5.8 - Australian Jersey Breeders Society

words: Michael Porteous
‘It’s a privilege
to be a classifier’
Queensland Jersey breeder Darrin
Grevett says it’s a privilege to be a
Jersey classifier and help breeders evolve
the Australian Jersey herd.
Darrin Grevett and son William with Sunshine Coast Jersey Cattle Club
senior champion Yandavale Resserection Fayre.
Darrin loves dairy farming and breeding and showing Jerseys.
He enjoys traveling around Australia to meet other breeders,
classify herds, and talk about breeding.
Darrin’s grandparents were dairy farmers, but his family had
left the industry by the time he grew up.
“I didn’t really have any interest in dairy farming until I went
to Nambour High School,” he says.
Other Nambour old boys Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan went
on to become national leaders, but Darrin took the school’s Ag
courses and came up with the idea of being a farmer.
He then went to Gatton College to study grazing animal
production. He couldn’t wait to apply theories on real farms.
He began working for other dairy farmers 15 years ago, and
eventually moved to his own farm at Eumundi, 30 minutes
west of Noosa Heads.
“My original love was for the Ayrshire cow,” Darrin says. “But
their genetic base was just too small, and I wasn’t getting the
results that I wanted when I was trying to breed.”
But a high-school friend had a Jersey farm, and Darrin says he
was involved with Jerseys when the breed was transformed
by the introduction of American genetics. He remembers the
first daughters of American bulls like Top Brass, and he saw
the influence of the offspring of Lester.
Now he says he likes all cows that are built right, but his
heart is with Jerseys: “She’s a great converter of feed. Her
temperament is great. The genetics are there. They are great
cows.”
Darrin now farms a 220-acre milking property with 80
irrigated acres. He has another 200 acres of pastures 10kms
away for heifers and drying-off cows.
He milks 140 head – half Jerseys, and half Holsteins remaining
from the 200-cow herd that came with the property. Darrin
brought his own 80 Jerseys, and has been selling Holsteins.
He says his top Jersey now produces 35 litres a day, and his
top Holstein 40. After bad seasons last year, the farm was still
buying in brewers grain in early spring, but was on track to
produce 1.1 million litres this year.
Darrin says the cows average 26 litres a day at four percent
fat and 3.4 percent protein. He feels these are exceptional
averages with the Holsteins in his herd.
He says the main advantage of Jerseys on a farm north of
Brisbane is that they handle humidity better than Holsteins.
“The Jerseys are a lot smaller cow, and their colour helps,” he
says. “They’ll be out grazing probably for an extra two hours
16 Jersey Journal – January/February 2012