Cross breeding

Miller80

I have a 90 cow holstein herd with a low EBI. I have about 1/3 liquid 2/3 manufacturing quota so bred in the past for volume and some type. Herd has been classified last 3 years and we have 5 excellent and about 45 VG cows and the rest are GP. Fertility is always a problem and I am starting to use higher EBI straws. Would also like to do some cross breeding but its difficult to get info on jersey and norweign red semen.

Looking for any advice on alternative breeds and farmers experience with different breeds and also should I just stick with high ebi holstein bulls or do some crossbreeding.

irishh_bob

Miller80 wrote: »

I have a 90 cow holstein herd with a low EBI. I have about 1/3 liquid 2/3 manufacturing quota so bred in the past for volume and some type. Herd has been classified last 3 years and we have 5 excellent and about 45 VG cows and the rest are GP. Fertility is always a problem and I am starting to use higher EBI straws. Would also like to do some cross breeding but its difficult to get info on jersey and norweign red semen.

Looking for any advice on alternative breeds and farmers experience with different breeds and also should I just stick with high ebi holstein bulls or do some crossbreeding.

i presume your herd is pedigree registered , if maintaining this is important to you , perhaps crossing to british fresian might be an option , this would surely add a dose of robustness to your holstiens while maintaining the general appearance of the herd

crossing with jersey is ok but you will see a drop in volume , that said , putting a jersey on a very high yielding cow would most likely still give you a thoroughly decent yielding cow ( 1400 gallons + )

an other option might be brown swiss , thier every bit as big as a holstien and are the 2nd highest yielding breed , you would benefit from hybrid vigour and the fertility boost that comes with that , a word of warning though , brown swiss are extremley hard to rear as calves , delicate and terrible drinkers , lovely cattle to work with though

having said all that , thier is such variety within the black and white breed right now , it may not be nesscessery to look outside your own breed , merley select holstien bulls which are high in fertility , perhaps even use NZ holstien bulls , they are usually exceptionally good for fertility , downside is , they are often quite poor in type

whelan1

try some of the genomic bulls with high fertility and milk , also i bought A british friesian bull this year to try and improve things

Miller80

yes I have used some high ebi bulls such as UPH and i might just continue doing that and maybe some BF.
Its a big decision to cross breed and devalue your herd, although the benefits of higher solids and better fertility are more immediate.
Was looking to buy SOK and BHZ next spring.
Anyone recommend other high ebi bulls?
Mentioned brown swiss to a guy and he said the same thing, extremely difficult to rear as calves and will not bucket feed.
Anyone use norwegian red or rotbunt?

C0N0R

As regards brown Swiss we found them slow to start to feeding to, hard to get them to put their head in a bucket. Once they got the hang of it there grand though.

whelan1

i would find it very hard to go the cross breeding route, well jerseys are out as they would be too small in the parlour, imo if you have gone to the bother of grading up why change it now , i used alot of koz and sok last year - both high fertility- and then introduced the br fr to get some bulkiness back in to the cows

Miller80

Yes i have graded up and the herd is now 100% pedigree.Nearly all in calf to holstein as we had a stock bull running last few months.
yea i like the look of SOK because it has some BF in them.
I have a 3rd calver from same family as KOZ, only thing stopping me buy these straws is im looking for bulls with high % solids.But i would say you will have great cows out of KOZ.

irishh_bob

imo , anyone who produced milk all year round should stick with holstien or at least black and white , fertility is less of an issue when you can roll empty cows over from spring to autumn or autumn to spring

Miller80

thanks for all the advice

5live

Used some norwegian red last year. Easy calving and easy to rear. Look a bit like jersey but better hind quarters. Coming from ebi of 85 on friesian crossed onto MRI base so milk only 25 to 65 fertility. Use 4 to 5 genomic bulls across herd as ebi's over 200 with excellent fert figures. Trying to improve milk is more difficult so you should be ok