Passion for the Jersey breed leads to significant milestone for cattle club
On Thursday, members gathered at the Brokenshire family farm at Mount Compass for the presentation of the club's annual heifer competition awards.
Attendees at the presentation shared decades of experience in the dairy industry including one with a long involvement with the club - Peter Whitford.
Peter ran the Roslyn Vale Jersey stud at Myponga until 25 years ago.
He has since retired to Normanville but maintains his strong ties to the dairy community.
Peter owns two dairy farms at Myponga - one is leased to his daughter and son-in-law, Barry and Merridie Clarke, who are co-directors of Fleurieu Milk.
The other farm is leased to his daughter and son-in-law Mandy and Robert Brokenshire, who supply Fleurieu Milk, alongside their son Nick.
Peter has long had strong community ties - from being the former mayor of Yankalilla, the chairman of the Mount Compass Field Days and compering the cattle at the Royal Adelaide and Mount Pleasant shows.
He has fond memories of his time in the dairy industry and many highlights.
"When I had the Jersey stud I had the top production figures across any herd in Australia and New Zealand seven out of 10 years," he said.
Another highlight was travelling to New Zealand in 1982 with the sole purpose of buying a bull for $4500 - a fair amount in those days - and being part of seven invitational sales in Victoria in one year.
He said it had also been pleasing to see Fleurieu Milk grow from its base at a farm he used to run, to now being supplied by nine dairies and having 110 employees.
Peter loves being involved with the Jersey Cattle Club.
"The fellowship in the group is so strong, it's a really great community," he said.
"We all just love our cows and breeding them."
Other attendees were Rhonda and Kevin Watkins, who formerly ran the Kevron Jersey stud at Yundi.
Now retired, by the time they stopped milking in 2006, Kevin had racked up more than 50 years in the industry.
Rhonda served as the secretary of the Jersey Cattle Club for 25 years and said she had always loved being a part of it.
"At one point we had about 35 members and now we're down to about 20, but that's good considering Mount Compass/Yundi was a big dairy area and there's less dairy farms now," she said.
"What I love about the club is the people, they're very easygoing and everyone gets on. It's a great social outing, as well as a learning opportunity."
Rhonda said one of her highlights with the club was their 50-year anniversary event held at the Mount Compass Hall.
The club is now in the planning process for their 60-year anniversary event.
Brett Fiebig, of the Warrabell Holstein stud at Strathalbyn, was the judge of the club's heifer competition for this year.
"It was really good to see everyone's heifers and see the different styles of Jerseys out there," he said.
"They were all really well-grown-out heifers, especially considering they've been through a drought."
Moculta's Koch family were the big winners in the heifer competition, taking best group and a range of classes.
Further Information
By Paula Thompson | February 27 2026