DAIRY farmers are pulling together to help with plans to restore a leading herd that was devastated by the loss of more than 100 cows last month.
Philip Le Maistre, chairman of the Island’s Milk Marketing Board, said that farmers were working collectively with the organisation to help Woodlands Farm in St Helier.
Around 80% of the high-yielding ‘group A’ herd at Woodlands died over the course of a few days in mid-December, with the cause of the deaths still being investigated.
Mr Le Maistre said the plans focused on sourcing replacement animals from other Jersey herds.
He said: ‘You can’t import cattle to the Island, so we are looking at what surplus young stock can be provided from other dairy farms.
‘We are seeking to co-ordinate this with Woodlands Farm in order to match their needs – you need to have a spread of births across the year.’
In recent years some surplus cattle have been exported, Mr Le Maistre said, but the focus would now be on rebuilding the herd at Woodlands after around 5% of the Island’s total number of milking cows died last month.
‘We’ve spoken to quite a lot of people in the industry and we hope every farm will help out,’ he added. ‘We are a co-operative at the end of the day, and each farm has a stake in Jersey Dairy, so it is in all our interests to see Woodlands’ herd recover.
‘The support shown by farmers at the time of the incident last month was phenomenal – if there’s anything good that’s come out of this it’s that everyone has worked together and all committed to support each other and do everything we can to help [Woodlands] bounce back as quickly as possible.’
With cows usually having their first calf around the age of two, Mr Le Maistre said that realistically it was likely to be around two years before the Woodlands herd returned to its previous size.
It was estimated that cows at Woodlands Farm produced an annual average of around 7,600 litres of milk per animal, compared to an average Island figure of 6,000.
With the cow deaths still under investigation, officers from the government’s Natural Environment team are awaiting results of tests sent to a UK laboratory, while Jersey Dairy is working with the Le Boutillier family, who run the farm, and are waiting for the results of analysis of tissue and blood samples taken by a private vet.
