Little, brown, wrapped with a bow

MILBANK, S. D. — When he leaves the North Pole this year, Santa Claus will head to northeastern South Dakota first to pick up the best gift one lucky dairy enthusiast could receive: a feisty little Jersey calf.

Once again, Dairy Star is holding the annual Great Christmas Giveaway, and the most exciting prize will be a registered Jersey heifer calf from Victory Farms LLC in Milbank. The drawing will be held Dec. 9.

K&J Overalls Chica 76507 is a Rowleys 80 Caliban Overalls-ET daughter born Sept. 11. She hails from a pedigree worthy of shiny wrapping paper, tied up with ribbons and bows. The calf’s dam, K&J Dream-Maker Chica 70796-ET, is a young KCJF/Lucky Lady Dream-Maker-ET out of a VG-86 ISAU Cairnbrae Bontino daughter.

Chica 76507’s third dam is SVHeaths Tequila Chloe-ET EX-93, a Tower-Vue Prime Tequila daughter, that was named the 2021 American Jersey Cattle Association’s Reserve Junior All-American Senior Three-Year-Old and the All-Breeds Access Honorable Mention All-American Senior Three-Year-Old. In her best record, Chloe made 26,080 pounds of milk, 1,218 pounds of butterfat and 1,017 pounds of protein.

Chloe is a daughter of Elliotts Faxon Comical-ET EX-91, an ISAU Bushlea Faxon daughter of Arethusa Veronicas Comet-ET EX-95. Comet was the 2011 Unanimous ABA All-American Five-Year-Old. Comet is a Piedmont Nadine Furor daughter out of the Jersey breed’s queen, Huronia Centurion Veronica EX-97.

Veronica was the World Dairy Expo Supreme Champion in 2006 and Reserve Supreme Champion in 2004. She was also the WDE Grand Champion Jersey in 2005 and has two Reserve Grand Champion titles to her credit, in 2002 and 2007. In 2004 she was named the breed’s National Champion at the All-American Jersey Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

Victory Farms, a partnership between the Nuss, Orradre and Souza families, is currently home to 6,000 head of Jerseys and Jersey-cross cows.

Growth at nearby Valley Queen Cheese provided opportunity for the farm to grow as well, from 5,300 cows to an eventual herd size of around 6,400 cows, said managing partner Kevin Souza.

The farm has taken a 2-pronged approach to dairying, Souza said, utilizing in-vitro fertilization to drive genetic progress, while working with Select Sires Inc. to create potential males.

All animals at the farm are genomically tested to determine their merit. The top animals are flushed, both for replacement females and bulls. Beyond those animals, Souza said anywhere from the top 5%-10% of heifers based on Genomic Jersey Performance Index are bred with sexed semen to provide additional replacements. The remainder of the herd is bred to beef bulls to take advantage of that market.

“We’re putting embryos for two services in all the F1-crosses, milking cows and lower heifers,” Souza said. “After that we’re using beef semen. Our cutoff for putting embryos in heifers is anything with a GJPI under 140 gets an embryo.”

Souza works with a genetic advisor to mate the herd, both for replacements and bull calves.

“We’re looking to use the top 1%-2% of bulls in the breed,” Souza said. “We’re able to take advantage of some early release semen from Select Sires, too. We’ve got nearly 50 of the top 500 purebred Jersey bulls in their Green Book.” To continue increasing the genetic base of the herd, Souza said he has been purchasing IVF sessions from consignment sales.

“We’ve been concentrating on building pure Jersey families,” Souza said. “We’ve been working on making a bunch of polled and homozygous polled bulls and females. It’s kind of fun to watch the genetics expand and grow in the herd.”

As Souza’s grandchildren have reached the age of showing in 4-H, the family has begun investing in animals to breed show cattle from.

“They’ve got 10-12 milking females and maybe 15-20 heifers in their herd,” Souza said. “It’s a good thing to help other kids get their start with a nice animal that they can start to breed a herd from.”

Chica 76507 has her roots in that project and is bred by Kylyn and Jace Anderson.

In keeping with the same philosophy, the farm is sending three heifers, including two bred by the Anderson children, to the American Jersey Cattle Association’s Pot O’Gold Sale, Nov. 7 in Louisville.

The Pot O’Gold Sale is meant to provide youth the opportunity to purchase high-quality foundation animals. Purchasing is limited to junior members, ages 7-20, and each junior may purchase only one animal per year.

Providing opportunities for other youth to develop a herd is an endeavor Souza considers to be worthwhile.

“We have some nice-pedigreed heifers that will make great projects for some kids,” Souza said. “We’ve been able to invest in some good cow families, and we have been able to grow those genetics. Giving a young person interested in dairy farming the opportunity to grow their own herd is something that we think is pretty important.”