’re all in good condition. They’re not the biggest of bulls, Jerseys are not made to put on weight.”
He says farming bulls isn’t easy, especially growing them through the winter ready for mating, although it’s better to have them in a large mob rather than three or four onfarm by themselves.
“Bulls break fences, they fight and get injured and they can pick on one and ride it to the ground. They’re the first ones to tell you if the power is off the fences.
“And when they’re two-year-olds you’ve got to keep your wits about you.”
