What is Jersey Expansion?
When did the Jersey association begin discussing such a service?
What is the purpose of Jersey Expansion?
How will does the service work?
What concentration of Registered Jersey genetics would each generation have, beginning with a J1 cow?
So, only those animals sired by a Registered Jersey bull are eligible to be recorded as a J1?
How much will it cost to record a J1 female and her progeny?
My herd is enrolled on REAP. Is the J1 recording fee included in my REAP benefits?
Will J1 cows be appraised?
Will genetic evaluations be calculated for J1 cows?
How are Jersey females with the J1 registry status included in type evaluations?
Will this program affect bull proofs?
Who will use this service, and why?
How quickly will animals come into the Jersey Expansion program?
Can Jersey Expansion help increase the value of and demand for Registered Jerseys?
Could Jersey Expansion improve the value of and demand for my milk?
Is the Jersey association alone in offering such a service?

What is Jersey Expansion?
Jersey Expansion is an identification service for recording the offspring of Registered Jersey sires out of non-Jersey dams.  Return to Top of Page

When did the Jersey association begin discussing such a service?
The core of all AJCA programs and services is animal identification. Because of that fact, the Directors of the American Jersey Cattle Association and National All-Jersey Inc. have been interested in the use of Jersey bulls in commercial dairy herds since an increase in crossbreeding was reported in the late 1980s. Since February of 1993, the AJCA Board of Directors has discussed the issues and opportunities this presents to the owners of Registered Jerseys. At its November, 1998 meeting, the AJCA Board of Directors authorized the Jersey Expansion service.  Return to Top of Page

What is the purpose of Jersey Expansion?
Jersey Expansion is a proactive response to commercial producers’ increasing use of Jersey semen to breed non-Jersey heifers and cows. What Jersey Expansion will do is provide the services required to properly record progeny of Registered Jersey sires from non-Jersey dams. The service is intended to take the guesswork out of knowing how much genetic material an animal has inherited from Jerseys recorded in the AJCA Herd Register.  Return to Top of Page

There is another reason for this program, and that is to increase the concentration of Jersey genetics in the U.S. dairy population. Many dairy producers have been buying Jerseys, but the supply of purebred live cattle is limited and it is more and more difficult to find live cattle to purchase. An alternative is breeding up using superior Registered Jersey sires. The idea is to breed systematically—generation after generation—to Registered Jersey sires to develop a herd that can produce higher solids milk. Return to Top of Page

How will does the service work?
Jersey Expansion begins by recording females sired by Registered Jersey bulls and out of other-breed dams. These females will be given a prefix of J1. For example, a heifer sired by Mason Boomer Sooner Berretta and out of a cow not sired by Registered Jersey bull might be recorded as J1 Berretta C547.

Progeny of a J1 female sired by a Registered Jersey bull may be recorded as Original Animals under the rules of Genetic Recovery. All subsequent generations--if sired by a Registered Jersey bull--are recorded at the appropriate step of Genetic Recovery.  Return to Top of Page

What concentration of Registered Jersey genetics would each generation have, beginning with a J1 cow?
All J1 females will have at least 50% Jersey genes. The percentage could be greater than that, if the dam of the J1 female was part-Jersey. That dam cannot be recorded as a J1, however, for the simple fact that she is not sired by a Registered Jersey bull.

The following table summarizes each step of the recording process and the concentration of Jersey genes inherited from Registered Jersey bulls at each level.   Return to Top of Page

So, only those animals sired by a Registered Jersey bull are eligible to be recorded as a J1?
That is correct. And, in order to be recorded by the Association, each generation of offspring must also be sired by a Registered Jersey bull.

By the time an animal comes through this procedure and enters the Herd Register, the genetic make-up is at least 96.9% from Registered Jersey bulls. Geneticists consider animals developed along one breed line for five continuous generations to be essentially equivalent to a purebred. Continued use of Registered Jersey sires will further dilute the residual genes from the original J1 cow. At six generations, the percentage inherited from Registered Jersey sires is 98.4%; at seven generations, it is 99.2%. Return to Top of Page

How much will it cost to record a J1 female and her progeny?
There is a $5.00 per animal fee for recording J1 females. The daughter of a J1 is recorded as an Original Animal (OA) for $5.00. Daughters of OAs are entered at the Provisional Register (PR) level for a fee of $7.00. At the GR level, the recording fee would be $14.00 per animal if the owner is an AJCA member, or $17.00 each for non-members.  Return to Top of Page

My herd is enrolled on REAP. Is the J1 recording fee included in my REAP benefits?
No, because no fees are collected for non-Jersey cows. All J1s that are recorded will cost $5, regardless of age. J1 females that are in the milking herd will be added to the REAP bill. Calves of J1s in REAP herds will be recorded as OAs at no additional charge, if they are recorded before they reach six months of age. Return to Top of Page

Will J1 cows be appraised?
Yes. You will receive all the information on J1 cows that is provided by the AJCA's Functional Type Traits Appraisal program.  Return to Top of Page

Will genetic evaluations be calculated for J1 cows?
The J1 cow will get a PTA if her sire and dam are properly identified. To account for the genetic contribution of the other-breed dam of a J1, USDA-AIPL uses the breed-average genetic value for that animal.  Return to Top of Page

Will this program affect bull proofs?
If a cow is properly identified as a J1, her information will contribute to a sire's genetic evaluations by USDA-AIPL. Other crossbred cows sired by identified Jersey bulls do not.     Return to Top of Page

How are females with the J1 registry status included in type evaluations? Is it the same way as the production traits, where the genetic contribution of the dam is assigned to the average cow of that breed?
Yes. The impact of non-Jersey dams is accounted for in type genetic evaluations. As with production, the adjustments are not specific to each individual dam but considered as an average contribution based on breed of dam.      Return to Top of Page

Who will use this service, and why?
If you value accurate records in making breeding, culling, and marketing decisions, then you should use Jersey Expansion. The identification information will allow you to use other AJCA services to manage your dairy business more efficiently and profitably, particularly the Jersey Mating Program. Return to Top of Page

How quickly will animals come into the Jersey Expansion program?
There may be a limited number of animals immediately eligible for the Jersey Expansion program. Yes, there are Jersey crossbreds, but if their sires cannot be identified as a Registered Jersey bull, they cannot be recorded under the rules of Jersey Expansion. At every step in this program, there must be a Registered Jersey sire.  Return to Top of Page

Can Jersey Expansion help increase the value of and demand for Registered Jerseys?
Stronger markets for Registered Jersey genetics in general should come with Jersey Expansion. The more people who have Jerseys, the more opportunities breeders of Registered Jerseys will have to sell live cattle, embryos, and semen. 

The Jersey Expansion program will promote increased use of Registered Jersey semen. About 12.4 million units of semen were sold domestically during 1998, of which 11.5 million were from Holstein sires and 620,000 from Registered Jersey bulls. If Jersey Expansion encourages the breeding of 100,000 cows to Registered Jersey bulls, that could require a 25% increase in domestic semen production. This would create a larger market for well-bred Jersey young sires and proven bulls.

Continued growth in the customer base will insure future markets for replacement cattle and broad support for consignment sales.  Return to Top of Page

Could Jersey Expansion improve the value of and demand for my milk?
It might. Negotiating better prices for producer milk in the future will depend increasingly upon being able to organize high-solids milk. The more high-solids milk available in a given area, the easier it is to organize that milk and to reduce the cost to haul it to the manufacturing plant. If most of the dairies in your area produce average milk, it may be difficult to improve your milk price by moving to a better market. But if your neighbors upgrade their herds in order to produce higher solids milk, that strategy becomes a real possibility. Full loads of high-solids milk give a group of producers marketing clout.  Return to Top of Page

Is the Jersey association alone in offering such a service?
No. New Zealand and Denmark have for many years had similar programs which have been successful in encouraging dairy producers to upgrade their herds along a Jersey-sired line. Canadian producers can identify Jersey-sired animals through the National Identification Program (NIP).

In the United States, each of the other dairy breed organizations has a program to record cattle originating from other breeds. The Holstein Association adopted a “single, fully disclosed herdbook” in 1997. That system records all animals with ancestry from Registered Holsteins. Return to Top of Page