Dairy Crossbreeding

by Dr. Ted Burnside, Technical Advisor, Geno Global

A survey of dairy farmer opinions on performance of pure Holstein first lactation heifers compared to contemporary Norwegian Red heifers was carried out from June to Sept., 2009. Sixty farmers on a crossing project in Canada, who bred and owned over 1000 F1 NR x HO heifers were surveyed and 37 responded in the busy harvest season. They rated the two heifer groups which had calved out for first lactations on a scale from 1=not satisfied through to 9=very satisfied. Over 600 of the 1000 heifers have calved.

White spotted heifer sired by Brenden: 1st lactation milk 21,194 lb, 858 lb fat, & 705 lb protein. Black polled heifer sired by Berge projected at 21,448 lb milk, 730 lb fat & 730 lb protein.

 The overall ratings for dairy merit were not significantly different for HO purebreds and NR x HO crosses, at 6.79 for Holstein heifers and 6.76 for NR x HO crossbred heifers in the same herd. When the two contemporary heifer groups were ranked and the rankings were analysed on their relative merit for 14 individual traits, Norwegian Red x Holstein crosses were significantly more satisfactory for calving ease, and four health traits, mastitis, digestive problems, feet and leg problems and reproductive problems. The NR x HO crossbreds were also rated significantly more satisfactory for feet and legs conformation. Purebred Holstein contemporaries excelled over the crossbreds significantly only on milk yield, udder conformation, and temperament. While not significantly superior the crossbreds had higher scores for fat and protein yields, for low stillbirths, for body condition score, and reproductive performance.  

This Berge daughter (also pictured above) carries the polled gene, as do 60% of Norwegian Red cattle! The two heifers pictured in this article were bred and owned by Henrik and Frida Van Dijk, Westlock, Alberta. Photos used with their permission.

I had a very nice Email from Gerry Plester, owner of Chemainus Farms Ltd., who is participating in a major way on the Canadian Norwegian Red x Holstein vs. pure Holstein comparison trial. Gerry and family have a beautiful dairy on Vancouver Island. He is currently milking 27 Norwegian Red x Holstein heifers, and sent me their projected records with the following comments. “This represents all of our Norwegian cross cows to date, except for one heifer who got mastitis and was only slightly below the others. And will have to be culled. We have 6 more that were too fresh to project on test day Mar. 2, 2009, and 3 more to calve. All these heifers are great to work with, conception is excellent, notably better than Holstein first calvers.”

The records on the 27 crossbreds average on a Canadian age-adjusted basis 270, 318 and 280 Breed Class Average using the Holstein age adjustment factors. These convert to a very high Mature Equivalent average for our American friends of 31,482 lb ME milk, 1364 lb ME fat and 1016 lb ME protein. More impressive is the comparison of actual 305-day milk fat and protein of these Norwegian Red crosses to their Holstein first lactation herdmates. They average +814 lb ABOVE their Holstein first lactation herdmates for milk, 48 lb of fat for actual 305-day fat, and 26 lb higher for actual protein yield in 305 days. Little wonder that Gerry is ordering Norwegian Red semen from our elite Norwegian Red sires!

These Californians are not just “dreamin’”…