Growing up on the Hasty River jersey stud, Ross Johnson was surrounded by good purebred jersey cows, the best being Hasty River Sultan Robyn. At age 14 Ross Johnson purchased his first pedigree jersey heifer, Seddonvale Libs Dolmay from Don Arnett’s dispersal.
She won several placings at the shows and got Reserve Champion in-milk at the New Plymouth show.
She also produced 310kg fat. Ross left school at the age of 18 and worked for his father for a year, then at age 19 went 50/50 sharemilking two farms up the road, where he stayed for six years.
Ross and Susan met in September 1987 and after a whirlwind courtship, the couple married the following June. Susan was a farmer’s daughter who had gone to work in town.
“I used to go to the Hawera A&P shows, across the bridge, turn left, go through all of the rides and all of the exhibits, turn around and go home,” she says.
“I didn’t even realise people showed animals until I helped Ross at the show in 1987!” The same year Ross and Susan married, a 35ha farm three farms down the road came up for sale, next door to Hasty River, so the couple snapped it up and moved straight in with their herd of 120 cows, made up of purebred jerseys and jersey crosses.
Daughter Nicole arrived in 1991, the same year the neighbouring 35ha property came up for sale. With the help of Ross’ parents, Ross and Susan bought it and also a herd of grade friesians to expand their operation to 70ha and 240 cows.
“We couldn’t afford to change the cowshed or reconfigure the farm to fit the increased number of cows, so we milked the two herds seperately through one 12 aside herringbone shed for the next eight years,” Ross says.
Their son Cameron was born in 1994. In 1999 they knocked out the shed to a 20 aside which saved them an hour and a half per milking.
By 2000, Ross and Susan had been periodically showing their jerseys and that year purchased their first pedigree holstein friesians from Neil Oldfield.
Ross says show results for the past several years have been very good. Their best cow, Tahora Goldwyn Latino Ex, is an eight year old pedigree holstein friesian who has taken out several championships.
She is Ross and Susan’s highest producing cow doing 750kgs milksolids the season before last.
Last season was a drought, but she still managed 680kg milksolids. “I only breed for type, I don’t believe in BW,” Ross says.
“If the type is right and you feed them, they will milk.” Ross and Susan have been embryo flushing for the past five years trying to get a few more heifer calves from their good cows.
This year they got eight embryos to hold with four heifer calves and four bull calves as the result. One of the heifer calves was from Latino by Sid, and she also had a heifer calf herself by Solomon.
While her brother is happy in Wellington working as an accountant for Deloitte, Nicole has been working on the farm with her parents since 2012.
She is a big fan of showing and has her own jersey cows in the herd. She is also in Australia several times a year helping exhibitors prepare their cows for the shows.
The Johnsons usually calve 110 holstein friesians and 130 pedigree jerseys, and make an average production of 100,000kgs milksolids from 70ha.
“It’s great to milk holstein friesians next to the jerseys,” Ross says. “The friesians give a bit more milk, and the jerseys have a higher fat test. All the milk goes into one vat.”
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Breeding, showing cows a family tradition
