The Jerseys

I sometimes wish all cows were Jerseys, small, gentle, doe-eyed creatures you could push around without any trouble, with padded corners and fragile limps. Even if they kicked you it was like a love tap compared to a clump from a craggy Friesland. ~ James Herriot

The Jersey is the smallest of all dairy breeds, most cows never reaching 500kg. They also have among the gentlest temperaments, making them very easy to have around. The best among them look like they're made of porcelain, but have strong, deep bodies. They originate from the isle of Jersey, and as a result they can withstand the cold and wet surprisingly well for such diminutive creatures.

Jerseys are not known for especially high production, but their butterfat is the highest of the dairy breeds. This means that their milk is thick and yellow and very creamy with a round taste. They are known for a gentle, inquisitive temperament, great fertility and calving ease; their calves are born small, but grow rapidly. Our smallest calf ever was born too early and weighed 10.4 kilograms, but ordinary newborn calves weigh about 25-35 kilograms.

They are easier to maintain than the bigger breeds, and as a result of their quiet natures and small size, there are less damages to farm equipment when Jerseys are milked. They need less feed and less space than bigger breeds. They come in all shades of brown, fawn, red, and any of these colours with white; usually Jerseys have black points, but brindle, black, black-and-white, and pure white are not allowed.

Of course here at Hydeaway we think Jerseys are absolutely marvellous and there's no two ways about it; we love their beauty, their stature, their daintiness.

Our Jerseys

We are in possession of the wackiest stud in Africa, which is called Hydeaway Jerseys. Some time ago we purchased ten registered heifers from the Elavicki Stud, and quite by accident we bought Manhu MMP May, a wonderful old cow who scored 90 out of 100 on her body and 87 on her udder at the age of fourteen. These cows became the basis of our registered herd, along with a group of Appendix A cows whose daughters are working their way up to Studbook Proper.

Manhu MMP May, better known as Bontrok, in her seventh lactation

Some time after that we bought a registered bull named Haystack Mo Jake. He was of the Jas Hot line. Two years later we sold Jake and got a second bull, Leon-Thom Rocket Moonshot of the Rocket line. Our current bull is Prospect Lancelot's King Arthur, and though he has walked with the herd and sired a whole collection of daughters, Arthur is now kept just for the occasional irksome creature that refuses to conceive via artificial insemination.

Our first artificial insemination calves are being born, with sires such as Frosty, Fantom, Epic, Access, Eclipes-P and Mecca. Epic, a Jace x Lemvig x Berretta, was used on the bigger, chubbier cows to enhance feminity and dairy strength; Mecca, an Impuls x Khan x Brook, was used on very frail cows for more strength; and one of the best bulls in the country at the moment, Eclipes-P, an Action x Henery-P x Lemvig, was and is still used on the heifers and truly quality cows.

Other bulls in use include Hype, Louie 260, and Belvedere, whose calves have yet to be born.

The herd comes home

So far we haven't done any breed shows yet, but compete in youth shows with the two kids. Of course every single cow on the farm has a name, I mean, numbers would be just scandalous, imagine giving them numbers, poor things! This resulted in a few rather odd names but now and then we come up with some slightly brilliant ones and the cows don't really seem to mind. (We try to make sure it's something you're not embarrassed to shout across a pasture on a windy day and keep shouting until the cow you have attempted to summon looks up and perambulates across to you in her own sweet time. It's nice to shout something like "Blossom!" or "Primrose!" and not "Being Ten More than Ninety!") Brucellosis tests are chaos because everyone is trying to remember the cow's number because all that's written on the eartag is the name. So we put it in the computer and print the numbers out when the need arises for them.

What more can I say? What more is there to say? We love Jerseys and we like breeding more and more of them. So we could be called Jersey breeders. But watch out. We'll hit the show rings soon enough... we're already planning to clip the hair off whole cow except for that cute little topknot they have on their heads, so as to be Unique...