KENNY Joe Manion is a medical doctor with a passion for breeding dairy cows, writes SIMONE SMITH

You would think up to 140,000 patients across three medical clinics would be enough to keep anyone busy.

US doctor Kenny Joe Manion would agree - after all, it is his day job.

But on top of this, he can also claim a US first when it comes to dairy cow breeding.

"Last year, I think I was the first owner and breeder in history to have the All American (national champion) in the age-cow class in three different breeds in the same year," he said.

"No one in the history of the US has done that before."

On top of this, Kenny Joe and his New View Swiss stud have the third most All American nominations in the history of the Brown Swiss breed.

More than 100 to date.

"We have had the national champion at World Dairy Expo on two occasions as well as the reserve national champion twice," he said.

"We have also had national champion in the Guernsey breed seven times."

Kenny Joe was in Australia to judge the Brown Swiss animals at International Dairy Week at Tatura last month.

Mixing cows with medicine isn't such a huge stretch for Kenny Joe.

When he was nine, he raised a Brown Swiss calf as part of a youth project.

His love for the breed grew from there.

He and four-year-old daughter Kelly Jo now have 300 registered Brown Swiss, about 60 head Jerseys and 60-70 registered Guernseys. Some of the Jerseys and Guernseys are owned in partnerships.

"As a medical doctor, my income level is such that I can afford to buy animals ... that maybe some people might not be able to afford or invest in," Kenny Joe said.

"But at the same time, I can have people help take care of the animals for me.

"I have a herd manager and a farm employee who helps feed the animals day-to-day since I can't be there myself."

Some parts of the breeding work, such as in-vitro fertilisation, also draw on his medical background.

"Obviously, the technology was developed in human medicine before it was ever used in cattle," he said.

"There is a technical side of it I'm comfortable with.

"Obviously, the vets I work with in doing our embryo work know that I have a certain degree of knowledge."

Kenny Joe has also led the charge with some technologically advanced breeding systems.

"I'm the first person in the US in the Swiss and Guernsey breed to actually use sexed semen in an IVF program," he said. "Actually, most other breeders followed suit after I had been doing it for about a year-and-a-half."

As for the medical side of his life, Kenny Joe completed an undergraduate degree in animal science and was planning to go to veterinary school, but was lucky enough to also be accepted into medicine.

Now he is in charge of three clinics - the largest, with 80,000 active patient charts at Glasgow in Kentucky and the smallest and newest in his hometown of Scottsville with 15,000-20,000 active patient charts - Kenny Joe still makes time for his farm.

"I only work about three days a week as a doctor. I do 12-14 hour days on those days," he said.

"Other days I am off (and) I am almost always working on the farm, supervising, doing embryo work, the breeding of the cows, mating of the cows and making sure health-wise they are all doing well."

Most of his cows are housed at Scottsville.

The production of his 100-120 Brown Swiss milk cows averages 10,433kg of milk per cow and the average classification of the herd is 89 points.

His Jerseys average 7257kg and the 50 head that have been classified scored 87 points.

The Guernseys produce about 7938kg with 50 classified at 86 points.

"I've always had a good eye for animals and have selected what I feel are really good type animals for the show ring," Kenny Joe said.

"That shows up, obviously, in how our success has been in not only showing Brown Swiss, but also in some of the partnership animals I have had in the other two breeds."

Given the choice of medicine or cows, what would he pick?

"I've always said that if I could only do one, I would do the cows," he said.

"I think showing cattle and breeding animals is something you have to love with a passion.

"If you don't have that passion to love the animals and what you are doing, you are not going to enjoy it."