| AGM AND CONFERENCE WRAP-UP | WORDS // RICK BAYNE
Cutting Back On Quantity, Not Quality T
HE Wallace family still love their Jerseys but they’ve got less around after making a lifestyle decision to reduce the herd. The quantity may be down after a clearing sale last October but the quality has never dipped and visitors to Wallacedale Jerseys at Poowong North during the AGM got to appreciate the excellence of the herd. A third-generation farmer continuing a 74-year family tradition, Luke Wallace said he and wife Mel had decided to improve their work-life balance. The herd was established in 1947 by Luke’s late grandparents Vic and Val, who moved on to the current farm in 1957, and continued by Luke’s parents Cliff and Marieka.
Wallacedale Jerseys was milking about 220 off 76 hectares, but has scaled back to about 160. A reduction sale last October saw 65 lots sold as part of their plans to phase the herd to A2A2. It’s not unusual for Wallacedale to sell their in-demand cows to other farmers, but this sale went deeper than before. “We’re trying for a bit of work-life balance,” Luke said. “We lost about half of our leased land, about 20 hectares, so we have less area available for young stock and dry cattle. “We have worked hard to pay down a bit of debt, hopefully 150-160 cows allow us to keep chipping away at repayments and keep up production. “We’ve got three kids and they’re coming up 17, 14 and 12; if we don’t spend a bit of time with them now, we never will.” Luke purchased a successful herd and has continued to develop it into one of Australia’s leading herds, bringing in high-quality outside cows to add diversity but sticking with the best-known cow family, Melanie. “Mum and Dad bought in the cow family 25-30 years ago that really set us up, the Melanie family,” Luke said. “We did a lot of embryo transplant work and built up the numbers. They have been very successful so we built on them but I’ve added cow families over the past 10-15 years looking for diversity.” The Melanie family has had great on-farm challenge success, became the highest production family and has provided bulls for A.I. Of the new families, of particular note is the Belle cow family that was started with a beef animal in-calf to an imported embryo. “She started a really strong family here that goes back to Duncan Belle, one of the most famous Jersey cows in the world,” Luke said. Luke aims to breed a balanced, profitable cow with longevity and above average type and production.
The Australian Jersey Journal – July-August 2021 // 10
