The Australian Red cow — known for a long time as Aussie Reds — has undergone a name change and is undergoing a makeover.
Breeders of The Australian Red Dairy Breed met in January at Barham, southern NSW, for their annual general meeting and agreed to promote the name as registered, rather than the abbreviated and more well-known identity.
“It’s part of a strategic review we are undertaking, alongside developing a new strategic plan to address the industry contraction and its effect on breeds in the broader dairy industry,” said board director Paul Cocksedge, from Nerrena in Gippsland, Victoria.
“We think it’s time to re-identify ourselves,” he said.
“Australian Reds are the newest breed in Australia and evolved out of local Illawarra breeders introducing Scandinavian genetics.”
Membership growth is part of that strategy.
“The three-way cross including Australian Reds is very popular and we want to engage with the crossbred market,” Paul said.
“Up until now, a lot of the focus within our breed is on pure red genetics.
“We discussed ways to drive increasing membership and uptake of elite genomics.
“We also need to encourage more members to register cows and undertake classifications within their herd.”
The Australian Red Dairy Breed has benefited from a spike in funding from Agriculture Victoria that saw more herds genotyped.
DataGene CEO Matt Shaffer said AgVic increased funding to the Ginfo program to expand genotype testing from 100 to 160 herds, across all breeds in all states in Australia.
“We’ve now caught up on genotyping those additional samples, and Ginfo will continue to monitor the 160 herds,” Matt said.
“The funding from AgVic was specific to expanding the data base by genotyping calves and milking cows in the milking herd.”
DataGene is now back to normal business, genotyping cows already being milked.
Members from across most states, including north Queensland, attended the Australian Red Dairy Breed AGM.
The Victorian On Farm Challenge winners were announced.
Owen Simpson, from western Victoria, was announced the overall champion.
Sliding into second place was Leigh Verhey, from northern Victoria. Other finalists were Lee Kirkus, from Gippsland; Matt Hogan from western Victoria; and Patrick Morgan, from Gippsland.
The 2023 Australian Red Cow of the Year was announced — awarded to Fairy Vale 773, owned and bred by Terry and Shannon Blasche, of Simpson, western Victoria.
The top genomic heifer award was given to Leigh Verhey, of northern Victoria.
The top genomic bull award was given to Greg Goulding, of northern Victoria, for Arbskeeta.
The top registered Australian Red cow award was presented to Phil Stasiw, Mount Gambier.
The Graham family of Nowra, NSW, received the top current proven Australian Red Sire award, for Arbcygnet.
The Graham family also received the top BPI herd award, for their herd of Beaulands Australian Reds.
The new board was introduced, with Owen Simpson, from western Victoria, as chair, and Paul Cocksedge (Nerrena, in Gippsland), Kym Harrison (Queensland) and Brett Davies (western Victoria).
Meaghan Douglas retired from the previous board.
Farm tours were also part of the AGM.