Bignami was a friend of the Jersey cow and an esteemed breeder. I visited Brentwood Farms the day before GRADUATE’s genomic
test results were released and I fell in love with his dam. At the time, she was a beautiful young cow with a tremendous mammary system and she was making an impressive record backed by a strong pedigree. Five of GRADUATE’s six closest dams are scored Excellent, with the third dam scored Very Good (89%).
When the genomic results were released on Tuesday morning, I called Bob to talk about this impressive young sire that would soon be known as GRADUATE. Bob was excited for Select Sires to be involved but he had a vision for GRADUATE to be part of something
bigger. The young sire sold in the All-American Jersey sale in November of 2020 for $90,000 and $60,000 of that total was donated to the Jersey Youth Academy. The balance was used to help fund All-American events in Louisville, Kentucky. The buyer
was known as the Graduate Syndicate and an agreement was made for Select Sires Inc. to house and market the semen. Every unit of GRADUATE semen sold has a royalty, and to-date more than $60,000 in royalty money has been returned to the syndicate owner.
Some of those also chose to have their royalty returned to the Jersey Youth Academy, so the fund continues to grow.
Jersey Youth Academy was established in 2008 by the American Jersey Cattle Association Board of Directors to help motivate and educate dairy youth who are high school juniors through 22 years of age. Since its inception, there have been eight classes
of talented, young Jersey enthusiasts and Select Sires Inc. has hosted each class for a half day of tours, networking and educational opportunities from nearly every department. As an organization, we believe it’s paramount to support our
industry’s youth and encourage their professional and personal development. There is no doubt that Jersey Youth Academy is making a tremendous impact on the future of the dairy industry and Select Sires is proud to work with Academy graduates
including Tyler Boyd, general manager of Jerseyland Sires, Brad Barham, regional manager for Premier Select Sires, Carly Meyer, dairy program specialist for Select Sires Member Cooperative and Skylar Buell, communications specialist at Select
Sires Inc.
If you know of youth with a passion for Jersey cattle, please visit www.usjersey.com for more information.