To the Editor:
To the Editor:
My interest in cross-breeding started in 2004 when my wife and I were vacationing in California. Somehow, I was convincing enough or Debbie had a weaker moment and agreed to let me visit two large dairies for a tour/ discussion while on vacation.
One of the dairies we stopped to visit was participating in a cross-breeding study with seven California dairies under the guidance of the University of Minnesota. The manager was very excited about the project and their early observations. The item he was most excited about was the improvement in first calf heifer turnover with the crossbreds versus his Holsteins.
When we returned from California, I phoned Dr. Les Hansen, of the University of Minnesota to discuss the project he was leading. He told me to visit with a dairy in my area of eastern Wisconsin – which I have done several times since 2004 – about their experiences with crossbreeding.
The dairy has now evaluated several years of data. Over the last six years, they have indicated early new-born calf health has been noticeably better for the cross-breds and are in hopes this will translate into an extended useful life for the cross-breds. The owner indicated to me the crossbreds may last more lactations in their herd, but at this point, they have not completed enough lactations to say a lot about this. The dairy does say their crosses (F1 and some F2) do have 20 day shorter calving intervals. Therefore, they do appear to breed back sooner than the Holsteins.
The crosses do have somewhat better components and are more rugged than the Holsteins.
The downside is this dairy has experienced 5000# lower mature equivalents with their crossbreds. For this reason, they have discontinued further use of the three-way cross-breeding program.
The dairy did make some interesting observations that can be helpful to other dairymen. In their intense management system and state-of-the-art facility, the Holsteins are performing quite well and they have plenty of heifers in the pipeline. So keeping the barn full is not a problem. They really have not had enough cross-breds long enough to assess how they might stack up to the Holsteins regarding their cost in terms of vet/med cost per cow per year, semen cost per pregnancy, mastitis infection rate only to mention a few critical success factors.
So the verdict is still out.
But for now, this dairy has decided to discontinue cross-breeding any further in their production system. I have also included a link to Dr. Hansen in Minnesota for those interested in more information. The Hansen et al work describes why the interest and why many producers are looking at cross-breeding for their dairies.
Greg Booher
Farm Business Instructor
Lakeshore Technical College and Moraine Park Technical College
