JERSEYS CAN COMPETE IN RETURN OVER FEED!

Despite being smaller in stature and size, the Jersey cow packs a lot of production power into a smaller package. On a liveweight basis, Jerseys have a 39% greater volume of rumen and 18% greater dry matter intake (DMI) than Holsteins, according to studies researched by the World Jersey Cattle Bureau (WJCB). This means that despite a smaller frame, the Jersey cow is efficient in accessing feed and utilizing that feed to maximum efficiency. Another study accessed from the WJCB notes that the ratio of produced energy in milk to the energy used in maintenance of the cow is 2.46 for the Jersey breed, compared to 1.85 for Holstein, a 33% advantage to the Jersey breed. This means the Jersey puts more of it’s energy intake toward production rather than maintenance - dairy efficiency defined!

Alain and Claudine Poirier of Ferme Cavalait in Lefaivre, Ontario can attest to the feed efficiency of the Jersey breed, after adding their first Jerseys in 1999. Their herd was recently awarded as the top herd for management score from CanWest DHI in their county, and furthermore placed among the top 12 herds in Ontario. Along with advantages in herd health and animal temperament, Alain notes “that the Jerseys require less total feed cost to produce the same amount of milk components. In turn, we then require less land to produce the feed we need, and less labour to produce the feed.” The Cavalait herd is now about 60% Jerseys.

Curious as to how his Jersey herd pencilled out on return over feed as compared with the industry average, John Vander Wielen of Grayclay Jerseys in Elmwood, Ontario used feed prices applicable to his area in South Western Ontario and industry average statistics to compare feed cost per kilogram of butterfat for Jerseys against the industry average. He found that at breed average Jersey butterfat levels, it costs 64 cents less in feed cost to produce a kilogram of butterfat for Jerseys than for the industry average, a difference of 19% from industry average. Extrapolated over a herd with 50 kilograms of quota, this equates to $12,240 less feed costs per year for the herd! As Jerseys eat less, they also produce less manure - this is a biological fact. In a modelling study done at the University of Guelph in 2001, it found that a 57 cow Jersey herd with the same quota investment as a 50 cow Holstein herd had about $740 less cost from manure spreading, and over $7400 less in manure storage costs.