Dairy: Jury still out on the benefits of crossbreeding purebred dairy cows

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Some dairy farmers are enthusiastic about the results of crossbreeding Holsteins with Norwegian cattle. Others see purebreds as more attractive

by DON STONEMAN

Up and coming dairyman Martin Buhler loves the 40 or so Red Norwegian-cross-Holstein cows in the 200-cow milking string on his family's farm near Crysler in eastern Ontario.

Buhler, who is 23, says the crossbreds cycle 10 days after calving and conceive 90 days after giving birth, compared to 120-130 days for Holsteins in the herd. They produce more components, if not as much milk, and are smaller and better tempered than their purebred Holstein counterparts.

Thomas Waitenaar of Elora is just as ebullient about crossbred cows as Buhler. "They breed back quickly and there's no maintenance at all," he says of the 20 F1s milking in a string of 200, mostly Holsteins. He expects his first F2 (mostly bred to Holstein with a few Fleckvieh) to calve out in the spring.

He plans to cross their offspring back to Holsteins for the next generation.

Crossbreeding Holsteins hasn't pleased everyone who tried it. Long-time dairy producer David Loewith was less than impressed with the eight first calf heifers in his Summitholme Farms barn near Lynden and quit breeding to the Norwegian sires. "I don't see a big advantage in terms of components," he says. "There's nothing that tells me they all conceive on first service."

He has doubts that the udders on the crossbreds will hold out long enough for them to have five or six calves in their lifetimes. The only advantages he sees over his Holsteins are better feet and legs.

Philip Armstrong of Armstrong Manor Farm, Inglewood, saw production numbers from the first heifers and didn't see the point in continuing to breed to crossbreed. "Their production, dollar-wise,was middle of the road" in the Armstrongs' 300-cow (including dry cows) mostly purebred Holstein herd, which already touted a high butterfat test. "I'm not sure they're going to bring anything to us." When all the bred cows have calved, there will be 15 crossbreds in the herd.

"We are trying to breed for better dairy animals, better udders," says Armstrong. For him, breeding to the Norwegian Reds seemed to be taking a step backward.

The  jury is still out on the benefits of crossbreeding purebred dairy cows, says retired University of Guelph geneticist Ted Burnside, who has been spearheading an ambitious program called Twoplus, breeding Holstein cows to Red Norwegian sires.

A "very early report" by the Canadian Dairy Network (CDN) verified that nine Norwegian Red sires were highly fertile, giving a seven per cent advantage over Holstein service sires in non-returns when breeding Holstein heifers and cows. The CDN also says that Norwegian Red and Holstein crossbred calves out of first calf Holstein heifers had 5.6 per cent more live calves, and 1.1 per cent more live calves out of second and later parity cows compared to Holsteins.

The calves were smaller, and there were more unassisted calvings, fewer hard pulls and no veterinarian intervention with the Norwegian Red crosses.

The project cost more than $1 million, with half of the funding coming from a federal-provincial grant and half from farmer-owned artificial insemination co-ops Gencor, Westgen and Eastern Breeders Inc. (Centre d'insémination artificielle du Québec chose not to take part, Burnside says.)

More than 1,000 heifers were born on 70 farms across Canada. Last June, 37 of the 60 farms still in the project replied to a survey. Burnside says the crossbreds scored higher for such health traits as mastitis resistance, digestive problems, retained placenta, metritis and cystic ovaries, and feet and leg problems. Holsteins scored higher for udder conformation and temperament. 

Burnside says the project demonstrates that modern dairy selection programs are good at delivering cows which excel in the traits that were emphasized.

Crossbreeding Holsteins with Norwegian cattle is taking off in the United States, Burnside says. Annual semen sales have more than tripled in four years to over 50,000 doses. But Holsteins still rule in Canada, and that's at least partly why Loewith is opting out.

When the crossbred program started, the Canadian purebred cattle industry was suffering the lingering effects of the BSE crisis in 2003, and heifer calves weren't worth much. "We have some social conscience around here," says Loewith, who wanted good data on the benefits of crossbreeding's, rather than "just hearsay."

Now the BSE crisis has abated for dairymen. "Holstein heifer calves are worth a bit of money again," Loewith says. "So that makes it attractive to get back in the purebred business." BF