Holstein World:  What are your thoughts regarding the incorporation of crossbreeding in a herd’s breeding program?

Russ Wirt:  This seems like a no brainer, but than I have become quite prejudice with the success our dairy has enjoyed with Holstein genetics.

Our breed does have some calving ease and fertility problem.  But like Blads and CVM, we have put in place programs to correct the problem.  We did not develop the problem all of a sudden and will not correct it in one mating.

We have bred such will into the Holstein cow that when she is at maximum milk production, she is unable to meet her nutrient needs.  To that we add technology that even asks her to do more.  With 2-year-olds reaching 100 pounds and more, and than needing additional energy to continue to reach mature weight, there is little wonder why we have a negative nutrient balance.

It seems to me one must decide how big a hit on milk production and value of the veal calf a commercial dairyman is willing to take, if he is willing to use inferior genetics in his breeding program.

Talking to semen salesmen, it sounds to me like we are now seeing less sales of semen to use in cross breeding in Minnesota herds.  I am told Minnesota leads the nation in AI used for cross breeding.  I believe in most cases time will prove this to be an unwise decision.

Just yesterday, I was told by our dairy nutritionist about one of his herds that used cross breeding and now the sacrifice in milk production he is experiencing.  This dairyman does not understand why his cows are not milking like they used too.  Some of the very large herds in southeast Minnesota have now switched back to using all Holstein semen.

Holstein World:  As a large dairy producer and active member of Holstein USA, what services does Holstein USA provide that add value to your operation? 

Russ Wirt:  Holstein’’s easy tag identification is a very good program in our free stall system.  We have used it for quite some time. It is easy to register the calves. Certainly from a management point of view being able to view date of birth, sire, and dam on the tag makes decision making more reliable.

We appreciate breeders that classify because they provide the information that allows Holstein to develop genetic information.  We have found it difficult to justify the cost of scoring many cows with out selling genetics to cover that cost.

Holstein World:  In your opinion, what are the major animal health issues facing dairy farmers today?

Russ Wirt:  As always, biosecurity on our farm is a major concern that needs to be addressed by each dairy.  It is not necessarily the responsibility of the government.

While Johnnes disease is front and center right now, it has always been a management disease.  Keeping manure from being ingested by all animals will do a lot to limit this disease.  Feeding new born calves with colostrum from a healthy dam is also a must.  We do need better tests to really test our way to less spread of this disease.

BVD and other virus diseases are just as big a threat to our herds. In Minnesota and a few other states, we have seen the reemergence of TB.  In Minnesota the source of the infection is believed to come from cattle from the south and in Michigan the source is believed to be the deer herd.

In southeast Minnesota, salmonella has been a source of serious loss.  A number of dairies are now vaccinating for salmonella with good protection.  Birds and rodents in feed supply and feeding areas are believed to be a source of infection.

Holstein World:  What do you see as the key(s) to the future success of our state Holstein associations?  What are some of the hurdles states need to overcome and what are some of the triumphs you have seen accomplished?

Russ Wirt:  State breed associations have large challenges that are a bit different than national breed associations. The national associations identify cattle and measure genetics.  They leave little room for state associations to share in this revenue stream.  State associations can sponsor shows and sales that can generate some income.  Communicating with membership is a responsibility of both.  This is often just a “break even” function at best.

Our biggest challenge is maintaining membership.  With the continuing decrease in number of herds and increase in herd size, this will be a larger burden on the remaining herds if we are to continue the same services we have provided in the past.

State Presidents of Minnesota Holstein and surrounding state Holstein associations have been exploring ways of working together for some time to cut our costs or increase the cash flow.  This passed year we have published two issues of the Mid-West Holstein with the leadership of the Wisconsin Association and cooperation of Iowa and South Dakota.  Mid-West Holstein is a publication of core advertising from all herds and a wrap around of each states’ editorial material.  It has the cover of each state.  It also features some key ad locations for industry businesses at higher rates.  It has been well received and with advertisers in Minnesota reaching about 5,900 homes rather than the 1,500 our own publications reached.  It is a much better value for each advertiser.

Minnesota has tried to feature our two State Sales in a dairy publication that covers more than just the purebred segment of our industry.  It has helped our sales but not particularly supported by our membership.

Holstein World:  What are the current stats of the MN Holstein Association – approx. # of members, cows, etc.?  What are the key responsibilities of the association to its members?

Russ Wirt:  Minnesota Holstein is about 950 dedicated members of breeders, industry  people, and friends of the Holstein breed.  They donate many hours of their talents in promoting the Holstein Cow and dairy industry.  For the most part, our members are younger dairymen that believe they can make a difference.  I am amazed at the number of youth we have present at our functions.  This is probably a direct result of a very good youth program, and the opportunity owning Holstein cattle provides it’’s breeders.

State breed organizations must promote our cow and industry.  We must provide a social setting that is educational and provides enjoyment to our members.  At the same time, we should provide opportunity to merchandise the genetics they have to offer, and hopefully allow them some financial gain.

Holstein World:  Share with our readers a little bit about your personal background, including current stats of Wirtland Holsteins - number of Acres farmed, type of facilities?  Family members involved?  Sires being used? 

Russ Wirt:  I am a 75-year-old dairyman that farms with my wife, Donna, and our family.  We now operate a 1300 acre farm that produces corn, alfalfa, soybeans, and an expanding dairy of about 400 cows (394 have a Holstein registration number).  Our sons J.Duane, Dennis, and Doug, along with Doug’’s sons, Darrin and Denton, provide most of the management and labor that make our dairy hum.  We have two full time employees, Steve Boynton and Ben Johnson.  Also, two part time night milkers provide help. We like to believe we have no laborers and everyone contributes to our management team.

We produce about 1.4 million pounds of milk per man, have about 370 head of heifers, and produce most of the feed and sell a bit of cash crop. We are a commercial producer of milk with Registered Holsteins that look forward to the time we have extra genetics to sell.

Holstein World:  What experiences and achievements have brought you to your position as the state’s president?

Russ Wirt:  We were Guernsey breeders that saw the light late in life and had time to offer when we became  involved with purebred Holstein cattle.  I enjoy the enthusiasm and can do attitude of Holstein breeders.

Holstein World:  The MN Holstein Association is online at www.mnholstein.com.  Here you will see the many member activities and sales they have throughout the year.  Check it out!

Holstein World:  Share with us some of the goals you have for Jersey Canada in 2007.

Russell Gammon:

- Maintain rising numbers of new Jersey owners and new members - maybe reach highest membership total in forty years?
- Implement a true national Jersey extension program primarily to support those increasingly more plentiful numbers of new Jersey owners.
-Seeing Jerseys added to more dairy shows and sales.
-Financial stability for Jersey Canada while we forge into new arenas.
-Canada’s multi-breed classification program spreading to even more countries.
-More traffic for our website.
-At least 50% of our registrations received electronically.
-An even better domestic battery of domestic proven Jersey bulls - despite the fact that 2006’s crop is awesome!

In closing, I’d like to add that I’ve been directly involved in the work and life of Jersey Canada for over a quarter of a century. We’ve had good times before but never anything like the latest two years! It is so exciting!

Demand for milk and milk products are growing steadily around the globe especially in large populations in countries like China and India. This can only bode well for the future of our industry!

Advancements like the full scale implementation of genomics selection and more sexed-semen are going to help us reach our ongoing improvement goals. I know that economics of sexed-semen use raises eyebrows, but we need more Jersey heifers so it will have its place in this breed!

Kudos to the Holstein World and All Breeds Access on your wonderful publications and lively website. So many people comment on valued and valuable visits to the site. You are right up there with the top dairy breeds information and marketing sites in the world - no doubt about that!  Soar on!

Holstein World:  Thanks, Russell!  We”ve enjoyed our visit with you and wish you and Jersey Canada all the best in 2007.  What an exciting time for your association!

All of us at Holstein World and All Breed Access enjoy the opportunity to work in the dairy industry and provide as much information and support to our readers as possible.  If any of you out there have a subject you”d like discussed in our blog, just let us know!  We love hearing from you!!

Holstein World:  Jersey Canada currently offers a recordation program for crossbred animals from a known Jersey sire or with Jersey breed characteristics.  What percent of your current animals recorded are crossbred?  Do you see this number increasing in the future?

Russell Gammon:  While there has been some increase in the number of recordations we process for crossbred animals in the last five years, we’re still under one percent of our total volume for such animals.  We assume the cross is made primarily for calving ease.  One of the domestic AI companies has had a program where a cocktail of semen is “mixed” containing Holstein, Jersey and Polled Hereford semen. The mixture is used to help get problem breeders in calf. We’ve picked up a few Jersey-sired animals form this program. If producers plan on going a Jersey route we’ll see more of this activity.

We are quite unlike the USA where Jersey semen sales have more than doubled to over 1.3 million doses sold domestically in 2005. Much of that increase has to be going into cattle of breeds other than Jersey even though the breed is “going great guns” in the US. Frankly, we’re not planning for a major influx of recordation from this kind of source.

A much better option would be more Jersey embryos implanted in animals of other breeds for both trouble-free calving and dairy producers being introduced to the wonders of “the real deal” –productive, high solids, easy to manage Jerseys!

Holstein World:  What have been some of the most noticeable changes (if any) in the breed since the closing of the border?  How has Jersey Canada continued to maintain the demand and respect of their high quality genetics during this time?

Russell Gammon:  Let me begin by being somewhat political in saying that we have all over-reacted about 5,000% to this issue.  In life it really does pay to live by the maxim that when handed a lemon or a number of them, make lemonade!

Let’s try and look at some of the positive impacts of this seemingly unfortunate and highly regrettable state of affairs:

Herds are younger with lower SCS ratings, culling has become much tougher as there is not room to keep free-loaders and trouble causers around, our people have realized how very much value there is in those young heifers as herd replacements, producers have realized once again the immense value of investing in animal improvement programs to give them a clear edge in managing their herds’ performance and future.

The quality level of Jerseys on Canadian farms has literally gone through the roof. Prior to May 20, 2003 we were selling scads of really good animals to the USA and Mexico. In both countries interest in Jerseys has grown to such levels that they need lots of the breed. In some years in the late 1990s and early 2000s we were exporting one animal for every four or five registered.  There is no question that this was a positive stimulus! Our latest two National Jersey Shows at the RAWF have been out of sight in great quality as the cream of the crop have been staying right here at home. Our 2006 National Show was the largest since 1999, seven years ago! It is likely our population has never been better!

However, the most important aspect of all this has been that we are able to supply a burgeoning domestic demand for Jerseys at reasonable prices. This has made for those dramatic increases in membership mentioned earlier and the appearance of Jerseys on so many Canadian dairy farms! Exports were great but in the last three and a half years we’ve been given a terrific opportunity to grow the breed at home and we have grabbed it and milked it!

We do know that as producers find means of moving cattle of other breeds, that many are keen to add some Jerseys to their program!  Sure the world needs live Canadian dairy animals, in addition to the embryos and semen they can have today. While current conditions persist we’ll forge ahead growing the breed here in Canada!

In the interim we have had cows with household names like Veronica, Rory and Circus, and many others bred and born in Canada working for us in major show rings in the USA and elsewhere.
We’re cooperating more than ever before with partners like the Semex Alliance and other AI companies, Canadian Livestock Genetics Association, to get our Canadian message out there. We were thrilled to be part of the amazing Endless Performance conference sponsored by CLGA here in Canada in early November. The world sure saw how Canada was more than ready for the future at that event!

We’re forging ahead with our partners on topics like genomics, health and fitness traits and look forward to the coming to fruition of work at Canadian Dairy Network on profitability and health of dairy cows.  We’re also maintaining a leadership role in the World Jersey Cattle Bureau.

Our people still do a fantastic job representing Canada on international marketing/training missions around the globe!

Holstein World: What elements of marketing does Jersey Canada provide for its members?  What things have worked well and maybe some others that haven’t worked as well?

Russell Gammon: The key elements of how we approach the opportunity of getting the Jersey message out there are:

• Jersey Breeder magazine (which must be colorful)
• Website
• Sending representatives on international assignments for judging work and market development
• Numerous news releases about advances in the breed in Canada
• Extensive extension work across the country, especially in the last twelve months
• One of our regional associations has an active calving ease embryo marketing program
• Canadian National Show at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
• Hosting the World Jersey Cattle Bureau Conference in Canada in 2005
• Distribution of breed marketing brochures to virtually every dairy producer in Canada four times since autumn of 2004
• Strong youth programs

We were plenty early getting a website up and running, but have seen its value grow amazingly in the last two years.

With regard to our marketing brochures - one was a small fold over of an eight and a half by eleven inch sheet of paper, full color and all that, but it drew no response. The other three that have been colorful and eight pages have been winners. We’ve had new owners of Jersey say that they’ve seen so much about Jerseys in the farm press and have enjoyed these direct mailing brochures so compelling that they simply had to consider and eventually buy Jerseys! It is important to have a “hook,” something free that you offer to draw response and reaction!

We also value our membership in the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association and cooperation with our domestic industry partners as important means of keeping the Jersey message “front of mind” in the industry!

Holstein World: What are the current stats of Jersey Canada – approx. # of members, cows, etc.?  What are the key responsibilities of the association to its members?

Russell Gammon: The Canadian Jersey population contains about 30,000 registered animals. The bulk of Jersey cattle in Canada are registered or recorded.  Jersey Canada has over 850 members, processes around 6,500 registrations per year and about 2,500 transfers of ownership per year. About one dozen young sires are sampled per year through progeny test programs - this number is trending upward, as it must. The real exciting part of these statistics is the story behind them!

Our membership total in ten months plus one day in 2006 was at the highest level it has been at in 37 - yes, 37 years! That’s since 1969, almost four decades ago! And, back in 1969 there were eight to nine times as many dairy farms in Canada as there are today!  We see this trend continuing as we have this measure of new arrivals to the breed-registration of herd prefixes for the purpose of registering Jersey cattle! In the first ten months of 2006 we processed registration of 154 new herd prefixes! This is over 50% higher than in all of 2005! It is about 100% higher than all of 2004! Please remember that this is 150 new prefixes in an association with about 850 members! We’ve seen over 330 new herd prefixes registered in the latest three years! In ten months of 2006, our memberships were 10% higher than in all of 2005!  The “people side” of our business is surging upward!

Key responsibilities:
- Registration and recordation of cattle and processing transfers of ownership - we maintain about a one to two day turnaround on all normal work and much is processed on the day of receipt.
- Producing six issues of the Canadian Jersey Breeder magazine and two issues of the Jersey Insider newsletter per year.
- Maintain and refresh an active, attractive, simple to use website with an online pedigree/performance database
- Work with volunteer committees and the board of Jersey Canada to promote and improve the Jersey breed.
- Constantly introduce technological advances.  We now receive and process 33 to 35% of registration applications from electronic submissions. Our goal is 65 to 75% of applications submitted electronically over the next two years.
- Prepare extended pedigrees for marketing and approval processes.
- Lead on international and domestic marketing of Jerseys, genetic improvement of the breed, youth programs, customer/potential client service, follow up and extension work
- Interact with and support four regional Jersey associations
- Provide classification service via a world class, state of the art appraisal service introduced in August 2005.  This service is multi-breed and is administered and delivered by Holstein Canada
- Ensure genetic evaluations provided by Canadian Dairy Network for Jerseys in Canada are valid, accurate and world class.  Thankfully CDN does a super job! 

In short we provide information in easily usable forms so users can make progress and enhance profit. To quote a former President of Jersey Canada, Gary Bowers from Quebec:
“Jersey Canada’s job is to make the word ‘Jersey’ as highly visible as possible!” That about sums it all up in less than 15 words!

Holstein World: Share with our readers a little bit about your background.  What experiences and achievements have brought you to your position as Executive Secretary?

Russell Gammon: I was born on the scenic north shore of Nova Scotia in rural Pictou County sometime in the last century.  I was the eldest grandson of two sets of hard-working very small scale (a dozen cows or less) dairy farmers. My paternal grandparents had grade Ayrshires and once, a Holstein!  One of my earliest memories is being scared out of my wits by two REALLY BIG Guernsey cows while visiting at my Nana Barnard’s after Poppa B had passed away!

All of my six or seven 4-H calves were Ayrshires and most all of them were from the well-respected Mornglow herd owned by the nearby Clark family. I spent my summers slinging hay bales and learning to love the purebred cow business at Mornglow. A natural progression was commencing a Bachelor of Science degree at Nova Scotia Agricultural College and completing it at the Ontario Agriculture College at the University of Guelph. I did spend one summer as Ontario Guernsey Fieldman and then almost three years back working at NSAC where I also did considerable work with the Nova Scotia Joint Dairy Breeds-Ayrshire, Guernsey and Jersey.

In mid-June 1981 I joined the staff of Jersey Canada as Assistant Editor of the Canadian Jersey Breeder magazine, was named Editor in November 1982, Secretary in November 1985 and executive secretary in March 1991.

I love meeting new people and seeing new farms, bite into new and challenging situations with great relish, love cows and seeing really good ones, am a voluminous writer-my favorite form of communication, have been blessed to do lots of continental and international and really thrive on that and am one of the world’s greatest fans of Jersey Island where I have a small two head herd - Le Patois Jerseys.

Two other experiences which have marked me and made being Executive Secretary easier are seventeen seasons as a very part time classifier of dairy goats for the Canadian Goat Society and since early 1996 multiple trips to the fourth world country of Haiti.  From experiences in Haiti with our work there in adult literacy program (www.partnerswithpurpose.com), the more I’ve been impressed that we can do so much with the opportunities we have here in the first world and that we do live in such a state of absolutely constant overflow!  I’ve learned not to take for granted any of the innumerable blessings we enjoy every day, have been filled with enthusiasm for the life I live and have taken as one of my personal mottos “Thanksgiving is our dialect” and it should be!

Holstein World:  Make sure to tune in all this week as we visit with Russell on subjects regarding marketing, the border, crossbreeding and more!  For additional information on Jersey Canada, check out www.jerseycanada.com.