On The Land
4 March, 2022
Guernsey heifer resets Australian record books
THE Daley family of “Millaa View” dairy farm made history recently when they paid the highest Australian price ever recorded for an unmated 13 -month-old Guernsey heifer.
David and Tonia Daley paid $16,500 for Gilbert Milos Haiti, a heifer born in Dandalup, Western Australia and trucked to Rochester, northern Victoria as part of a draft of 25 heifers and one young bull, sold at private auction by vendor, Colin Gilbert of Gilbert Gurnseys.
The couple bought a total of two heifers in the sale, which established a new world record average sale price for the Guernsey breed, of $9,260/hd. David and Tonia paid also $10,000 to secure Gilbert Alexia in a fi eld of 170 bidders whose purchases created a total sale return of $236,000.
Unable to attend the sale in person, David had asked good friend, animal nutritionist and former president of the Australian Guernsey Association, Darby Norris, to eyeball the cattle they had selected from the catalogue and to bid on them at auction.
Luckily they did because their internet started spasming just as Milos Haiti's auction session began, creating time lags that left David and his daughter Teresa thinking they had lost their chosen heifer to another bidder.
“When they announced that we had won her, we were so excited, we literally cheered aloud,” Teresa Daley said.
With a linear trait of VG 88 and records to 366 kilograms of protein and 545kg of milk fat, there was plenty to cheer about.
“The kids attributed this purchase to "my mid-life crisis,” Mr Daley joked, “but Mum and Dad had Guernseys when we were kids and I have always liked them and thought I would breed them one day.”
The breed is known for producing high-butterfat, high-protein milk with a high concentration of betacarotene and 96 per cent of milking Guernseys carry the cholesterol-lowering protein beta casein which is absorbed easily into the human body.
Guernsey numbers have been gradually dwindling over the last few decades, since the influx of the Holstein Friesian breed, but their docile temperament, efficient food conversion and tendency toward early maturity and trouble-free calving, have Australian dairy farmers giving them a second look.
Motivated by a situation of “too many heifers, not enough money and the cancellation of International Dairy Week's January bi-annual Guernsey sale”, vendor Colin Gilbert decided to stage his first private sale.
With nothing to lose other than "the money we invested, our cattle and our self-esteem," Mr and Mrs Gilbert began marketing their cattle online and said the payoff was beyond their wildest dreams.
Thrilled with their heifers, who travelled almost 8,000km to reach their new home, Mr Daley said they have a busy work schedule ahead of them.
“The kids plan to take them to the dairy youth camp in April and we will be entering them in this year's Malanda Show,” he said.
“They will be nearly 19 months by the end of May, when they will be artificially inseminated to highly rated sire, Java P using sexed semen to ensure heifer calves.
“I bought two Guernsey bulls from South Australia nearly two years ago, and with Covid, it has taken nearly that long to get them here.
"The first cross over a Holstein can be registered as a Guernsey and as long as they achieve the true golden and white colour, they can be registered as a purebred in three generations."
As part of a plan to lift herd components such as fertility in their Holsteins, Mr Daley said he had 40 Friesians pregnancy tested in calf to Guernsey bulls that were due to calve on 4-5 May.
