Heifers picked to form the showing team at Mount Pleasant show in the coming weeks were crowned the best on display across the Mount Compass Jersey Cattle Club Competition last week.
Heifers were entered into the competition under two classes - heifers 18-months and heifers 18 to 30-months, were either stud or grade heifers or a mix of both and could not be in milk.
The competition spanned over Tuesday and Thursday for the Barossa and Mount Compass regions respectively.
Ashtaney stud heifers bred by the Koch family at Moculta were crowned the class one and class two best heifer and the best group in class two for the competition.
The Brokenshire family, Mount Compass, took out the best overall group of three for the competition.
Andrew Koch said it felt good to win but picking his heifers to enter was tricky.
"They used to only have the one class in this particular competition and only recently they've added the two different age groups, which has made it a little bit trickier actually from an exhibitors perspective, because you obviously have to find six hours instead of three," he said.
He said they had a mix of genetics exhibited.
"The winner of the junior section was bred by Bushlea PN Viral and we have had a lot of success with that bull," he said.
"And (is) out of a really good cow family, the bell cow family which needs no introduction to Jersey enthusiast.
"The winner of the senior (class) is by Megapower, a ball that I've noticed a lot of South Australians haven't used.
"But we were milking Megapowers and our first Megapower actually was the reserve immediate at the Adelaide Royal and she's milking really well."
Mr Koch said they were constantly looking at improving the genetics in their herd.
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Judge Gavin Newman said the heifer which won class one was a young heifer.
"But very structurally correct, it had a lot of capacity, a lot of dairy quality, an ideal setup through the rump, a long and wide rump and just a really well balanced and really well put together heifer," he said.
He said the heifer which won class two was of a very similar type.
"It had real good dairy quality and capacity and a really good rump as well," he said.
"You should be picking the same type of heifers.
"They're actually quite similar, but both had a lot of overall quality and balance."
Mr Newman said the best group overall was the Brokenshire class one group.
"They were just really uniform and particularly well grown and in perfect condition and really consistent but one really even group with a lot of quality to them as well," he said.
He said he was looking for cows that were going to milk well over a long productive lifetime.
"It was really interesting to go to the different farms and see the diversity of operations and every one of them was commendable in their own way," he said.
Nick Brokenshire said credit for the group of three selection had to go to his grandfather Peter Whitford.
"He has been into cattle for 60 years or more and was looking for good strength and a good type of cow," he said.
"I am really grateful for everyone going to the effort, including the sponsors and organisers for going to the effort to make the two days what it was.
"From the farmers point of view it's really only a bit of fun, but it's nice to be able to get on a lot of people's farms and see different people's cattle and how they work together as a collaborative industry."
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Kiara Stacey
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
