Dairy farm with nearly 150-year history of breeding Jersey cows selling up

Dairy farmers Debbie Mercer and Graham Smith will have an online herd dispersal sale on Tuesday, April 11. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

A dairy farm with a nearly 150-year history of breeding Jersey cows in the South is calling time and selling up. Dairy farmers Graham Smith and Debbie Mercer talk to Southern Rural Life’s Shawn McAvinue about the breeding of Jersey cows being in their blood.

A Southland dairy farm with a nearly 150-year history in the South is set to have its first and final sale.

Dairy farmers Graham Smith (62) and Debbie Mercer (65) will have an online herd dispersal sale on Tuesday, April 11.

“This is our life,” Mercer said.

Smith’s parents - Owen Smith and Beverley Hellyer - took over the Harbourside Jersey farm when his grandfather Herbert Hellyer died suddenly in 1970.

“For many years granddad purchased cows from Portis Bros’ Rainsbrook stud in Oamaru, milking then but not keeping up the registration paperwork.”

In 1971, his father - who was working as a mechanic at the time - changed that, he said.

“Our first pedigree cow Rainsbrook Orchid arrived and we were away.”

Genetics had been selected to gain more size and strength in the cows, more milk volume and udder texture, Graham said.

“My dad’s been gone 10 years now but I think he’d be quite happy with our cows today.”

His mother Beverley owned the farm, Harbourside-Owharoa Jerseys.

The Hellyer family had a rich history with the Jersey breed.

Phillip Hellyer moved from Jersey Island, near the coast of France, to farm on Otago Peninsula from 1874.

Debbie Mercer and Graham Smith hug 6-year-old Jersey cow Owharoa Odin Andelia, which is part of a herd on offer at an online clearing sale in Edendale. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

His son Frederick bought the first two pedigree jersey heifers for the family farm in 1904.

In 1921, an Otago Daily Times article reported Frederick importing an 18-month-old purebred Jersey bull from Canada.

The bull landed in Dunedin in “first-class” condition and “should add lustre to the already well-known high-producing butterfat and show ring records” of the Hellyer herd, the article said.

“The price is probably among the highest paid for an imported Jersey,” the article said.

In 1946, the farm shifted to the other side of Otago Harbour, to the Dunedin suburb Ravensbourne, when his parents took over in 1970.

Some of the milk from their farm was delivered in cans to Cadbury Fry Hudson in central Dunedin to make chocolate, Smith said.

Jersey cow Harbourside Viral Geneva is being kept on as a "special house cow". Photo / Shawn McAvinue

As the rates bill in Dunedin continued to rise, the family bought a farm in Edendale, moving about 75 cows and their replacements, mostly Jerseys, to Southland in 1987.

Mercer said her family also had a proud history, breeding Jersey cows in Waihi in the Coromandel.

“I was brought up with Jersey cows. My mother is 89 and she still goes to the cowshed every day to hose the yard down.”

The couple met when showing Jersey cows in the North Island in 1987.

Mercer moved to Southland in 1988 and the couple paid $10,000 for one of her family’s cows, Owharoa Lexs Annabelle, in 1994, introducing Owharoa genetics to Harbourside.

“There was no favours - we paid the whole $10,000,” Mercer said.

Now more than 110 cows were run on the Harbourside-Owharoa Jerseys dairy farm.

The farm was about 120ha - a more than 60ha home block and more than 50ha run-off block about 8km away.

A neighbour had bought most of the farm to extend his dairy operation and to grow some tulips.

A sign salvaged from Owharoa Jersey stud in Waihi, in the Coromandel district. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

“We got a fair price,” Smith said.

The couple had kept a house and nearly 1ha of the farm to live on.

Smith said they had also kept “a special house cow” - Harbourside Viral Geneva - which he would never sell.

“If someone offered me $1 million for Geneva I’d laugh. That animal is so chilled, she can nearly talk. She’s a freak, in 50 years I’ve never had one so good.”

Smith said his body was shot and he planned to rest in retirement but he would milk Geneva.

“I’ll still milk my cow at 4 am but I’ll be back in bed at quarter past.”

About 10 old cows, aged up to 18 years, which remained on-farm after they stopped producing milk, would be euthanised and buried on-farm to save them a stressful trip to the meat works, Smith said.

“They aren’t leaving Harbourside.”

The aim of the farm was never about chasing the biggest financial return possible.

“Some days there is more month than money but some things drive you beyond money.”

The 114 cows on offer at the auction were 66 Jersey cows, seven Ayrshire, Friesian and Friesian cross cows, 22 Jersey in-calf heifers and 19 Jersey rising one-year heifers.

An open day would be held on the farm between 10 am and 2 pm on Saturday.

Bids at the auction could be made on the online platform bidr from 6.30 pm on Tuesday, April 11.

Brian Robinson Livestock owner and sale organiser Brian Robinson, of Cambridge, said the herd had the capacity and ability to do big production, consistently producing on average up to 500kg of milksolids per cow and nearly 6000 litres of milk.

“There are cows that have produced over 40 litres of milk per day, not found often in the Jersey breed, cows that have been bred extremely well, been shown successfully, have lovely temperaments and will give much pleasure immediately and in the future.”