Ravenshoe’s Bevandale Holsteins expanding into more Jersey cattle
A decision to expand into more Jersey cattle is paying off for one of the Atherton Tableland's biggest dairy produces.
Traditional Holstein breeders, the Bevan family of Bevandale NSW made the decision six months ago that they wanted to bring in more Jerseys.
Bevandale currently milks around 200 dairy cows, including 110 Holsteins, three Brown Swiss and around 65 Jerseys on their farm near Ravenshoe, Queensland.
On average, each of their milking cows is averaging 20 litres per day, with 3.1pc protein and 4.0pc fat for milk solids.
Owners Henry and Anna Bevan say the change has been a very welcoming.
"About this time last year, after toying with the idea for a good six months, we made the decision that we wanted more jerseys," Ms Bevan said.
"In 2014, Henry bought a few jerseys but more for a showing side of things, rather than for milking herd production.
"We had a little bit of experience with them and just found overall they were such easy animals to work with, especially for size and their fertility.
"We were having so much success with breeding them as opposed to the Holsteins cattle."
In June, the Bevan's purchased 40 Jersey milking cows from Rodney and Cynthia Hartin of Long Lanes Jerseys at Milla Milla, Queensland.
They also secured 44 Jersey heifers from Nathan Hughes and Allison Turner of Dirran Creek Farming in Minbun, Queensland.
The Hughes family use to supply milk to Mungalli, but since ceased milking.
It would be safe to say that we can no longer call ourselves just Holstein breeders.
The Bevan's say they are well on the way to their goal of 50/50 Holstein to Jersey.
"We're aiming to breed to an even split and at this rate, we expect to reach that by the end of next year at the latest," Ms Bevan said.
"We found that the older Holstein cows just wouldn't go into calf and we're finding that the Holsteins we're breaking down more as they got older.
"We found that the Jerseys are a little bit more robust, so when the opportunity came up to look at the Hartins Jersey herd, we went for it.
"We also purchased 44 heifers from a former Mungalli dairy supplier, as they just finished up dairying."
To date, Bevandale has purchased in 90 Jerseys in the last 12 months.
In the late 90s, Henry's late father, John Bevan, went to the effort of breeding the Holstein into the herd and getting rid of the jerseys, which his father had brought in originally.
"Henry remembers John saying how he had worked so hard to breed all the jersey out of the herd, only for Henry to bring it back twenty years later," Ms Bevan said.
Ms Bevan said the family picked up 40 Jersey cows last Friday, and in the four milkings that they've had, more than 800 litres of milk has been produced.
"They're already paying their way and things are more positive and the increase in the milk price has also been incredible," she said.
Though, seeing the benefits of Jersey cows, the Bevan's agree, that they'll still be breeding Holstein cattle.
"We'll definitely keep some around for personal pleasure, because that's where Henry's passion started with breeding Holsteins and showing Holsteins," Ms Bevan said.
"But also just for the sheer milk volume.
"Even though the Jerseys have fantastic components generally, and we've had some phenomenal producing jerseys that would rival a Holsteins on a whole, you're just not gonna get the leverage out of a jersey that we're getting out of a Holsteins.
"They also fill out the dairy because it was built for them and the Jerseys can't move around quite so much."
Ms Bevan said their dairy operation has also benefited with the on-farm corn silage they have been producing in the last three years.
"This is our third year growing corn silage and we couldn't work out why we hadn't done it 10 years ago," she said.
"Though, the second year we were introduced to the fall armyworm and it was pretty brutal.
"This year, with a lot of help from our local agronomist, we really had a handle on it."