He reinforced the value of herd recording and better returns from proven performance, even during tough times in the industry.
The noted auctioneer, famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of cow histories, joked with the Herd ‘21 crowd in Bendigo last month that he might have to slow his presentation down as he was more accustomed to selling from the podium, than giving an address.
Mr Leslie related stories from his early days on the family farm demonstrating the impact of herd recording.
“Dad started herd testing in 1962. We never stopped and I was testing until we stopped dairying in 2018.
“We did it every month and never missed and believe it was a major part of progressing our operation.
“In the mid-70s, you might remember cattle only making $10.
“The place next door became available and Dad was in his 30s and had no money. Because of the herd recording he had cattle that had information behind them.
“Dad sold a line of heifers for $300 and got us the deposit on that place.
“He always told us: no matter how bad things got you could never give away herd testing and you could never give away AI.
“If we never herd tested it would not have given us the cattle we had.
“Lot of herds didn’t test.
“Dad and my brother went off to a sale and they bought two. A bloke said one was no good.
“The cow that was supposed to be no good, she did over 300 kilograms, which was a fair bit back then.
“Herd testing tells you.”
Mr Leslie said they did not take enough notice of cell counts when they first came in, because factories were not paying more or less for it then.
“We had some old cows that we thought were great to have around and they were high cell count cows.
“We didn’t cull them until we realised, gee we have a cell count that is too high.
“My brother said we’d better take notice of what we’re herd testing for.
“We were culling cows that were classified Excellent because they had high cell counts and I can still see them going up the race.
“High production cows but notoriously high cell count and until we got rid of them, we didn’t fix it.”
Mr Leslie told a story about a farm neighbour in the 1970s who was offered $10,000 by a group of New Zealanders for a high production cow, solely because of the production figures.
“That was an enormous amount of money then, equivalent to $86,000.
“Don’t underestimate the value of herd recording.
“It’s all right to say a cow is good, but if they have the production data behind them, it is valuable to you.”
Mr Leslie is a co-founder of International Dairy Week and has judged in numerous other countries.
He now lives in Kialla, near Shepparton.
