AlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 28,1983
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Clauss, Don Sherman, Phil Fanelli and Bill Ulrich look over
the Valley-U-milkers.
BY ROBIN PHILLIPS
Staff Correspondent
HAMBURG - “We have the
opportunity to see a lot of the first
daughters out of the new bulls
being sampled and can evaluate
the daughters and take the in
formation home and apply it to our
own herds,” explained Richard
Clauss, Hilmar, California. Clauss
is the President of Jerseyland
Sires, a group of Jersey breeders
milking over 5,000 cows in the
Hilmar area of California, and
proving outstanding young sires in
commercial herds.
Clauss, along with Phil Fanelli,
Don Sherman, and Duane
Wickstom, were on their annual
trip east to select cows to mate and
bulls to pasture with heifers for the
13 members of their organization.
Several Jersey herds in Berks and
Lancaster counties were honored
to host these noted Jersey breeders
on May 18 to see their cows and
exchange Jersey “bull in
formation” from coast to coast.
Hailing from Merced County,
California, these breeders have the
unique advantage of large num
bers of Jerseys in a localized area
where they can see many
daughters of one particular bull,
making it easier to evaluate and
prove a bull. The total number of
cows on test in this county is over
70,000 cows with the average herd
size around 400 miling animals.
Currently operating with 900 plus
cows on 2 dairies and 500 acres,
Richard Gauss maintains one of
the larger herds. Phil Fanelli, who
does most of the planned mating
selections and bull selections for
the group, operates with 380 plus
cows on 100 acres. Duane
Wickstrom, also on the board of
Jeresey Genetics/Car nation
Genetics of Hughson, California,
maintains 625 plus cows and Don
Sherman, a young dairyman,
works with 240 plus cows on his
dairy.
Herd averages are not sacrificed
m these large herds as evidenced
by the CDF Jersey herd of Clauss
pumping out a 12,400 lbs. plus of
milk and over 600 lbs. of fat
average, and the D and E Jersey
herd of Don Sherman pumps out an
average of 12,600 plus lbs. of milk
and 650 plus pounds of fat. Clauss
also pointed out that one member
of their group, Lloyd Stam,
Turlock, California has just
reached an average of over 16,000
lbs. of milk, 787 plus lbs. of fat
actual with his 130 Jerseys, and is
currently the second highest herd
out of all breeds m his county.
In explaining the start of this
annual tnp east, Clauss stated,
“We didn’t have the depth of
pedigree that was available here."
Most of the herds were all grade
animals until 1978 when the group
purchased 300 heifers from New
England. Up until that tune, beef
bulls were run with the heifers and
the first calves would be shipped
and a generation'lost. With the
introduction of the superior
registered heifers on the dairies,
these breeders saw a need for
registered bulls and their group,
Californians come East to see Jerseys
Jerseyland Sires, was formed.
They began to seek superior cows
to mate for their sires or above
average bulls to purchase from
across the United States.
(Turn to Page Al 9)
Helene Dreisbach, Doris Hough, Richard Clauss with Phil Fanelli in foreground look
over MilknHoney herd.
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