Jessica's Memory Goes On
A cow the Australia dairy industry universally mourned in 2005 came back into sharp focus during the final of the South Eastern Semex-Holstein Australia On-Farm competition recently. Elmar Leader Jessica EX-3E was one of Australia’s most appreciated cows. Bred by the Hore family, at Leitchville, she was the 2003 Grand Champion Holstein at International Dairy Week (IDW) and she took Australia to the global stage when she won Reserve World Champion Holstein in 2003. She also won the mature class in the South Eastern Semex-Holstein Australia On-Farm in 2002 and 2004. She was All-Australian for her age from 2001 to 2003. Her owners resisted several compelling offers to sell her in 2004 – despite genuine interest and big numbers from North America. She died, aged seven, 12 months later. Efforts to clone her produced four calves, which didn’t survive. Recently two of her granddaughters, both by the world’s favourite sire, Braedale Goldwyn, won State Champion in the four-year-old and Mature age-groups. A great granddaughter was Reserve Champion in the three-year-old. It was a quiet nod to their world-famous matriarch and it meant that the Jessica family singlehandedly won 30% of the top-two places on offer this year, in the state that has 56% of the nation’s total competition numbers. Semex’s General manager Jim Conroy confirmed there were 3011 animals (from 429 breeders) judged across Australia between October and December. Of those numbers, 1616 animals from 225 breeders were entered in the South Eastern competition alone. The biggest sub-branch (Western Victoria) included 303 animals from 48 breeders and was judged by Marcus Young. The event culminated with a luncheon at the Witchmount Estate winery where finalists gathered to hear how the overjudge Patrick Nicholson, of Jugiong Jerseys saw the cows after he had travelled 3500km and visited 60 farms in a week. “Some winners’ names we hear every year, some names are ... Read More...