Colin and Berenice Jensen are well known in their hometown of Kimbolton, Manawatu. Not surprising given the Jensen family have been farming Jerseys on the same property for more than 100 years.
“The Jensen family have always had Jerseys. There was never any question as to whether we would have them or not when we took over the farm, there was no reason to change. As a result some of the genetics go back a long way,” Berenice says.
Their involvement with Jersey New Zealand has been a more recent development. It started with being approached to participate in the Jersey NZ and CRV Ambreed joint venture, Jersey Genome.
“We didn’t have any animals registered at the time so they must have cast the net wider to get more participants in the programme. We got approached for a 2012-born animal to see if we would allow her to be part of it.
“She went through the selection stage of blood testing but in the end they decided she didn’t quite fit their criteria, but they gave us a suggested mating for her anyway.”
When Jersey NZ put the word out asking for high breeding worth (BW) animals, they decided to give it a go and put forward some animals they thought would fit the bill.
“Of the eight animals we sent information in for, four were chosen to be part of the programme and that’s how it all started.”
One of Colin’s goals with the herd is to get a bull on to the RAS list and they saw the Jersey Genome project as a stepping stone towards that. Berenice says it’s something she can “really sink her teeth into”.
“His brother Bruce has had bulls on the list before and his parents did on one of their last years of milking on their farm. Our herd is pretty reasonable so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to tick that off.”
Although there is a wealth of knowledge in the Jensen family around breeding from Colin’s brother Bruce and their parents, Berenice says it’s also good for them to do their own learning to figure out what they can do to improve their herd and help improve some of their reproductive and production figures.
“Not just for the purposes of the project but on a whole herd front because at the end of the day it could result in better-producing, more profitable cows.”
Jersey Genome isn’t their first taste of genetics-based programmes. They were part of the LIC Jersey Journey programme, but a low payout coupled with a poor in-calf rate from frozen embryos meant it was not financially viable to continue.
“At the moment with Jersey NZ, if we register all our two-year-olds they will actually register the whole herd if we commit to registering our young stock for the next five years. There is a cost but you can get all your heifers TOP-inspected once a year and we were impressed by what we got out of it and are keen to do it again.”
Animals involved in Jersey Genome need to be registered with Jersey NZ and are required to be TOP (Traits other than production)-inspected. Certified inspectors score traits relating to the physical conformation such as udders, teats, hips, legs, height and capacity. Registered animals receive a classification award that categorises them based on the overall standard of conformation. This, combined with actual production scores, is used to assess whether an animal will advance further into the Jersey Genome programme
“It made us a bit more aware of what to look out for in terms of a good animal. Last time we had a TOP inspection we would have liked to ask a few more questions to get a better understanding. Kevin Hart from Jersey NZ is going to come out and talk us through what all the numbers mean. I’m quite interested in that aspect of it.”
In the past their breeding programme has been a bit of a “potluck” having solely used LIC bull-of-the-day for many years.
“We didn’t really know what to look for when it came to genetics, so using the bull-of-the-day we knew we were using the top semen, but we know now if we can better match bulls to cows we might get some more desirable offspring.
“It’s interesting to learn through being involved with Jersey Genome about what traits are heritable and using that information to make decisions, but we do need to learn a bit more before we start really utilising that avenue, and Jersey NZ are great at providing information and support, you just have to ask.”
A key focus for the coming seasons is their empty rate, which Berenice admits they have compromised in order to have a shorter calving period.
“We have struggled with ‘what do we do to get it right’ for a few years but we do think genetics have a bit to do with it.
“We tend to have a short sharp season. In general calving starts by August 20 and drying-off by May 10. That’s purely due to the altitude up here and also due to grass growth so we don’t have to buy in so much feed. We like to keep it simple.”
The couple are keen to reduce their average 15-16% empty rate from nine- 10 weeks mating policy and believe that genetics might play a role in it.
“We have a short mating and a short calving so we know we are asking them to do a lot in a short space of time, but we don’t see the point in extending the mating just to get a few extra cows in-calf. We want to keep calving as tight as possible. Reducing the empty rate means we won’t have to breed as many replacements and we can grow them a bit better.”
The installation of the in-dairy feed system to help them through this year’s drought has given them a helping hand with keeping condition on their cows to set them up for mating and calving, and they are up 9% on the season for production through feeding grass and palm kernel.
Although initially planning to use it on the shoulders, the cord keeps being pulled, but they have dropped back from feeding twice-a-day in spring to once-a-day over summer.
“We were feeding only in the mornings but we find they walk in better in the morning because it’s cooler, so we feed them in the afternoons now as a bit of an incentive to come in when it’s hot.”
Although primarily to help cope through the drought, another deciding factor in the installation was the ability to administer minerals more accurately.
“We have had cows in the past that were quite prone to milk fever. We did all the required magnesium chloride in the water and dusting paddocks but nothing really seemed to work well. We now get a product called MineralBoost mixed in with our palm kernel and it has the three major macro-minerals instead of just the magnesium. It’s really good because it flows through the system easily and we know now that each cow is going to get x amount in her feed.”
Although they believe it’s made a difference to the incidence of milk fever they say it’s hard to know if it’s just a good season or if their new methods are actually working.
“Although the vet says it’s not been a bad season for milk fever, we think it has had a positive effect. On a wet day they don’t drink like they do when it’s dry so even if they aren’t drinking we know they are getting their minerals in their feed, so that must be helping with the milk fever and I imagine will have flow-on effects in terms of reproduction.”
Berenice says now they have some more knowledge around what makes a potential bull dam they have landed a few contract matings they probably wouldn’t have had before.
“We are starting to see some of the flow-on benefits from being involved in the programme in the form of contract matings and are hoping to produce more top animals. Until you see those benefits it just seems like another cost in the system and extra work.”
Although new to the programme they say aside from the benefits they see for themselves and their herd they also see the programme being important for the Jersey breed.
“It wasn’t long ago that the Jersey breed was about 12% of the national herd, so at a point it’s going to start to narrow in. Maybe it’s because we have always had Jerseys but we are keen to see the gene pool diversify and expand, and promote the breed.”
“Every mating is a learning curve and we are both really excited to be part of all this. It’s quite a privilege being approached for a project like this, and for us being new everything still has the ‘wow’ factor. We get to mix with different people and are just learning so much.”
A long history
The Century Farm awards programme aims to capture and preserve rural history which might otherwise be lost. The award is presented to families who have owned and worked their land for 100 years or more. The Jensens are currently putting their application together for next year’s awards.
The ‘Sprove’ block, which is part of the operation, has been in the family since 1892. Neils Christian Jensen, who came out to NZ with his parents as a small boy in 1875 from the town of Sprove in Denmark, bought the property in Kimbolton and farmed it with his wife Leah Charlotte. Together they developed the farm from bush and swamp.
Milking cows has been a long tradition on the property and the family have a photo from 1910 of Leah and her children milking by hand.
When Neils and Leah passed away one of their grandsons, Ralph Jensen, bought the farm. Ralph carried on the milking tradition and built a new dairy in 1957. He started milking about 37 dairy cows and ran sheep on the property. Ralph and his wife Ngaire retired in 2000 with a dairy herd of about 66 cows.
Ralph’s son Warren and his wife Dawn farmed the property as a drystock block up until 2013.
Today the property is made up of several titles, some of which Colin and Berenice milk their herd on, and other parts are owned and run by other members of the Jensen family.
