What about water? What about land?

Last week we posted comments on the need for a doubling of global food production over the next four decades. Such growth would be needed to keep up with a constantly growing global population of humanoids. Recently we became engaged in conversations about the pressures surrounding the hunt for both usable land and water to support expanded food production.

It is time for a serious re-think of how we act as a world! Paving over highly productive farm land and delving into and using finite supplies of water is already very much catching up with us! And would you like to add polluting water supplies to the mix?

The need for food will grow. The question is: How are we going to produce it? Where will the fundamental resources needed to produce more food be found? When people say water is already the new oil are they hitting the nail on the head?

Lencrest Jerseys and Jersey Quebec: Updated!

Websites for Ferme Lencrest and Jersey Quebec have been newly updated! Check them out!

It Is All About Strategy!!

We have been stimulated to do more and deeper thinking about the related issues of creating frozen Jersey embryos and marketing of those embryos of late. It has been interesting to discover how many embryos are available for listing on the Canadian Jersey Embryo Program. It is also valuable to learn why embryos are created in the first place and what plans and strategies embryo owners have for using them or marketing them.

Strategic thinking is important so that everyone gains full value from the good work of embryo transfer companies and the superior genetics involved.

We began thinking about the whole topic of making embryos and either using them within-herd or marketing them. A substantial string of questions came to mind. Here are those questions!

DONOR COW SELECTION:

- Is this a truly superior Jersey cow? Why do I want embryos from her? Would others want embryos from her? Would I want multiple progeny from this cow in my herd?
- Will there be a demand for embryos from her?
- What traits and accomplishments make her and her embryos appealing to potential buyers?
- Will I be able to do an effective job of telling others about her value and superior traits and of proving her worth?
- Will I only attempt to create embryos when I have a definite order/sale for them?
- Has the cow been DNA tested prior to flushing?
- Am I willing to work with potential buyers on a Mutually Agreeable Sire (MAS)??

EMBRYO SIRE SELECTION:

- Is this sire popular and well-known and respected?
- Is he a rare sire maybe not overly available?
- Would I want progeny from this sire in my herd?
- What are his strengths? Challenges?
- Why would embryo buyers want to have progeny?
- Is he an appropriate mate for this cow?
- Would I be willing to use a sire I am not using in the herd at present to fill an oder for embryos?

USES FOR EMBRYOS?

- Why am I doing the flush?
- Will I retain all embryos and implant them in my herd or in rented or borrowed recipients?
- Do I have recipients available/ready for fresh or frozen embryos?
- Can I withstand the risk that the cow will be non-responder and yield no viable embryos?
- Within what time frame do I target to implant the embryos?
- Do I project having some embryos to sell? Would I be willing to sell all embryos from the flush?
- Once embryos are actually created what is my target time frame for having them sold?
- Can I arrange for implantation of embryos in a local herd? Do I know the health status of that herd?

MARKETING EMBRYOS:

- Are my embryos export-ready?
- Have I consulted with those marketing embryos to establish an appropriate price or price range?
- Is my pricing realistic?
- Have I advertized the availability of these embryos?
- Have I listed embryos on the Canadian Jersey Embryo Program?
- Have I or my embryo practitioner sent documentation on each flush to Jersey Canada for recordation?
- Do I have a website?
- Do I market my embryos via e-mail? Print brochures?
- Am I selling what the market wants?
- What creative ways can I find to market my embryos?
- Would I agree to volume discounts?
- Am I willing to reduce the price to move the embryos and if so by how much?
- How long have I had these embryos in inventory?
- Would I consider consigning my embryos to a regular public auction or to an on-line embryo auction?
- Are my embryos stored so that they can be easily moved once a sale has been made?

This list is far from all-inclusive despite its length! You would be well-advised to consult with those involved in the industry-marketers and embryo transfer/collection companies to continue planning your strategy. As always those who fail to plan, plan to fail and those who plan carefully but with mid to long term flexibility can reap great harvests of genetic improvement and/or marketing revenue!

Universal winning

As we go about our daily work at Jersey Canada we are increasingly drawn to the topic of embryo transfer. As noted in an earlier blog posting the Canadian Jersey Embryo Program has taken off like a bullet these past ten months. This year Jersey Canada has set a new all time annual record for transfers of embryos. And that in only seven months!

In preparing some material I had reason to review the listing of embryos on our website. I started to think about the opportunities that the list presents. I thought about new Jersey owners wanting to begin on the right foot with quality genetics. I thought about established owners of the breed wanting to add a new cow family and up the calibre of their herd at the same time. I thought of how working from the list would be a great way for dairy producers to launch into their first venture with the Jersey breed.

Implantation of Jersey embryos is a top way to ensure easy calving for animals of larger breeds. You start off with the easy caving and a healthy surrogate mother for the embryo calf. You then have a valuable Jersey calf loaded with superior genetics on the ground. The Jersey breed grows. Those with seed stock to create embryos have a steady market for their product line. Genetic progress happens in gigantic leaps and bounds on a herd basis.

Folks in foreign lands can tap into some of the leading Canadian cow families they have read about and researched. In virtually any country of the world you can own the same genetics as the most famous and proven superior cows of the breed.

Choice is abundant with often close to 500 embryos from 40 or 50 donor dams or more and often by 20 or 30 different sires or more. It is like a mile long salad bar full of so much of what you like!

On June 30th I had occasion to stop at Avonlea Genetics Ltd. near Brighton, Ontario. I was sure I was at the right farm as I've been there "many a time". However as I pulled ever closer to this famous Jersey breeding establishment all I could see were heifers of that other well-known larger breed.

Before long the scenario dawned on me-nobody ever said I get everything in the twinkling of an eye - and then was confirmed by the good folks at Avonlea. The heifers were "black and white on the outside and Jersey brown on the inside" to put it succinctly!

Never before have their been tools to forge ahead with dramatic vigour as there are today! Mouth-watering packages of the best Jersey genetics in the world are right at one's fingertips! You can start in a very good position and roar ahead into an even more excellent one with speed! And the best part is everyone can win from your success!!

The opportunities ahead...decades worth of them

We all receive "a fair volume" of e-mail and have to be skillful about sifting through it all and deciding if we spend anything more than the time it takes to hit delete! I was forced to sit back on my haunches and think "What have I just read??" when I received an e-mail from Murray Hunt of the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency in April of this year. The headline on the message Murray had found and passed along read: "World food production needs to double in next forty years". Mercy, can you ever go a few million directions with that one line!

I discussed this headline and the idea behind it with a number of people. There a those who will quickly say: "Not so, actually world population growth has slowed down from earlier estimates. Already this has been proven to be inaccurate."

Others are quick to ask: "Where are we going to get the water to do so?"

Still others go behind the headline and discover fuller context. The concept was we are going to have untold billions of not only mal-nourished but truly starving people in this world over the next four decades if food production does not increase significantly. The reality of starving people all over this world is already with us and has been for decades.

And then the questions start popping up in your head. Who is going to make this food production happen? Will the vast majority of it come from corporate farms? Factory farms, whatever that means now? Does this mean a lot more use of fertilizers? Yes, where will we find the water? What about the land? Can we reclaim some of the needed land? Will there be a margin in growing that food? Which foods make the most sense? Animal, vegatable??? Have we lost some of the plant or animal speicies that could be valuable?

This headline contains more than food for thought. It relates to a whole generation of young people
who may be awash in opportunity as this growing challenge (pardon the pun!) is addressed. There are two basic messages from a headline like this: Is it true? If yes, how do we get moving on meeting the need? Time to get ready!

Is this possible?

I recently had the privilege of listening to a speaker from the Canadian wing of dairy giant Fonterra. This gent knew how to challenge his audience and to hold their attention. He made one particular comment which made me sit up and take extra-special notice. My pen moved into action almost on its own to jot down his words! And what were those words?

He claimed that there were 3,000 individual, identifiable components in milk.

3,000? Okay we know of the big things like fat, protein, lactose, the minerals and vitamins, but, 3000, really?

Doesn't that make your motor run? Doesn't that fire your imagination about all the novel uses that milk and its component parts can serve?

Doesn't this help to explain why different milks are so good for making certain dairy products? And that's only looking at things from the viewpioint of our conventional thinking about milk?

Another epiphany moment!

Farming on at 95 years young!!

On August 9, 2009 George Brown of Brownlane Farms Ltd, Harvey Station,New Brunswick celebrated his 95th birthday! That means he was born in the summer of 1914! I caught up with George by phone two days later on August 11. He told me that he was still "heavy into the hay" and had done a lot of mowing and raking in a challenging summer for putting up hay. He also told me with his customary modesty that a crew of 70 people had attended a little get-together to mark his 95th birthday.

About the same time I had a cyber-chat with a US Jersey personage who had a birthday the same weekend as George. This person was born 69 years after George so was "only 26"!

George told me a little story that took place three decades ago when he was homing in on 65. A well-meaning minister came to visit the Browns. He remarked on the fact that George was at the age when folks traditionally settled into their retirement years. George's quick retort was: "Retirement.....I do not want to hear that word!!!"

The path that George has chosen for the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth decades of his life is not one everyone would have chosen. Nonetheless the way he has spent the last three decades of his life and the six and a half that preceded them have given him a lot to enjoy. He has much to be thankful for and has had a few million great experiences. He's been blessed with terrific physical and mental health and agility that others have not enjoyed. I hope and trust that when he looks back over life his regrets are few and his smiles are many.

His life is an extraordinary example of remaining engaged and vital and up and about and doing! For those of us many decades younger his determination is a stimulating lesson in living! Perhaps not for everyoen but just right for him! Happy 95th George!

What a wonderful life when one can communicate with a range of keen Jersey people-sometimes more than seven decades apart in age!