Jersey Program Highlighted during Showcase California

It is a day that is the accumulation of years of planning, strategizing, and aligning of Alta Jersey with the right progressive Jersey partners. It is an event partnered with our own Alta Advantage® Showcase tour for progressive dairymen from around the world. Showcase California focuses on Alta’s committed partners and delivers on their motto that seeing is believing and today we have more believers as a result of this event.

Three Jersey dairies are part of the tour and all three are owned by Jerseyland Sires and Hilmar Cheese members. Each dairy hosts 4 educational stations highlighting dairy management practices, reproductive protocols, and the history of the dairy including the integration of the next generation into the operation. The fifth station features 25-30 daughters in a performance pen. The high level of cow quality is not limited only to the performance pens, but is evident in any of the pens viewed during the tour. What is most unmistakable by the end of the day is that there is no other Jersey program that can compare to the Alta/Jerseyland Sires program.

Jerseyland Sires
Jerseyland Sires stems from an idea created in the mid 1970’s by a group of California Jersey dairymen who desired to utilize bulls with influential pedigrees for natural service on their heifers. This early sign showed they have an understanding of the importance to making sound investments in genetics - and still do today. The initial 13 members brought in the majority of their genetics from the Eastern United States and after encouragement from the Jersey Association decided that they would also sample these sires in hopes of making proven sires. At first they leased their product to other AI organizations and then in 1985 they partnered with Network Genetics, code 122, to market their product. In 2000 Alta’s new owner, Wijnand Pon, had the foresight to know the future importance that the Jersey breed would play in the dairy industry and desired that Alta become a major player. It was in 2001 that Jerseyland Sires partnered with Alta, giving Alta exclusive world-wide marketing rights to their product.

Progressive and business minded are just a couple words that can be used to describe Jerseyland Sires members and their dairies. The average member herd size hovered around 100 head in the early years. Today’s 11 Jerseyland Sires shareholders operate 18 dairies ranging in size from 800 - 4,000 with much of their growth occurring internally. Many of the Jerseyland Sires members are also founding members of Hilmar Cheese – the largest single sight cheese plant in the world bringing in 13 million pounds of milk a day. The test of time has taught member Jim Ahlem that “if you don’t grow you die.” While expansion opportunities are limited in California, many members plan to develop operations in Dalhart, Texas where Hilmar Cheese has already opened their second facility.

Jerseyland Sires member Richard Clauss and Alta Jersey Specialist Tara Bohnert share their unique story to over 200 profit-minded Jersey and Holstein producers from around the globe. It is a story that reaches far beyond the barriers of breed and highlights the partnership between Alta and its customers as well as demonstrating the backbone of the Jersey program. Jerseyland Sires still handles bull procurement through monthly meetings to discuss business and sire selection over breakfast. While many members meet daily for breakfast to discuss the challenges and successes of dairying today along with maintaining the close relationships that Hilmar dairy producers share. Jerseyland Sire’s bull selection criteria revolves around selecting for the kind of animal that will survive and thrive in their environments with some noted features being production, workability, health, milking ease, and feet and legs. These are the very same traits that progressive Alta partners are looking for regardless of location. The situation can be best summed up by Alta Premier account manager Matt Sattler when he said, "the entrepreneurial spirit within this group of dairymen is contagious. You can't help but get excited about the dairy business after spending time with them."

Jersey Day
The tour showcases three Jerseyland Sires dairies each with their own uniqueness, but all with a common theme of striving for excellence. These three dairies do this very well with approximately 2,000 lactating cows milked in rotary parlors, by maintaining a 20,000+ lbs rolling herd average, by keeping pregnancy rates from 23-28%, and all while being housed in freestall environments. Jersey dairymen are armed with questions for their California counterparts and ready to take notes on how their home dairy’s management and genetics compare to these. Holstein dairymen are equally impressed to see the profitability of the Jersey cow first hand.

James Ahlem Dairy herd owner Grant Ahlem comments that “one of the strengths of our dairy is the depth of our genetic base. It is one of the biggest reasons that the herd has reached the production levels that we have.” It is here that guests learn about 20% cull rates, much of which is done on a voluntary basis with the herd selling approximately 300 replacements a year. Featured in the performance pen is the Alta second crop success story, three daughters each of the 122JE sires all who have solidified themselves as proven performers in commercial environments. A strong group of RASMUS daughters won the vote for crowd favorite.

The importance of large herd sampling for young sires is in the spotlight at Yosemite Jersey Dairy. This dairy takes a very unbiased approach and has designated one day a week as young sire day where young sires are used on all cows regardless of service number. Cows are milked 3 times per day in their new rotary milking facility. Couple that with their new freestall barn and they have been able to reach many key benchmarks including increased production, improved labor efficiency, more cow comfort, improved milk quality, and higher reproductive standards. Large daughter groups in the performance pen includes SABER, CARRIER, PLACIDO, FUTURITY and the favorite group of RASMUS daughters (RASMUS was bred at this dairy). This group showcased two fifth lactation daughters with the rest on their first lactation. The favorite cow award was a close competition between a commercial sized PLACIDO daughter with a welded on udder - wider than she is tall - and the just fresh fifth lactation FUTURITY daughter who has been featured around the globe in many Alta advertisements. The tour featured many recognizable Alta-bred cows in their working environments giving visitors a close up look at their continuing value.

Reproductive programs, genetics, and milk marketing are the focus during the stop at Hilmar Jerseys. Here visitors find a group of ECHO daughters freshened within 1-2 weeks at 20 months and four other performance cows that have projected records of 30,000 lbs – all proof that calving them in young does not sacrifice production under the right management practices. A very impressive group of 12 ABE daughters demonstrates quality cattle with exceptional production. The goal at the dairy is to have over 300 daughters on the proven sires they use. Equally impressive is a group of four PRIMER daughters all with abundance of rear udders and an obvious will to milk. Owner Mark Ahlem envisions possible growth to 20,000 cows in Texas!

There seems to be an overall theme that strikes most about these herds – the reproductive efficiencies and production levels achieved by the Jersey cow in these management settings. One of the most common questions of the day comes while guests walk by a two year old pen and ask, “How old are these cows?” Many are not accustomed to seeing heifers calve in at 21 months of age, but it is a common practice on these three host dairies as well as many other Jersey operations. New York district sales manager Jim Wood hosted a group of dedicated Holstein dairy producers with him, but they report back that they would not have wanted to miss this day for anything.

Seeing is Believing
Success is defined as achieving a goal. Just as Alta is creating genetic and reproductive success for its customers, Showcase California leaves them with not only a feeling of success, but also a feeling of pride. The message is not to persuade customers to Jerseys or Holsteins, it is to showcase Alta partner dairies and provide an experience that leaves a lasting impression on how Alta is creating value in progressive dairies, just like yours, everyday.

As guests load onto the bus for the final time after the last stop, they take with them new ideas on management aspects that they can apply back home. They have learned that there are many similarities between the Alta and Jerseyland Sires partnership and the Alta Advantage® partnership – testing bulls in unbiased commercial environments with large contemporary groups. There is no other Jersey program that can be put side by side with the Alta program. Alta is a company partnered with some of the most innovative Jersey dairymen in the world, where the dairymen distinguish the product criteria that meets their bottom line and then puts the bulls to the test in their own herds. Large commercial herds place tremendous value in the genetics that are going to impact their profitability. We can all tell the story of the quality cattle in these herds and the importance of our partner dairies, but in the end, seeing is believing.

Click here to browse all the tour pictures

Click here for the showcase tour book (PDF)

Posted Mar 29th

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