Continuing with the Fleckvieh theme, below are pictures of some of the Fleckvieh cross calves arriving on my farm, all from Swedish Red X dams.

One thing that’s been puzzling me is some of them don’t seem to have inherited the white face i was expecting. With all of my Montbeliarde  sired calves, they always come with the trademark white head which i have become accustomed to. This can be useful as it helps me identify which breed they are when its time to inseminate them.

The calf in the first picture demonstrates one that arrived with a white face, and the last 3 pictures are of Fleckvieh crosses with no white face. They are all by the Austrian Fleckvieh bull Wille. Seeing the white faced Bavarian Fleckvieh crosses in Lance’s post, it got me wondering if the Austrian Fleckvieh wasn’t as ‘pure’ as the Bavarian. Perhaps there is some Brown Swiss or another breed in the ancestry which is diluting the dominance of the white face gene.

I’m the first to admit i know very little about the Fleckvieh breed. So i would be grateful if someone could shed some light on this?

Of course non of this really matters, its just got me asking questions.

BonJovi daughter

There is a new option for fans of the Red breeds in the United States.  Taurus Service now offers Aussie Red bulls from Genetics Australia (along with a selection of Holstein and Jersey bulls).  I’ve always been aware of the Aussie Red breed but have not had the opportunity to use any due to the lack of availability.  From Australia, I have used Illawarra bulls like Panorama Royal Treble but with a lot of the Illawarra bulls you will have a much higher percentage of Holstein blood.

I’ve grabbed some points from some literature to give a little background on the Aussie Red:

• The Aussie Red Breed, is an unique pod of primarily Scandinavian Dairy Genetics, bred in the Southern Hemisphere, proven to excel in pasture based grazing systems.
• The Breed objective is to produce profitable high production feed efficient, healthy, easy care dairy cows, that can perform in a diverse range of production systems.
• The Aussie Red also has zero or minimal Holstein content.

Also from the Australian Red Dairy Breed web page are some interesting words in the ARDB Progeny Test Policy:

• During recent years the ARDB Progeny Test Committee has endeavoured to concentrate on selecting young bulls with the least possible amount of Holstein bloodlines. The reason for this is the rapidly increasing demand for Red Genetics in cross breeding programs, with the requirement that these genetics should be as diverse from the other breeds, such as Holstein, Jersey and more recently Montbeliarde as possible. This trend to maximise hybrid vigour in many large dairy herds, is driving the popularity of genuinely genetically diverse Red Dairy Cattle.

With a little background on the breed, looking through some sires will bring up some familiar names for those of us that have followed Nordic Red bulls.  Orraryd, Botans and B Jurist are some bulls that show up in pedigrees, among others.  Being that I’m not the type to shy away from something new, I ordered semen on three different bulls to start.  Of the semen I ordered, the majority is from the bull BonJovi.  BonJovi is an Orraryd out of a Torpane dam and from everybody I’ve talked to is the Aussie Red bull that comes highly recommended.  His production proof has 112 daughters and type proof has 37 daughters.  His production proof shows him siring excellent components and his health and fertility traits are all above average.   Mammary systems also appear to be a strength though the reliability isn’t all that high on the type proof.  But with Orraryd being the sire, it’s not all that far fetched that he’d sire decent udders, is it?

Lippman Daughter

Other bulls that will fill out my order are Lippman and Lex.  Lex is another Orraryd son while Lippman is a T Moberg son.  Lippman will sire lower stature than the Orraryd sons while all three bulls I’ve selected come with good mammary system scores.

So what’s the scoop on the Aussie Red?  The tendency is to want to compare the different flavors of Red, whether it be from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, or now Australia.  With Sweden, Finland and Denmark now merged into one entity called the Viking Red and increased cooperation between all Red breeding programs, the comparisons are shortly becoming moot if they are not already.  Differences largely come down to individual bulls.  I’ve milked Red daughters from enough countries now where I feel I can pick and choose bulls from any country and come out more or less the same.  Reliability will always be a factor  and it’s hard to argue with the reliability of the test programs in the Nordic countries.  When it comes down to it, the Aussie Red won’t displace Viking or Norwegian Red from my program but it will serve a complimentary purpose.  I don’t see how having more choices is a bad thing, except when it comes to creating room in my semen tank!

August proofs are here and I thought I’d start by putting out a list of Montbeliarde bulls that have US daughters on their proofs.  If you haven’t checked out Accelerated Genetics’ new search function, I’d highly recommend it.  The person in charge of programming the function is taking feature requests on Cowtalk.  About an hour after I requested the ability to sort Montbeliarde, Swedish, and Norwegian Red bulls out into separate groups, the feature was implemented.  Big props to Daniel for creating what I believe to be the most comprehensive and user-friendly bull search function to date.

Over the next few days I’ll also post Swedish and Norwegian Red lists but for starters, here are the Monty’s:

(Montbeliarde proofs are reported on Holstein base with hybrid vigor included)

In March of 2011 I highlighted my top ten heifers by net merit dollars.  For a rundown, this was my top ten:

With all these heifers now in milk, I thought it would be interesting to see how they have performed.  Not really to prove any point, more to satisfy my curiosity.  There are numerous problems that could be pointed out by looking at this but let’s do it anyway. (Note: production deviations are within my herd and are mature equivalents)

The top cow on the heifer list currently ranks #4 among milking cows in my herd for NM$.  She is a Freddie granddaughter of 2013 Crossbred Cow of the Year, 1449 from her B-Jurist daughter.  She is above average for my herd in terms of production deviations, but not overly so.  A mediocre somatic cell count and some foot problems plagued her in her first lactation but she is turning in a decent second lactation.  She’s a decent enough cow but the jury is still out whether she can measure up to her grandmother.  Her B Jurist dam did not and was culled this year.

2577 has some nice production deviations from first lactation but a twisted uterus and a tough transition into second lactation will likely limit her production this time around.  2492 is a pure Holstein Freddie daughter that I actually consider to be a disappointment.  The numbers look fine but her poor udder will likely limit her as she gets older.  2526 and 2311 are half-sisters.  2526, the Safir daugher, gets higher marks for her production and both are very fertile with average days open in the 80′s.  2605, the grey and white Swedish Red X Holstein cross has been pretty mediocre in most aspects though she gets pregnant in a timely manner which usually manages to keep a cow around.  Rounding out the bottom of the top ten, 2546 is an Arbelunda which don’t really milk all that well in the first lactation but I believe will make good aged cows. 2316′s deviations are hurt by her having twins this year several weeks early before she was able to build up her udder into milking mode.  2596 may well be my favorite Freddie daughter, but we shall see what her second lactation brings.

While we don’t really learn much from this, it’s interesting to me nonetheless.  I’d say there were some hits and misses on the list while others are too early to tell.  The NM$ figure I cite is not from genomic testing and I definitely would not use it to make culling or any other decisions on any animals.  One of my favorite, and best cows, the Montbeliarde X Holstein 2076 has a NM$ figure of -28 even with herd production deviations of +4863, +265 and +226 for milk, fat, and protein.  The simple reason being that her sire is not recognized by the system.

So who is my current leader among heifers for net merit dollars?  Once again the 1449 family takes the top spot, this time from a much better branch of the family.  3347 is an O-Style from a Plumitif daugher of 1449.   The Plumitif I photgraphed here.  I do have a feeling that when my Supersire daughters are born that they will take their place toward the top of the list.

Just wanted to post a few pictures of some first lactation cows.

ProCross Rapallo (Monty) X Peterslund (SR) X Holstein

Masolino (Monty) X Rocket (Jersey) X Holstein

Wonderment (Brown Swiss) X Peterslund (Swedish Red) X Holstein

Gabor (Holstein) X Plumitif (Monty) X Brazo (Jersey) X Holstein

Velsvik (Norwegian Red) X Action (Jersey) X Holstein. This is my first milking Velsvik daughter.

Kanoo (Jersey) X Jackson (Holstein) X Peterslund (Swedish Red) X Paramount (Jersey) X RC Marshall (Holstein). This cow gave me a Foske daughter that is the completion of two rotations in a three-way cross.

Pure Holstein, on it’s way to endangered species status on my farm. Super X Pronto X Finley. Needed a c-section to get her first calf out. I’ll keep her pure if I manage to get her pregnant again.

After finally discovering this great blog two months ago, and reading all the way back to the first post, I have one question; where have you guys been all my life!? It is very refreshing to share experiences and exchange ideas with dairymen (and women) from around the world, who are similarly confused and convinced about the merits of crossbreeding dairy cattle!

I would like to share my story and some pictures of my cows with you today.

My wife Miriam and I farm near Brunner in Midwestern Ontario, Canada which is about an hour and a half west of Toronto. We were both born and raised on dairy farms in the Netherlands, but couldn’t find enough room and opportunity there to start farming for ourselves, and decided to move to Canada in 1989 and try our luck here. After working as herdsman and herdsmanager at several dairies, we started with some grain fed red-veal calves on our own on the side. Later we bought a farm with old hog barns, converted these to veal, and I worked as a relief milker as well. After a back injury I was in rough shape for a while and started working for AI company GenerVations as a sales rep, basically having given up the dream of ever milking our own cows. However, after a few years my back was slowly getting better, and we built 8 tie-stalls in our barn, bought 8 holstein cows and fed the milk to the veal calves. A year later the veal market went for a dump, we decided we had had enough of it, and we bought milk quota and a very small bulk tank for the 8 cows, and shipped our first milk in summer 2001. Slowly over the years we bought more cows and quota, scaled back my sales job on the road, changed the barns over step by step, and now have about 45 cows and 45 youngstock in freestall barns and a single 7 herrinbone milking parlour.  We grow most of our own feed on our 86 acre farm. I quit my job 5 years ago to farm full time. My wife still works part time off the farm as a bookkeeper. She is very important on the farm though; she feeds the calves, and writes the cheques.

My start in crossbreeding came from a different angle than most people. While working for GenerVations which imports semen from many breeds (but mostly Holstein)from all over the world to Canada, we also got Coopex Monty in our program. Some immigrant farmer customers had heard about the results in Europe and ordered semen. Very interesting they were extremely happy with the results, but when I asked them what they liked so much about them, they would shrug, and say things like “problem free”, “they are so easy to work with” or “they manage themselves” and comments  like that.

Frustrated with the continuous barrage of problems with my own Holsteins, I had tried a bit of crossing with Brown Swiss and Jersey, but was disappointed. With BS cross I got even more milk than my Holsteins, but all I had changed was the hair colour, the cows acted the same; they tried their hardest to turn all their body fat into milk as soon as possible after calving, and with the slightest change of wind or whatever challenge they seemed to have no strength left to fight. Negative energy balance and (subclinical) ketosis can sure impair the immune system of an otherwise healthy cow!

When I had the chance opportunity to purchase two fresh purebred Montbeliarde heifers (out of imported Coopex embryos), I bought them, mostly out of curiosity. I actually wanted to buy only one, the other was too beefy to my liking, but Dave insisted I buy both of them and also the heifer calf out of one of them. Am I glad he pushed me to buy all 3. After I got them home, that same night they had established themselves as the boss cows in the herd and were the first in the parlour the next morning! None of that nonsense of keeping your 2 year olds in a seperate group, to protect them from being pushed around. And so my love affair with the monty breed started. This was the cow that I wanted; strong powerful, they milked well, with good components, low cell counts, calved easy, bred back at first insemination and above all, they looked after themselves with no problems at all. All the benefits of heterosis!?. But wait a minute, there wasn’t an ounce of hybrid vigour in these cows! They were pure fullbood Montbeliardes! Now if I like the pure monties that much, then they should be even better when crossing with my Holsteins. After all there really was only one thing that I wanted to change most in my Holstein cows; get them to back off a bit in the first month fresh, and instead of pumping milk without eating enough, get eating first and then turn up the milk production next. Breed a cow whose feed intake and milk production was in balance with each other, with a strong “will to live” that didn’t get over-ruled by an out of hand “will to milk-at-all-cost”. And then add a healthy dose of Hybrid vigour to boost. Most benefits of the montbeliarde breed are, in my opinion, secondary, and caused by this improved energy balance in the cow, self-managed transition period and her better functioning immune system.

Unlike most other crosses, which seemed to rely on heterosis to make the cross work, now I could actually improve what is IN the genes (Monty diesel power), in addition to what is BETWEEN the genes (heterosis). So my plan was to get a white face on all my cows, and go for the complete Montbeliarde absorption cross, get a uniform herd, so I could simplify my management style accordingly.

We like to graze in the summer half of the year, but have found it tricky to do it right in our climate. So I have settled for “hybrid-grazing”, supplementing with a high-forage-TMR in the barn. Herd production (2x milking) averages around 29-30kg(64-66lbs) shipped per day, with 4.15% fat and 3.57% protein year-round, with components a little lower in summer and higher in winter months. DHI 305ME is at 23577 lbs milk, 974 fat and 796 protein for you Americans, or 202-226-218 BCA if you understand the Canadian system. Of course no rBST used in Canada. My goal is to keep  average production around that 30kg, with the highest possible components, and the lowest cost of production. We get paid only for kgs milk solids here, so milk volume itself is not that important.

Reproduction has been exceptional with the monties; conception on first breeding is at 80% and we now have the luxury of calling any cow that needs a second service a “problem breeder”.  Let’s hope it stays that way. Somatic cell count average is 190,000.

Time to put up some pictures; the first one is the cow that started it all for me, #86, we called her the “Alpha Monty”(Sire Faucon). Pictured here as a 4 year old, she is one of the original pure Montbeliarde embryo cows. She was the absolute Alpha cow in the herd, nobody ever dreamed of challenging her. Where she went, everyone followed (can be good and can be bad when you are grazing!) A year after I bought her, I was sent to France to check out the Coopex show. One of the daughter groups shown was from the hot new sire Redon, they announced that his granddam was a cow named Harmonie. That sounded familiar, I asked Stephane about it, he said it was probably a different Harmonie. A week later back home I looked up the papers, and sure enough; my Alpha Monty was a maternal sister to Redon’s dam!  Her “worst” lactation for cell count was at 56,000, and her final, last DHI test scc was 11,000 at 9.5 years of age. She gave me daughters by Masolino, Micmac and Urocher, all of them still in the herd, but she is gone herself now. All except one lactation, she bred back on first service, I tried flushing her too, but didn’t have much luck there. I keep all my pure monties pure, there is a big demand for their bull calves, every single one had been sold for breeding.

Next two pics are my oldest crossbreds. #39 is in her 5^th lactation now, Masolino (Monty) x Tulip (Holstein), she started out as a barely average sized heifer (like most monties), and now is the biggest cow in the barn, she is exceptionally long (almost too long) in body and neck. Just fresh here 7 days, starting to get going, milking 40kg (88lbs). Still has some swelling in the udder, which is somewhat unusual, most of my monties get very little udder oedema, they start nice and easy, don’t blow their bags. The front right quarter got a little light 2 years ago for no apparent reason. Last year’s production; 305d 25,574lbs with 4.2%fat and 3.5% protein. BCA 234-262-259.

#41 is a Nucleon (Monty) x Ayrshire x Holstein, one of the most balanced cows in my barn, 4^th lactation, here 265DIM, milking 33 kg (73lbs). 305day projected: 25,060 lbs, 4.9%fat and 3.6% protein. BCA 209-275-239. By the way, that Nucleon bull is still the number 1 Montbeliarde in France for Herd Life at 2.5 today. Should have used him more. I have a nice Nikos (Mo)daughter of her in second lactation.

Next up are two heifers, both sired by Urocher. 106, the black one, is 75% monty, 25% Holstein, 185 days in milk, milking 29kg (64 lbs). The red one, 107, is a purebred Montbeliarde out of the other French embryo cow, Bella. Bella’s family is shorter stature, and a bit more on the beefy side, but combined with Urocher this makes for a nice dairy heifer, I think. I had a very nice Micmac sister to her,  but she only gave me 4 bull calves.  Bella stems from the same family as another French number 1 ISU bull; Odislait. #107 is 219 DIM here and producing 27 kgs (60lbs).

The next 2 pictures are opposites; #76 is a 2^nd lactation pure Montbeliarde (Masolino x Lecuyer x old Bella) producing 24kg (53lbs) at 316 days in milk, and due again in 7 weeks. I use a 6 week dry period. In the other picture you see one of my 2 remaining pure Holsteins, #1688, picture speaks for itself. Third lactation, 145 DIM, 28 kg milk (62lbs). Almost extinct, severely endangered species. The other Holstein I have left, is a nice one, I like her, but that is the way it has always been; I always say that I really like Holsteins, I really do. Except for half of the Holsteins in my own barn, and those seem to have a revolving door relay-tag team going; when one leaves, another takes over causing trouble. To their defence, life is not really fair to these last few Holsteins. With the herd now 90% monty sired, I have changed management, and reduced grain and concentrates amounts in the TMR considerably. They also have to compete with the much stronger monties. #1688 was dry for 9 weeks (she just quit milking), and after a week in the dry cow pen, I had to save her life and put her back with the milk cows, she was getting pushed around and beat up by those much smaller crossbred heifers (20-25 months) in the dry cow group. This has happened to a few more Holstein cows already.

#94 second lact. Theve (Mo) x Holstein. She is 10days fresh in the picture and very much in heat all day. Right on schedule, the way every cow is supposed to be. Theve is the one Montbeliarde bull, that I wish I would have not used. Of his 6 daughters this is the only one left, I sold one for dairy, and the others seemed to attract trouble any chance they got. They acted just like Holsteins, but with a white face. I use Montbeliarde to put a bit more fight in my cows, but like my Holsteins, these were quitters, not fighters.

#124, Nikos (Mo) x Holstein, 2 year old, fresh 37 days, just starting to get going for real. Usually these 2 year olds don’t “peak” until the 3^rd or 4^th month in lactation. Everytime one is fresh, you wonder whether they will milk enough, and everytime one goes dry, you are amazed at how much they secretly produced in total, even more when you count the components. Their lactation curve is not shaped like a declining slope, but more like a hip roof barn. And you can store a lot more hay under a hip roof, than under a steep, high peaked church style roof. Same goes for milk in a lactation. And not having the high peak sure makes it easier on the heifer and on the farmer!

#96 second lactation pure Montbeliarde, Micmac x Faucon (Alpha Monty) 29 days in milk, 39kgs (86 lbs). She is a big cow, and had a full brother who was sold to a 70 cow herd near Norwich, Ontario. He has had quite an impact there, leaving a very uniform group of strong, nice uddered, high producing crossbred daughters. He was used over mostly Holstein cows with some Ayrshire influence there.

#91 Bel-Air (Mo) x Holstein. Fresh 95 days in second lactation, milking 49 kgs (108lbs). Bel-Air was a full brother to my old Bella cow, he left some high producing daughters, but never got a proof.

#102 another Bel-Air x Holstein. Also 2^nd lact, 38DIM, producing 40 kgs (88 lbs). This cow has the same problem as the 3 generations Holsteins before her; she has soft, poor quality hooves. You hear so many times that Monties have such great feet and legs. I agree that they have better legs, better rumps, central thurl placement, and definitely better locomotion, and for sure they keep walking and keep eating, when they have a foot problem. All this helps keep a foot problem from turning into a problem cow a few days later. But I have a couple of cow families with this poor hoof issue, and the Montbeliarde has not made the hoof health worse, but hasn’t fixed it either. For cows like this, and greatly influenced by all you guys writing on this blog, I have decided to change my plan from a complete Montbeliarde absorption cross to include some Viking Red and go for the Procross on these families. Hopefully that will harden those hoofs up a bit.

Next 2 pics are both Redon (Mo) x Holstein 2year olds. #110 is 127 DIM milking 33 kgs (73lbs) and #114 is 142 days, producing 30 kgs (66lbs)

#109  first lactation Masolino (Mo) x Micmac (Mo) x Holstein 175 DIM 33kgs (73 lbs)

#51 fourthlactation Masolino x Holstein, 18 days fresh, currently at 41 kgs (90lbs) Last year 305 days, 23,250 lbs with 4.4% fat and 3.6% protein, 219-262-245 BCA

#118 pure Montbeliarde heifer, 43 DIM, milking 26 kgs (57 lbs). She is Alpha Monty’s youngest daughter by Urocher. Behind her with the ugly three teater udder is a Plumitif (Mo) x Sam (BS) x Holstein in third lactation 114 DIM, milking 42 kgs (93 lbs) That family also has the poor hoof quality problem. The Brown Swiss didn’t help either.

#72 Plumitif x Holstein – 3^rd lactation; Not all Plumitif’s have deep udders!

Valentino

Every year around this time I re-evaluate my breeding program.  In late September of 2011, I made a significant change in that I would no longer be breeding pure Holsteins to pure Holstein bulls.  I had been crossbreeding Holstein heifers and old cows while breeding them pure in between.  The other change was significantly increasing the usage of what I consider to be ‘strength’ breeds.  In this category I place Montbeliarde, Fleckvieh, Milking Simmental, and Normande.

One area that I have not introduced the use of any strength breeds is with my heifers.  That’s not to say that it can’t be done!  There are numerous examples of people out there that successfully utilize these breeds on heifers.  So why don’t I?  The answer is pretty simple, I still love my Jersey crosses too.  The Jersey breed is not without its warts but there are some significant positives to the breed and the negatives can be selected around, for the most part.  Sire calving ease is the one trait that it would be hard to argue that any breed can top the Jerseys.  So it only makes sense that I utilize Jersey in my heifer program to capture the benefits of calving ease where it’s most useful.  After sitting down, I came up with the following Jersey bulls to use in my heifer breeding program (note: all bulls are from Select Sires or Genex because I hire technicians from those companies to breed my heifers):

ALL LYNNS LOUIE VALENTINO-ET - Hailing from the famous ‘V’ family just up the road from me in Reedsburg, WI, I’ve held off on using Valentino up to this point.  The Louie (especially) X Paramount X Abe pedigree made deep udders almost a given with Valentino.  Deep udders are a major concern when crossbreeding with Jerseys.  Valentino has 246 daughters on his type proof that says he actually sires shallow udders (+1.60).  So I’ll give him a whirl.  His poor daughter pregnancy rate (-1.5) doesn’t really concern me.

CHASIN-RAINBOWS ACT RILEY-ET - This bull is an old standby that I will continue with.  Udders won’t be a problem with Riley daughters and I view him in the same mold that I view his sire, Action.  They probably won’t milk much in the first lactation but will make very productive mature cows and their udders won’t be dusting the ground below them at six years old, much less three years old.  Rocket was another bull that made cows like that.

SUNSET CANYON DIVIDEND-ET - This bull is a young sire by the aforementioned Valentino.  His genomics say he is similar to Valentino.  Will it stay that way?  Perhaps.  From Genex, the bull Plus had been my go-to bull but his supply is apparently limited.  I’ve been using him for quite a while as my first daughter recently freshened.   Dividend is the next genomic Jersey bull I will roll the dice with.  I’m pretty sure I came out well with using Plus.

BOYD-LEE T BONE BRUNO - Strictly cleanup.  He breaks my udder depth rule but sometimes when you want to create a pregnancy rules can be bent or broken and my technicians have certain bulls they reach for when creating a pregnancy is the goal.  Matinee was another bull that broke every Jersey crossbreeding rule in the book that I would let my technicians use in circumstances that warranted it.  Bruno does have the benefit of being a T Bone son and I’ve been very satisfied with my T Bone daughters.

One other place where I will utilize Jersey bulls is on my few remaining Air Raid daughters.  With a 17.9% daughter stillbirth rate, it’s important to afford these cows the best chance at delivering a live calf.  And I’m proud to report that I recently had an Air Raid daughter deliver Jersey sired twins where one of them was actually alive.

It’s interesting how my breeding has changed over the past few years.  I’ve made it known that at one point nearly 5 years ago I was trying to rid the herd of crossbred genetics.   I therefore split the herd data into strings so my xbreds wouldn’t pull down the averages of my Holsteins.  It was that splitting of the herd where I saw the data supporting crossbreeding.  Better repro, a much better cull rate, similar SCC, and good income over feed costs.  Early on I was breeding to have marketable registered Holsteins, maybe even put a bull into a proving program.  But I soon saw that I was one of many doing the same thing.  As I turned my breeding program towards crossbreeding and eventually 100% crossbreeding, I’ve stopped keeping pure animals.  Currently my youngest pure Holstein is around 10 months old.  I have no plans at the moment to keep any pure animals other than my few Jerseys.

But that could change a little.  As I mentioned in the comments from another post, two bull studs have interest in a cow of mine and would like to genomic test any bulls that I get out of her.  The cow is a Massey x Rolex x Bond.  Except for the Massey, not a sire stack you’ve see.  She must have been on some list for high production index’s which got the attention of Genex.  The genomic test for #760:  612 LNM$, 734 CM$, 647 milk, 68 fat, 45 pro, 3.2 PL, 1.7 DPR.  The genomic linear is STA -.5, STR .7, BD -.1, DF -.5, RA -1.9, TW 1.4, LS -.5, LR .9, FA .3, FLS 0.0, FUA 1.6, RUH 1.4, RUW 1.3, UC -.6, UD .9, FTP -.1, RTP -.2, TL -.3.  Basically if a proven bull had those numbers I’d be tempted to use him.  I want short animals with strength but with low dairy form (conditioned).  I plan to use Dugout on her but am talking to the second stud this week.  Below is her Foske daughter born in late July.  To the right is a red and white Tosikko (SR) x Bolton.  The brownish red calf is a Critic-P (JE) x Marine-Red x B Jurist x HoJo

Another monumental change to my breeding is that I’m working on going seasonal.  I don’t know that I’ve mentioned it before except maybe on twitter.  There are some benefits and drawbacks that certainly need to be ironed out.  At this point I don’t believe I can keep a 100% spring calving herd with the genetics I have so I am working on both spring and fall calvings.  This spring and early summer I got aggressive with the breeding and bred everything that was 30 days in milk or longer by July 19th.  July 19th services result in calves in late April.  That wouldn’t be my ideal time to calve in cows for a seasonal window, but I wanted to try to pull more cows into a spring window instead of letting them go to fall calving.  Since July 19th I’ve been breeding open cows and stopped breeding them last week.  I stopped breeding heifers this week.  I’ll break until November and then start breeding again which will result in September calves.  I hate calving cows during the summer because there are usually more problems.

The numbers for 2014 spring calving are just about complete except for those cows bred after July 19th.  For now I have 54 cows calving from January 1st to April 30th.  I had wanted 60 animals calving in that period but recently culled two pregnant that would have calved in that period.  I also lost 4 pregnancies that were due at that time.  I check cows as early as 26 days after service and lost pregnancies are a little more common for me than farms that check pregnancies at 35-40 days.  We also had some really hot days in July which didn’t help either.  Conception rates were 40% for April, 46% for May, 50% for June and dropped dramatically to 22% for July because of the heat.  When I geared up breeding in April, I chose some high conception bulls lake Braut, Artistic, and Joskin.  Royal Holl did well too.  However, I used Braut and Artisitc heavily in July and they didn’t do as well as the earlier months which was the case with any bull.  Below is the Critic-P heifer mentioned above, she is not polled.

In the next few years I plan to go with spring and fall calving.  Spring calving will be January 1st to early April, fall will be September 1st to late October.  When I’m confident that my breeding is good enough and I have enough animals calving in my spring window I’ll stop breeding for fall calves.  I’ll also tighten that spring window as much as I can.  I’ve almost always selected positive DPR bulls but now daughter fertility will be the most important trait in my service bulls.  I’ll also have to place more emphasis on body condition for my grazing cows.  As I mentioned above, body condition is linked to low dairy form.  What breeds I use will come into factor as well as what order I use them in.  I still plan on using Holstein x Jersey x Viking Red but I want to see how the Normande and NZ genetics do.  I’ve found that while Holsteins and Jerseys aren’t the best for condition when pure, crosses out of the two seem to hold condition better.  I’ve been very happy with the condition on my Viking Red’s including all the B Jurist cows I’ve calved and my Motroen-P heifers like the one pictured below at 10 month old.

• Watching the number of Holsteins in my herd has been interesting this year.  In January, we had 201 Holsteins in milk and today we are down to 163.  Currently, 70% of my first lactation cows are crossbred.  For heifers 12 months and older, that number rises to 87%.  Then it really changes for calves less than 12 months old.  234 out of 236 are crossbred.
• The Swedish Red X Holstein seem a little sluggish on production but there is an explanation.  We do have a lot of Swedish Red X Holstein heifers entering the milking herd.  The rest are all pretty old cows, with nothing really in between.  21 out of the 35 Swedish Red X Holsteins milking are first lactation.  There will be 16 more coming in the next 9 months and of course plenty of three-way crosses sired by Swedish Red.  My first two Gunnarstorps are now milking.
• Norwegian Red sired animals are gaining in numbers.  When comparing Swedish and Norwegian (or any country’s version of Red) I really have no opinion which is best.  What I can tell you is which bulls I’ve liked best and I find the best bulls are not isolated to one country or one testing program.
• The Jersey X Holstein group looks great for production.  They also don’t have many first lactation cows deflating their numbers.  Only 11 out of 68 HoJos are first lactation.
• There are a few new combinations this time around.  Brown Swiss X Swedish Red X Holstein being one.  Don’t confuse that with Swedish Red X Brown Swiss X Holstein, which have been on my production reports for some time.  Also the Jersey X Holstein X Swedish Red X Jersey X Holstein makes its first appearance and we’ll start seeing a few more of them coming into the herd.

Foske daughter

A few weeks back I highlighted some of the Jersey bulls that I’d be using going forward. Next I will look at a family of breeds that plays the largest part of my breeding program.  There are numerous different flavors of Red breed.  Viking Red marketed by Viking Genetics includes bulls from Sweden, Denmark and Finland.  Geno Global has a selection of Red bulls from Norway.  Genetics Australia has the Aussie Red.  In North America, Semex markets some Ayrshire bulls influenced by Nordic Red genetics.

The only ‘flavor’ of Red that I’m not milking in my own herd is Aussie Red.  Originally I had hoped to figure out which one was the best.  Maybe I just don’t take a stand on anything anymore but I just don’t believe there is a right answer to that question.  Or am I just easy to please?  For the most part I have some darn good animals from each of the Red variants.  I haven’t eliminated any Red breeds from my program and essentially evaluate things on a bull by bull basis.  Select Sires breeds 80% of my heifers so it’s mostly Viking Red on them.  The other 20% is bred by a Genex technician and after a pretty disastrous run using one of their Ayrshire young sires (Bost was the bull), I’m having him use Norwegian Red on them.

Heavy Usage Bulls

Foske – This bull I’ve heavily used for over a year now and I see no reason to slow down.  I have 15 daughters on the ground and that number will grow such that he could produce more daughters than any other bull has produced in my herd.  The calving ease score of 102 seems fair from what I’ve experienced.  Mostly trouble free with the odd large one every so often.  Fine for using on heifers.  None of mine are close to milking yet.  He is adding more daughters to his proof and not really changing much.  High production/high health combination.  Foot and leg index looks bad at 88 but hoof health is well above average.  Udders might not be best in the breed but there are no big red flags in the individual udder traits.

Pell Pers - I’ve mentioned Pell Pers as being one I want to use and now I will have that opportunity.  With a slug of Monty, Fleckvieh and Normande crosses entering breeding age I think Pell Pers would work nicely on some of the taller Monty crosses like Redon daughters if you want to bring the stature down without using Jersey.

Braut – Not often do milking daughters of a bull impress me so much that I go back to using him.  Braut is a great bull that is well proven around the world.  The daughters of his that I’m milking are pretty young but I give them a pretty great chance of having staying power.  Udders are solid and productive and I like the fact that they carry some more flesh to them.

Lekve – A polled bull from Norway, he’ll help me genetically dehorn my herd without sacrificing quality.  I don’t necessarily emphasize polled in my herd but when the polled bulls continually top the Norwegian Red lists, it’s hard to avoid using polled bulls.  My first polled daughters are milking now and I honestly don’t know who is polled and who is not.  We just move on at dehorning.

Bon Jovi – The first Aussie Red bull I’ve used.  He’s been in the rotation now for about a month.  It seems pretty unanimous among Aussie Red breeders that Bon Jovi is one of their best.  Being an Orraryd son I’d bet he’d be able to fix some bad udders.

Lesser Used Bulls

Aussie Red: Lippman, Lex

Norwegian Red: Eggtroen, Val, Ravn

Viking Red: Facet

Ayrshire: Perfect

And here are some Aussie Red pictures sent by Steve Snowdon:

Bon Jovi’s dam

Aussie Red X Holstein

We hit another milestone today as we had our first cross that is a true five-way cross with a sequence of five different breeds.  The calf is a Montbeliarde (Ulemo) X Swedish Red (O Brolin) X Brown Swiss (Pollyden) X Jersey (Brazo) X Holstein (Forbidden).

This is not something we normally do but this particular family I chose to dabble in some greater than three-way crossing.  The original HoJo isn’t around anymore but the tremendous BS X Jer X Hol cow is still here going into fourth lactation and already over 100,000 lbs. lifetime.  There was no particular reason to pick this family for four-way crossing except that it was the first to give me a milking four-way cross heifer.  The four-way cross was a very slow starter in her first lactation but eventually peaked at 280 days giving 88 lbs/day with 4.4% fat and 3.7% protein.

So when this five-way cross comes along ready to breed, what next?

My fall breeding season starts in November so I’ve started to get ready.  I put heat detection collars on all the cows yesterday and am starting to keep track of heats.  One simple adjustment for fall is the way I mate cows.  During my trip to Missouri many producers said they looked at a cow and mated her to the breed that fixed the cows problems.  Just about all of the matings were based on the size of the cow.  Few producers were rotating breeds and instead just used a Jersey on a cow if she was tall.  They did so even if she happened to be out of a Jersey bull.  I still plan to use a breed rotation but I might swap NZ Friesen, NZ Jersey or Normande instead of Holstein if the cow should be bred to Holstein and she is tall and/or doesn’t hold condition.  Below is the Holstein cow that two bull studs have interest in which I mentioned in my last post.

Like this spring, I’ll be keeping some Holsteins pure that I do not wish to keep.  I am seriously considering using beef genetics as Holstein heifer calves are selling dirt cheap and my Holstein bull calves only range from $50 to $100.  (for non Americans $50 is dirt cheap!)  I have also thought about raising a few bull calves on waste milk and would choose a calf sired by a beef breed or a strength breed.  When using a beef breed all resulting calves are not work milking.  However, with a ‘dual’ purpose or strength breed I have options to milk resulting heifers or raise them for beef.  Below is #417 60 days into her sixth lactation.

The following are the bulls I’ll be using as well as a few others with low inventories:

Holstein:  My inventory is quite high for as much as I’ll be using.  A bull like Danger is perfect for my operation but I don’t have the room for him and need to clean out my Holstein inventory a little.

Levi:  I got this bull on special, I may use him on a cow or two whose daughters I plan to keep.  He is very good for calving ease so he’ll get used on crossbred heifers in need of Holstein genes.  Otherwise I’ll be using him on pure Holsteins that I wish to sell.

Trigger:  I got this bull on special with Levi.  I’ll use him on a cow or two that needs some help with udders.

ABC:  I really like this bull who sires short daughters with condition.  However, he isn’t as great as Danger.

Artistic:  I still have some of him from the spring breeding season.  He is my conception specialist and I’ll use him on cows whose daughters I don’t with to keep.

Friesen:

Blitz:  The highest BW Friesen.  His daughter fertility is positive but he isn’t the best.  He has a good all around proof with good production for a NZ Friesen.

Jersey:  I’ll be using Jersey mostly on the heifers and maybe on some cows.

Zuma:  This bull is the best Jersey for crossbreeding.  High net merit, high DPR and great udders including udder depth.  I’ll use him heavily.  I also have Zuma sexed.

Impulse:  My only Impulse is sexed.  I’m not crazy about this bull but he is well proven.

Premier:  I bought this bull when I ran out of conventional Jersey semen just as the ABS rep pulled in the driveway.  I like Premier for his good DPR, udder depth and all around proof.

Joskin:  I’ve used this NZ Jersey bull before with good results for conception.  He is among the higher NZ Jerseys for BW and has good daughter fertility.

Viking/Norwegian Red:  I won’t be using much of these breeds right now other than smaller stature Holsteins and HoJo’s that aren’t being bred to Normande.

Foske:  The best Viking Red for daughter fertility.  Foske has great longevity, hoof health and good milking speed and temperament.

Haga Ii:  It was tough choosing a NRF as many have good traits but non are ‘perfect’.  I chose Haga II over Lekve who both have great daughter fertility.  Haga II seem to have better legs for grazing as Lekve has curved set, low foot angle and is hock in.  Haga also has better udders and much better milking speed and temperament.

Normande/Fleckvieh:

Royal Holl:  This bull came up to surprise me this summer with his good fertility.  Royal Holl has a good all around proof with good fertility and is calving ease.

Creole:  A Royal Holl son, Creole is great for components.  He sires them short and his fertility rating isn’t the best but it is positive.

Uvray:  A high conception bull, Uvray should also be on ef the better Normande bulls to keep calves for beef.  He does sire them taller than average.

Rorb:  This is my first use of Fleckvieh.  I didn’t buy much semen but I might keep some of the bull calves out of this bull.  I’m not sure yet if I’ll keep any heifer calves because I won’t get enough to make any informed decisions on Fleckvieh.  I chose Rorb because he is short statured.

This is a comparison of sire daughters for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lactation.  I only compared Sires that had a least 7 daughters and average days since fresh (DSF) were greater than 140.  305ME tends to improve as DSF increases.

• The biggest change from the last month is the number of cows.  Since September 1st, we have sold 76 cows.  That comes out to about 15% of our milking herd when we are at capacity.  In the same timeframe we have had 138 cows calve.  I think it goes without saying that despite selling 15% of our herd we are still at full capacity.
• 60 of the 76 cows to leave the herd were pure Holsteins.  40 of them found a new home to be milked.  There was plenty of interest from people in buying crossbreds but my preference was to find a buyer for some pure Holsteins.  If you have contacted me about buying crossbreds and found my price was too high, this is my explanation for asking more.  Some potential buyers asked if I would throw some crossbreds into a group to lower the average price but I told them it would actually raise it.  Maybe that’s not a fair reflection of market value but it is a reflection of how I value the crossbreds.
• The 40 Holsteins I sold for dairy were all first and second lactation cows so the average age of my pure Holsteins is now almost a full lactation higher than the average age of my crossbreds.  So the comparisons I’ve made between crossbreds and Holsteins on this blog may not necessarily be fair anymore in a few different regards.  The mature Holsteins are showing better production numbers and I imagine the crossbreds will see a bump in reproductive measures compared to Holsteins.
• The Jersey X Holsteins are clearly shining for production, but again there are some age related factors here.  Only eight of the 60 J X H crosses in this report are first lactation.  On the other hand, 22 of 36 Swedish Red X Holsteins are in their first lactation.  12 of those 22 are Arbelunda daughters, not noted for their production.  So for those of you wondering why Swedish Red X Holstein performance has lagged of late, here is your explanation.
• The following chart shows the population trends on my farm since November of 2011.  What was planned to be a 50/50 split between Holstein and crossbred obviously didn’t occur.  Other than the recent steep decline in Holsteins, all culling from the herd had been performance based.  Survival of the fittest and it’s clear that the crossbreds are more fit on my farm.

I’ve had bits and pieces of things accumulating so I figured I’d throw them all into one post.

Below is a video of a panel discussion at World Dairy Expo 2013 regarding crossbreeding in grass based systems.  The panel is moderated by Les Hansen and consists of marketing experts from six different AI organizations.  A few will be familiar faces to many of us.  While the focus is grass based it’s a worthwhile listen for anybody that has an interest in crossbreeding.  Around the 30 minute mark, a hot topic on this blog (cow size and efficiency) is discussed and the fact that it is a popular topic of discussion on this blog is also mentioned.

Click HERE for a breakdown of the panel and a list of questions and when they were answered in the video.

Here is a video I posted on Facebook a while back of my first lactation cows walking to the parlor.  The best cow in the video is at the 2:30 mark.

Here is a five minute video of some Aussie Red cattle in Australia.  I’ve got a handful of cows now confirmed pregnant to Aussie Red myself.

Pictures:

One of my first Gunnarstorp daughters. Gunnarstorp X Pronto (Brown Swiss) X Holstein

Udder from the Gunnarstorp

DJ Zuma (Jersey) X Redondo (Normande) X Holstein. If any of you remember the Redondo daughter I’ve posted several pictures of, this is her daughter.

Latest daughter from 2013 Cow of the Year, 1449. This is a Vigor (Brown Swiss) X Jerrick (Jersey) X Winchester (Holstein).
Unfortunately there is now a Cow of the Year curse as 1449 got mastitis and aborted her calf at the same time and was culled. But this daughter looks like a keeper.

Before freshening, Fleckvieh (Zoom) X Swedish Red (Peterslund) X Holstein

Her udder now that she is fresh.

Breeding age heifer, Valfin (Montbeliarde) X Million (Holstein) X B Jurist (Swedish Red) X Paramount (Jersey) X Holstein

The first Dr. Gonzo calf was born last night.  (Dr. Gonzo refresher posts: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5).  Before I sold Dr. Gonzo to Sierra Desert Breeders, I put him in a pen of 12 month old heifers when he was 9-10 months old himself.  He tried his heart out, but these girls were a little too tall for him at that point.  There were two little heifers he did manage to get pregnant, both Norwegian Red X Jersey X Holstein crosses.  The first of the resulting calves was born last evening.  It’s a bull calf of average size that the very small three-way cross heifer had no problem delivering on her own.

There will be one more calf born this month before a few month wait and the AI calves will start being born.  Right now I have over 40 cows pregnant to Dr. Gonzo spread out over time.  A pretty wide variety of cows are carrying Dr. Gonzo pregnancies but I’ve been specifically targeting Nordic Red X Holstein animals.

Probably the most interesting news is how the whole market test of an American bred crossbred bull went.  Dr. Gonzo was only collected for a short time before being slaughtered.  I was recently told that the supply of Dr. Gonzo semen that was collected has sold out.  He entered the SDB catalog in April so it took about six months to sell it out.  Hindsight says more semen should have been collected but foresight says there just may be a niche market for this type of bull.  People are willing to find out at least.  A few thousand units of a bull selling hardly approaches the level of some of these million unit Holstein bulls but the concept is worth further consideration.

Now imagine if Shottle had won the original poll that created Dr. Gonzo.  We wouldn’t be having this conversation.  Dr. Gonzo’s dam, 2309 is doing what she continues to do.  Put out very component rich milk and get pregnant.  She was recently confirmed pregnant to the Normande bull Redondo.  Her Valfin daughter is one of my favorites in the calf pen and has a striking resemblance to the first Dr. Gonzo calf:

Dr. Gonzo’s Valfin sister

There’s been some interest in the past with registering crossbred animals.  In the USA, I’ve been using the Red and White Dairy Cattle Association and have registered a portion of my animals with the RWDCA.

There is another option that has emerged and I’ve decided that I will be transferring my existing registrations and adding new ones to the Composite Dairy Cattle Registry (http://www.dairycattleregistry.com).  My reasoning for this is that the vast majority of the membership in the RWDCA is focused on the Red Holstein and the new CDCR is a dedicated registry for crossbred animals.  It will be interesting to see where this goes.

I encourage folks to check out the website.  I’m not officially a member yet but I’ve got a pile of registration applications that I’ve done and am working on more in order to take advantage of good rates for new members.  With the RWDCA I mainly focused on my red animals but with the CDCR, things open up to cows of any color.

Most of our young cows are Jersey from HF x MO x SR or Jersey from HF x SR x MO.  No pure cows left!

We also milk some Rotbunt/MRI, Brown Swiss and NZ Fresian crosses.

Some of the oldest crossbred cows were HF x Red Dane from the mid 1990′s.

Some of the oldest xbred cows are in 10th lactation and still going strong.

Some cows have had 10 calves in 10 years (1st week in Feb every year) and were inseminated 10 times.

The 6 week calving rate is 90%.

Replacement rate is 10%-15%.

92% of the cows are inseminated in the first 3 weeks of May each year.

Conception rate averaged 70% for the last 3 years.

Breeding season is 10 weeks and 50% of the herd is calved in 14 days.

Production is 4% Protein, 5% Fat and 5,000kgs of milk with minimal inputs, 450kgs MS/cow/annum.

After 2 years, once/day milking production @400kgs M/S cow is almost back up at twice/day levels.

SCC is 150,000.

An Irish crossbreeding trial showed 60% higher profits for Jer/HF cows.

We breed for;

Good udders

Capacity

Hard Feet with slightly sickled legs

Fertility- replacements are kept from cows who get pregnant to 1st insemination

High mastitis resistance combined with average/fast milking speed

Once a day milking ability- a NZ study showed 20% higher profits from OAD milking

Genetic Appetite combined with Production.

Cows who can produce well on a diet of grass plus about 100kgs of concentrates/head/annum.

We often check the bite rate of cows and take note of cows who graze in wet weather.