48 | nzdairy ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’ Kelly Deeks DAIRY PEOPLE » Josh & Kareena Sneddon Tahau Jerseys. FOR ALL YOUR SALES, SERVICE, REPAIRS & SPARES! Proudly Supporting Josh & Kareena Sneddon McCormick · Landini · Strautmann · Lemken · Polaris · Husqvarna Pearson · Masport · Rata · Tyremax Tractor Sales · Servicing & Repairs of all makes and models · Farm Machinery Sales & Service (new & used) · Hydraulic Hoses & Fittings · Truck & Digger Servicing · Automotive Servicing WOF’s & pre COF Auto Electrical & Air Conditioning Service · State Roadside Rescue · Breakdown Service EWP & Crane Specialists · Sales, Parts and Service for all Garden & Lawn equipment Steve Bowe 027 487 8981 OR Grant Bowe 027 220 2010 www.bowespreading.co.nz RD4 Cambridge For all your lime and fertiliser needs Obligation Free Quotes For all your Agricultural Contracting needs office@sansonagriculture.co.nz 027 277 7993 Cultivation Maize Planting Round Bale Hay & Silage Grass Silage Maize Silage Direct Drilling Roller Seeding Effluent A carefully considered risk taken by Josh and Kareena Sneddon of Tahau Jersey Stud two years ago has paid dividends and put the couple ahead of the game, with AI technician Josh now mating 100% of his 290 cows to polled genetics. Josh used his first polled genetics about seven years ago but in 2021, he mated 75% of his herd to polled genetics, saying this was where the market was headed as farmers looked to eliminate the painful disbudding procedure for their calves. He mated 25% to the base genetics to mitigate the risk. “But we found there was no difference in production from them. There was no dowside to using polled genetics, there was only benefits.” Tahau Jersey Stud was proud to get one of its polled bulls, Tahau Foden Bruce PP, on to CRV Ambreed’s bull semen catalogue last year. As a double polled, A2-A2, 120BW bull, he has a great draw card, and his first daughters will be born this spring. Josh and Kareena have used more than 50 of his straws, and hope to get 15 to 20 of his daughters. The Sneddons are now focusing on breeding bigger, more capacious Jerseys, hoping to increase on their herd record of 464kgs milksolids per cow, and using a 50/50 mix of New Zealand and overseas genetics in order to get those polled genetics in. While bigger Canadian cattle with added stature are starting to come through the system, Josh says Danish genetics tend to produce bigger cows. This is probably due to more emphasis put on live weight BVs in Denmark than in New Zealand, where a small cow was considered more economical to feed. “But we’ve seen the smaller cows don’t cope as well with a high grass input system. We don’t feed a lot of supplement so we expect them to consume a lot of grass, and they just can’t fit as much grass in.” Josh says capacious cows have always been a focus at Tahau Jersey Stud, where the results of capacious genetics used five or six years ago are now seen in the fully mature four and five year old Jerseys on the farm. “We’ve seen the results and now we want to push for more.” Genetic selection is becoming more straightforward and efficient as genomic testing advances. Josh says in Denmark, 80% of mating is from genetic bulls and they are holding their own and even performing better than proven bulls. “It seems to be working for their population, probably because they started so early. We’ve only started genetic testing in New Zealand in the last three years, where they have been doing it for 10 years. We were a bit behind but we’re starting to catch up now. A huge amount of valuable genetic information can be pulled from just a DNA sample from calves, and that information is getting more reliable as we go forward.” After last year’s summer and autumn drought, Josh and Kareena are looking forward to a more productive season this year, since the weather has been pretty much the opposite at home in Tokoroa. “It’s been extremely wet all year. Winter could be interesting with how wet the soil already is. We’ll have to keep the cows moving, graze where we can and keep them fed.”
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