Paul Lenehan is considered a master when it comes to breeding Jersey cows, but his focus has always been grounded in commercial outcomes.
Earlier this year Paul was named as a Jersey Australia Master Breeder but he admits he never went looking for show success or awards, even though the honour was much appreciated.
“I’ve always been a commercial breeder,” he said.
“I like a good-looking type cow, but you’ve got to pay the bills. I’ve always chased production; not an extreme show cow.
“In a tough season like this, it pays to have well-bred cattle that continue producing when you put costly feed into them.”
Paul and his wife Lynette established Murray Brook Jerseys in 2000 at Crossley near Koroit, though the farm itself was started by Paul’s father Pat in 1946.
Paul and Lynette have retired into Koroit but their son Adam continues the business. Now aged 73, Paul makes daily trips to the farm and continues to hold the reins of the breeding program.
His love for dairying has never diminished and the family business continues to progress.
Last year they started running a second dairy on their long, thin farm which is linked by a leased property, and they added a sharefarmer, Lewis Ferguson.
The farm was milking 430 cows on one dairy but they aim to get up to 480-500 next year across the two dairies, with 140 heifers to calve this season.
The new dairy was needed to address the shape of the farm and the central leased link.
“The farm is really long and skinny and there was a lot of time walking cows,” Paul said. “Because of its shape, it needed two people to bring in the cows and milk.
“We have 70 acres of leased land in the middle and having two dairies means that if anything happened to the lease, we’d still have the option to keep most of the cows.”
The second block linked to the home farm through the leased land was purchased about 10 years ago and the dairy on it hadn’t been used for about 10 years before that.
“It had been out of action for about 20 years so we had to refit it all but that went well,” Paul said.
It’s a small dairy, 12-a-side double-up herringbone, and the existing main dairy is also a relatively small 18-a-side herringbone.
“We never had a rotary because of the lease land in the middle,” Paul said. “The home farm is 250 acres and it would be too costly to put a rotary on a 250-acre block.”
Paul was 14 when he started milking with his father and his focus from the start was on big, high-quality cows with strong production.
“I was always very keen on the breeding side of things,” Paul said.
“When the herd was registered in 2000, it was all home grown and I’d kept all the records over the previous 35 years, so we could do genetic recovery.”
Paul’s breeding goals haven’t changed much over time. “I love a big-bodied, balanced cow with high and wide rear udders so they fill up with milk,” he said.
“I’ve always wanted a big-bodied cow with capacity to eat a lot of feed and produce a lot of milk and she had to have a good udder to carry that and to last in the herd for a long time.
“One of the main comments I get when people come here is about the size of the cattle.”
Paul likes young cows to be a good size when they calve.
“If they’re too small when they calve, you’re forever trying to catch up,” he said.
“One of the main aims these days is to grow out the young cattle with heifers coming in around 450-kilos.”
The focus on quality has been reflected in the farm’s consistent platinum milk awards and high placings in the top 10 of national herd rankings. The cows produce a bit over 7000 litres with 620-640 kg/MS.
Over the past seven years, Paul fulfilled a long-held ambition to contribute bulls to the AI system, mostly from old cow families that have been on the farm for generations. He now has six bulls in AI, and the first to be selected, Shadow Man, set the scene for the stud’s success.
“His sales were huge and he has had good daughters and has been very positive with his traits,” Paul said.
The stud’s principal home-grown cow families include the Annie and Lyn families.
“I mainly stick with my own families but in recent years had bought in a bit of a mixture,” Paul added.
He has been genomic testing since 2015 and the whole herd is now tested, opening the door for export opportunities with 90 high-genomic heifers being sold to HRM Dairies in Pakistan over the past two years.
The local success as well as the exports show the value of registering and classifying cattle, according to Paul.
“There’s real value in registering cattle,” he said.
“You just have to look at clearance sales to see the difference when selling registered cattle. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity to export to Pakistan if they weren’t registered.”
Paul classifies all two-year-old daughters and says that also adds value.
“Without that you have no proof for type so it adds value to know where you’re going with your own herd and it assists the industry.”
In the early days, Paul used a lot of American genetics but now uses mostly Australian, reflecting his positive impressions of the Australian Jersey cow.
Although they added Holsteins several years ago, more recently they have reverted back to Jerseys, with only nine old Holsteins remaining.
“I still love the Jerseys and think they are more profitable,” Paul said.
“The kilograms of solids she can produce for her body weight is much better than a Holstein.”
Murray Brook farm also qualifies for Jersey Australia’s Five Star Jerseys classifications.
Although officially retired, Paul still visits the farm every day and enjoys checking things.
Breeding remains his number one passion.
“I do that with Adam and our consultant Amy Wright. We’ve always worked closely with Amy, especially if we’re looking at overseas bulls.”