NZ Dairy Winter 2021

26 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Ross Soffe Shorthorns firm favourites with Ross Virginia Wright Photos: Roan cow at the Stratford Show and roan/white calf at Ross and Joanne Soffe’s Wee Brae Farm near Stratford. • to page 27 “Ongoing research & development results in superior products & performance advantages including; more yield, faster milking, no slip and no teat end damage.” Congratula�ons Ross & Joanne Soffe NZ Farmers Livestock and Livestock Specialist Simon Payne is proud to be associated with Ross & Joanne Soffe Billy & team proudly support Ross So e - Protein Production - Excellent Legs & Feet - Longevity - Constitution - Fertility - Temperament - Neat Udders - Cross-Breeding - Milking Ability H aving grown up on a dairy farm in North Taranaki, Ross Soffe left to do other things at the age of 20. “I was ten years away,” says Ross, “but it was always there, I always wanted to get back.” By the time he was 30 he knew that he had to make a decision to give it a go or he might never have the opportunity. Luckily, it was around that time that his brother moved off the family farm to go to Australia and Ross and his wife Joanne moved back on. 10 years ago they bought ‘Wee Brae Farm’ _ that’s gaelic for “small hills” and it’s 135ha or so effective from160 hectares of flat to rolling and steeper land north of Stratford, Central Taranaki: “the wet country,” as Ross calls it. Of the 360 or so cows they milk about a quarter are Milking Shorthorns. Most of the rest are Frie- sians, along with 20 or so registered Ayreshires, 10 or so registered Guernseys and a mix of Kiwi X and Jersey. About 30 years ago when the Soffe’s had leased a small block next door Ross was looking to do something less mainstream so they decided to look for a different breed they could build up. They chose the Milking Shorthorns as a breed that would fit in with their predominantly Friesian herd. “They’re a big robust cow; red, red and white, white and roan, and white cows are fairly rare in the industry,“ says Ross. According to Ross the Milking Shorthorns were the first dairy cows to be established in New Zealand. “They came right back in the early 1800’s I believe,” says Ross. “They were the basis of the whole of the New Zealand dairy industry for a very long time until the Friesians and the Jerseys in particular came in around the 1900’s. There was a big shift to Jerseys in the 1920’s and then to Friesians in the 1950’s and that’s when the Milking Shorthorn numbers in New Zealand declined.” The original animals were bred as dual purpose for beef and milk so they were an ideal animal for the era when New Zealand was scattered with lots of small farms needing to be largely self-sufficient with only a few cows. Since the Milking Shorthorn Association was established in 1913 the two breeds, the Beef Shorthorn and the Milking Short- horn have been bred separately for their respective end uses. “Since 1913 we’ve been pretty much solely breeding for increased milk production, so today we have a cow we’re continuing to improve, using New Zealand and overseas genetics from Norway, Sweden and Denmark in particular,” says Ross. “When we started it was all about protein with everyone saying butter fat wasn’t worth anything, and back then they had a 90% protein to fat ratio.” In the last 10 to 15 years the pendulum has swung back in favour of fat so the fact that the Soffe’s have never stopped breeding for fat works in their favour. “Someone else used to say that even if fat’s only worth one cent it’s better than nothing so I took that on board. We aim to breed cows with a 4.5 fat per cent and anything over 3.5 protein per cent,” says Ross. These days there are around 3000 registered Milking Shorthorns and another 3000 or so non- registered. Ross likes them because of their easy