Jersey consignments at the Royal Sale of Stars...

There will be some exciting Jersey choices in the 2009 edition of the Royal Sale of Stars, being held on Thursday, November 12th at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.

These consignments include:

• a 1st choice of two female pregnancies by "On Time" from Arethusa Comerica Dolce Vita, the daughter of "Veronica" that topped the Avonlea Summer Splash in July.  Consigned by Avonlea & International Genetics
  
  
• a 1st choice female by Rapid Bay Reagan from Lookout Sweet Baby J VG-89-2yr, the 1st place Junior Two Year Old at Madison this fall, and daughter of the EX-94 Drentex Blackstar Baby J.  Consigned by Suitor, Vance and McKinven
  
  
• a 1st choice female by "Legion" or "Action" from Rapid Bay Jace Carla EX-91, grand-daughter of the legendary Duncan Belle.  Consigned by Rapid Bay and Andrew Timbury.

More information on these consignments can be found at www.saleofstars.com.

We shake our heads in wonder and reflect....

In the very early days of November we gained access to our end-of-October numbers for registry activity. We also assembled a few other stats on activity in the Jersey breed in Canada. Love what we found!

About a quarter century ago, in the early 1980s a gent named Gary Baines was Secretary-Manager of Jersey Canada, then the Canadian Jersey Cattle Club. Gary stated a few times that the association should have goals of 10,000 registrations and 1,000 members per year.

We are still working toward the 10,000 registrations total. On the other hand, as of November 3, 2009 we had racked up a glistening total of 1,009 members for this year!

Can you comprehend that our membership has grown 82% during this current decade?? Can you absorb the fact that our 2009 membership total is the highest we've seen since 1967????

A nice addendum to this good news from the end of October figures is the fact that since January 2004 we have processed registration of exactly 800 new herd names! 800!!!

Did you read our blog posting of October 30th entitled What a Pick-Me-Up?? In that one we noted that numbers of milk-recorded herds in Canada containing Jerseys had grown by 93% over the past eight years and that the number of Jerseys on milk recording in Canada had grown by 16% since 2001!!!

And the great, great news kept coming as we made our way through the various reports!

A few more gems were unearthed:

-Record percentage of electronic registrations for a month of over 73% In October and a year to date percentage of over 58!

-Record transfers of embryos for any year in history and 137% ahead of the total for all of 2008!

-Record number of young Jersey sires entering sampling programs in Canada this year! This is the fifth consecutive year a new record number has been set!

-Fourth consecutive year that we have registered more than 110 new herd names!

-On target to have the highest number of registrations since 1999 and the second best total since 1985! There is a moderate chance we could rack up the best total since 1985, virtually a quarter of a century ago!


We have much to rejoice about and to be thankful for, we have much to celebrate, we have much to think about, AND we have much more work to do!

Enjoy the moment golden as it is!

Sea Change Coming?

One of the most energizing parts of Jersey Canada Board meetings-and so much of those meetings brings energy these days-is the segment where Board members report on action in the regions they represent.
During the October Board meetings last month Eastern Ontario Board member Robert (Bob) Jarrell made a very interesting comment. He made reference to three young couples who had been active dairy producers but who had sold their quota and in two cases herds in recent years. Bob noted that all three had very recently re-entered the industry and were once again milking Jerseys!

These comments really piqued our interest. In recent months we have been hearing of revived or brand new "new-entrant" programs in various provinces. Jersey breeders are often in contact with the potential new dairy farmers who are interested in these programs. One interacts with these folks at trade fairs, shows, sales, and other agricultural events. It is amazing to learn of how many of these parties are thinking they should start with Jerseys! Often they note an understanding of the milk price per hectolitre they could garner with Jersey milk.

So......do we have a nice little, growing sea change happening here? Is the dairy industry browning?
Can the potential and Jersey hope of the ages be undergoing a transformation to reality?
Just say YES! :-)