Report of the Executive Secretary

The Cow of the Decade

Excerpts from the reports of Neal Smith, Breed Performance creation. 2019 brought a total of 285,688 Executive Secretary of the American Jersey “In 2019, the second highest historical tag sales to 745 customers. Cattle Association (AJCA) and National Allregistration count was achieved with just Just over 1,000 herds were enrolled in Jersey Inc. (NAJ), at the 62 st Annual Meeting of NAJ on June 26, 2020, and the 152 st Annual Meeting of the AJCA on June 27, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio. over 132,000 animals recorded,” declared Smith. “It allowed us to complete the three most recent years with over 130,000.” performance programs for 2019, with over 155,000 cows enrolled in all programs combined. Smith went on to a graph which Smith considers the REAP program a

First, I want to express my appreciation evaluated registration numbers over the cornerstone of the performance programs. to both boards and all of our staff. I decades starting at 1930. “As you can In 2019, it accounted for 896 of the herds have never been more proud of our team in see, in the recent four decades, we have and 151,595 cows. my entire career at USJersey than I have the enjoyed significant growth as a breed and “Average herd size was 169 cows. There last three months,” complimented was a time we thought average Executive Secretary Neal Smith. herd size would skyrocket to

“It’s been self-evident it has really big herds,” said Smith. “I been challenging for not only think the design of the REAP everyone across the United program has been healthy for the States, but around the world. equity of members across herd It is unlike anything we have sizes and pricing. REAP has been ever experienced before. I really the sort of lifeblood program of appreciate the support and the association.” cooperation we receive.” Throughout the years, the

A majority of the meetings’ linear appraisal program has audience tuned in through a grown by leaps and bounds. A virtual platform as the 2020 total of 112,337 females were Annual Meetings of the American appraised by the USJersey linear Jersey Cattle Association appraisal team. (AJCA) and National All-Jersey “When I started working for Inc. (NAJ) were broadcast live. Due to the coronavirus Neal Smith, Executive Secretary USJersey, we didn’t score enough cows for more than four to five pandemic creating changes “We want to increase breed productivity, of us to have a few schedules worldwide, the meetings were held in Columbus, Ohio, rather than the originally scheduled at a minimum maintain components and maintain the optimum size cow for each year. We were scoring about 40,000 cows then,” he explained. “For the last seven consecutive Portland, Ore. Instead of a room efficiency and health.” years, we have scored over filled with hundreds of Jersey 100,000 cows. Right now we are breeders and enthusiasts as in the past, a an association in registration counts.” at 14 people evaluating cows. I think this small audience of the boards of directors, Drawing attention to the middle of the puts into perspective how much growth USJersey staff and members were in chart, Smith went on to explain how during we’ve enjoyed in the last few years.” attendance. the 1970s it took tough decisions by the AJCA and NAJ boards to help change A Productive Year for NAJ Reflections of 2019 the momentum. It was then the Genetic During the NAJ annual meetings,

“One of the key changes implemented in Recovery and Equity programs began to Smith reflected on a positive year for the April 2019 was the multiple breed genomic be implemented. organization. At the closing of 2019, Equity evaluations,” said Smith. “That was a long Once again crediting leadership, Smith investors numbered 937. As the primary time coming. We worked very hard as a said, “Those were the two biggest steps —the source of funding, it helped bring the year’s board and team to see that through. We also Equity program and Genetic Recovery— total revenue to over $890,000. need to thank the Council on Dairy Cattle then we started seeing improvement and NAJ coordinated several important Breeding for producing it.” growth. Leadership is just as important events in 2019. In February, eight directors

Any animal that is genotyped and has a today as it was then. Maybe more.” and three staff members attended a lower than 90% Breed Base Representation Another key decision was the creation congressional fly-in in Washington D.C. (BBR), will be evaluated on a multiple of the JerseyTag program in the early “We’re working on building a relationship breed basis. These animals are on a 2000s. Requiring an amendment to the with these people. It takes time to measure separate report from animals with a BBR constitution, the membership approved the the impact and effectiveness of it. It’s a of 90 or greater. acceptance of two matching, tamperproof long-term effort,” said Smith about the

“This is a great improvement for the eartags as permanent ID. At the end of event. dairy industry, particularly the Jersey 2019, the organization was approaching The third Jersey Value-Added 101 breed.” the sale of four million JerseyTags since its (continued to page 25)