Former dairy farmer joins WWS
Former dairy farmer, Andrew Jones, has joined the World Wide Sires UK team as a breeding advisor for the counties of Dorset and Hampshire.
Andrew has experience beginning with his dairy farm near Frome in Somerset, taking in a National Diploma in Agriculture at Bridgwater College in Cannington, and including over a decade of farming in extreme conditions in the north and east of Australia where his successes included breeding the grand champion Holstein at International Dairy Week 2012, the third largest dairy show in the world.
Andrew and his family left the UK in 1998 after selling their herd and settling on a 300-head dairy farm in the far north of Australia.
After six years in this climatically extreme location - which experiences annual rainfall of 100 inches - the herd size had been increased to 600 head and Andrew had developed a keen interest in pedigree breeding, buying into and developing significant cow families.
Taking the decision to move away from the rain and towards the eastern seaboard, the family transported 500 head of cattle, including 200 milkers, on a 3,200km journey to a farm near Melbourne.
Under Andrew’s management, families such as the Roxys, Laurie Sheiks, Finesses, Daurels, Gails, Gaietys and Nonis were developed, the milking herd grew to 800 head and the family worked through the worst drought on record.
When Andrew’s cattle were finally sold in preparation for his return to the UK in 2008, headline prices included AU$33,000 for a two-year-old heifer - widely considered to be one of the finest Shottle daughters in the world - and AU$10,000 for her three-month-old Oman-sired daughter who ranked in the top 100 heifers in the world genomically.
The Shottle daughter - Page House Shottle Noni - went on to take the International Dairy Week championship in 2012, while both are now in international demand as bull mothers.
"We are absolutely delighted to have someone of Andrew’s calibre and experience on the team. His track record in breeding and farming world-class cattle in a diverse range of conditions is unsurpassed, and he will bring a breadth of knowledge and experience to our customers’ herds" UK sales manager, Marion Challenor said.
