Jo Stephens with some of her British White herd
Those of you following our facebook page will have seen that Victorian based agricultural newspaper Stock & Land did a follow up article on member Jo Stephens.
After subscribing to our newsletter, reporter Andrew Miller decided to produce a piece for Stock & Land. While the article covered much of the same ground as our ‘in the herd” item on Jo which featured in our January newsletter, it also delved a little deeper into her motivations and selection considerations for building a dairy-beef herd as a side line to their 450 head Holstein dairy operation. Digital subscribers of the ACM agricultural publications can read the article here.
For those without a subscription, key takeaways from the article were Jo’s:
- focus in selecting British Whites for their temperament, being good “doers”, and easy calving
- focus on breeding true to type with an intention to only register those animals meeting the breed standard and her breeding objectives. The culled animals would go to her proposed paddock-to-plate operation
- observation that being surrounded by helpful and knowledgeable fellow British White breeders and a supportive breed society has been integral to her experience.
We are very happy Jo chose British White cattle and can see their potential for the dairy industry and as a breed of merit in their own right in the paddock to plate sector.
