Northern District Jersey Breeders Club

Craigielea

Bill, Kaye and Andrew Cochrane own Craigielea Jerseys situated at Hansen Road, Bamawm. Craigielea's first registered jersey was born in 1971, with the arrival of Craigielea Gwitha and went on to make VHC. The current farm consists of 200 hectares (about 100 hectares of summer pasture) with a water right of 1600 megalitres including 980 being underground. This has been a great help this year, although there have been restrictions in place. We normally run around 380 milkers with grain being the only brought in feed, totalling 1.7 tonne/cow/year. Craigielea is a JDCAP accredited herd.

The herd consists of 300 jerseys with the balance being the number 3 ASI holstein herd in Australia. The black and white's were brought in 1992 when the farm went from 60 hectares to 180 hectares, they were 45 kgs of fat above our jerseys back then, the difference today is 15kgs, a credit to the influence of the North American genetics in our jersey breeding program. The current herd average for our jersey herd is 5671 litres, 220 kgs protein and 271 kgs butterfat. The holsteins are bred solely on breeding index while the jersey herd is bred with a blend of type and index.

Craigielea have classified since its inception believing that production will follow correct dairy type. 50% of eligible cows made 90 points or better in our last classification. Our breeding philosophy are fairly simple, dairy bone, plenty of rib, wide muzzle, good feet and legs with a well attached vessel will give long life and heaps of milk. Our rising two year old heifers are the first to be bred using WWS mating program as a guide and await their calving with interest. We progeny test every year choosing bulls we believe will fit our breeding aims and randomly mate these, we find we have a higher retention rate using this style of program.

Big Hollow Designs Meteor and Merriland Ideal Major, through their sons were the first bulls to have a major influence on our herd. Nerring Sultan Sam (54 daughters in a milking herd of 150) and his sire Gras left a valuable impression. Sultan Sam encouraged us to purchase two of this sisters to being the Silky family, their dam being the famous Hillock View Sultan Silky Sup. IMP NZ. Descendants of these cows are among our best today. Six Barber daughters of Nerring Jay Silky had a top milk average of 6925 litres with the top milk of 8713 litres for Craigielea Barbers Silky 3.

Craigielea Duncans Mely

6739 litres 369 kgs fat 286 kgs protein

Astound Daughter

Craigielea astounds mely

7098 L 305 Kgs F 261 Kgs P 249 Days cont

Astounds Mely will be on show on Day 2 of the

JERSEYS ... light years ahead three day tour

Without doubt the best bull to have been used is Lester. We couldn’t get enough of these cows, with nearly a quarter of our herd at one time was by Lester. He was the greatest type bull we have ever used with a high milk flow of 9151 litres to Lesters Petunia. Berretta, Biestar, Alf, Sambo, Taranak, Astound, Fair, Jace and Flowerpower are other bulls to make their mark in recent years.

Sires currently with youngsters around include Augustus, Brookbi, Action, Parade, Megastar, Brazo and Rebel. We have just added Futurity, Signature and Finalist to our mating program after seeing daughters in the USA last July. There is no doubt we will look closely at Valerian in the coming season.

Cow families of note include from USA Babes and Vicky (Valerian family we have a Rebel son from a Taranak for sale.)From NZ comes Doris, Silky, Olivia, Macquita, Megan and Vera who descend from Heatherlea Oxford Vera (highest priced import in her time) Other families of note include Melys (our first 7000 litre cow - Dreaming Melys born in 1982), Gay’s, Sybil, Ilagay, Eieleen and Lady’s who descend from Mt. Elliot Golden Lady 84 91pts EX. Make sure you see her 92 point granddaughter by Mannix on the farm tour.

Bill & Kaye Cochrane

RMB 3450 Hansen Road

Bamawm Victoria 3561

Telephone/Fax: 03 5486 2474

email : craigielea1@iinet.com.au

Page last modified 03/06/2008

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