Calf vitality is an area of growing importance for dairy farmers with mortality in the first month of life being unofficially reported to be increasing. However, to date, there has been very little research on this topic in Australia. Our intention at Jersey Australia is to assemble enough data to monitor calf survival and to do a provisional analysis of genetic variation in traits associated with calf vitality.

 

We are working with Agriculture Victoria (part of the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources) and Jersey Australia with the support of ADHIS to conduct research on the vitality of calves.

We need your help to supply data for this project.

What we need from you is some simple record keeping of the calves you rear, their Dam and Sire and how well they thrived. One lucky data provider will win $400 worth of services from Jersey Australia.

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to consider this request and either email (jersey@jersey.com.au), or phone (03 9370 9105) asking for the record keeping sheets and ultimately help the Jersey Breed further our understanding in this area.

Please download the record keeping form here.Calf Survive v2

To download your copy of the Jersey Journal September/October 2016

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