Ayrshire Cows

red bull

Anyone using Ayrshire for crossbreeding

greecy_joe

red bull wrote: »

Anyone using Ayrshire for crossbreeding

what would they offer that the likes of a jersey would not if crossbreeding is your thing

red bull

greecy_joe wrote: »

what would they offer that the likes of a jersey would not if crossbreeding is your thing

Suppose you have a point, but that was not my question;)

rayzorsharpest

I was on a farm in New-Zealand that was crossbreeding with both Jersey and Ayrshire. The rotary paelour they had showed each cows yield & last 3 milk recordings.We compared all the breeds and found that the Ayr x bred wer the lowest yielding & had lower solides than the Jersey x bred. This was one experience we had, but i wld think it to be the same in all casses. Unless someone can prove me wrong.........

keep going

wouldnt be great as they are from fr bloodlines and you wont get as much hybrid vigour

rayzorsharpest

I dont understand?? As long as ur crossing a full breed with another full breed ur getting the full benefit of hybred vigour.
eg FR cow crossed with Ayrshire bull.

mf240

rayzorsharpest wrote: »

I dont understand?? As long as ur crossing a full breed with another full breed ur getting the full benefit of hybred vigour.
eg FR cow crossed with Ayrshire bull.

there not as far removed from friesan as jersey as they share genes in there backbreeding.

The further apart the two breeds are genetically the greater the hybrid vigour

rayzorsharpest

Oh i see what u mean.tks

red bull

A lot of my cows are montbeliarde friesian crosses hopefully I would gain hybred vigour if I crossed these cows with Ayrshire. My mox are good yielders but very heavy cows would an ayrshire cross give a better type dairy cow

rayzorsharpest

Im sure they wld be lighter alrie, but i wld be a bit worried about the solids. I think i would perfer to go with FR bulls like LHZ & HMY to bring down size an increase solids.

greecy_joe

nothing wrong with the ayrshire bar the small gene pool but from the crossbreeding POV , the jersey offers most

i grew up on a dairy farm and my brother is one , according to him , unless you have real problems , its better stick to black and white , thier is so much variety , you should be able to iron out any problem without cross breeding , jersey works well on high yielding holstiens as they improove fertility and solids but on moderate yielding british fresian types who are fertile anyway , you end up with a runt who is no good to milk

rayzorsharpest

I couldnt agree more with greecyjoe. He is spot-on.

mahoney_j

Greccy koe u took the words out of my mouth re jerseys or runts as id call them.Cant see what all the hype is with them.They are a low yielding cow fair enough they have high solids but if ur good at breeding and picking certain traits there is absoutely no need to look beyond the holstein or british freisan for fertility.i have a 1600 gallon herd average with over 540 kg of solids and in that id have a handfull of cows doin close to and over 2000 gls who go back in calf easily enough every year no more than one repeat on 1 tonne of meal and as much grass as i can get into them,I am looking at crossing those cows in praticular with ayrshires as they will still give a big frammed cow and get all the hybrid vigour benefits.Theyre is no point in say someone with 11 or 12 hundered gallon cow going the jersey route at a high stocking rate as if the last few years in praticular have thought us weather will have a huge baring on production and a jersy or jersey crossbred simply dosnt have it in her to give anywhere near the vloume return from concentrates that a well bred holstein or british freisan will

royalmeath

Has anyone tried these Norwegian Reds, my ai man was pushing them.

greecy_joe

mahoney_j wrote: »

Greccy koe u took the words out of my mouth re jerseys or runts as id call them.Cant see what all the hype is with them.They are a low yielding cow fair enough they have high solids but if ur good at breeding and picking certain traits there is absoutely no need to look beyond the holstein or british freisan for fertility.i have a 1600 gallon herd average with over 540 kg of solids and in that id have a handfull of cows doin close to and over 2000 gls who go back in calf easily enough every year no more than one repeat on 1 tonne of meal and as much grass as i can get into them,I am looking at crossing those cows in praticular with ayrshires as they will still give a big frammed cow and get all the hybrid vigour benefits.Theyre is no point in say someone with 11 or 12 hundered gallon cow going the jersey route at a high stocking rate as if the last few years in praticular have thought us weather will have a huge baring on production and a jersy or jersey crossbred simply dosnt have it in her to give anywhere near the vloume return from concentrates that a well bred holstein or british freisan will

i said jerseys crossed on medium yielding british fresian type cows produces runts

i think jersey cross well on large high yielding holstiens if fertility is an issue , ive nothing against jersey , i think they are a better breed than any other dairy breed bar the black and white , i certainly think they are better than the likes of montbeliarde , their the second most popular dairy breed in the world by a mile so they must have something going for them , only reason they never had large numbers in this country is due to the fact that ireland uniquely produces most ( or at least used to ) of its steers from the dairy herd , thats unheard of abroad , hence the aversion to jersey as any beef calf out of a jersey is pretty pathetic

red bull

royalmeath wrote: »

Has anyone tried these Norwegian Reds, my ai man was pushing them.

Are norwegian reds gaining a reputation for being difficult to manage bad temperment ? As I see it Nr are a cross of Friesian Ayrshire Shorthorn over years. A friend of mine went Hols FR X Montbeliarde a few years ago and then used a few Swedish Red bulls from Sligo AI. I have seen them lovely cows, more dairy type than the Montys he says they are the best cows he ever had production wise but he does not do milk recording so it may be perception.