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IN stark contrast to MikeOsmundson and his clutchof dairy farmers in Califor-nia, university professorLes Hansen is still a mas-sive fan of the Holstein cow.

He said the breed was notwithout its flaws (see ‘Theproblem with the Holstein’),and in-breeding was a hugeproblem, but the Holstein cowwas still the best dairy animalin terms of production, udderquality, low cell counts andtemperament.

Yet he did not believe commer-cial dairy farmers should bemilking her – and that wasbecause overriding his love forthe Holstein breed was a fasci-nation with heterosis.

Heterosis (or hybrid vigour)was the science behind whatCreative Genetics was pushingin California – the reason whythe cross-bred cows were per-forming so well.

Prof Hansen said crossingbreeds with each other wouldalways produce heterosis, so theresulting cross would alwaysoutperform its parents.

That enhanced performancewould be in terms of much bet-ter fertility, health, mortalityand longevity, as well as a slightimprovement in milk yield.

Crossing would never ‘dam-age’ the Holstein breed and, infact, it was in everyone’s inter-

CROSS-BREEDING DAIRY CATTLE IN THE USA

IN Les Hansen’s opinion, theproblems associated with theHolstein breed were not somuch to do with the push forincreased yields, but thedesire for size and sharpness.

While production had anegative correlation withhealth and longevity, he said,size and sharpness did too,and brought disadvantagessuch as more calvingproblems, and did not provide any extra milk.

He said the people showingpedigree Holsteins had a lot toanswer for.

Cross-breeding provides heterosis in offspring

THE PROBLEM WITH THE HOLSTEIN

Crosses gain body condition ‘for free’HAVING started out trialling three-way crosseswith Holstein, Montbeliarde and Jersey breeds,the University of Minnesota has dropped the Jer-sey andrecently, introduced the Swedish Red.

This, linked with the fact the first cross-bredcows did not enter the milking herd until 2002,makes analysing the data very difficult, as it istoo early to start comparing the different crosses.

However, research student Amy Hazel hasmade some interesting discoveries about bodycondition and the ability for cows to get in calf.

Comparing pure Holsteins, Montbeliarde crossHolsteins (F1) and Montbeliarde cross Jerseycross Holsteins (F2), she said both the F1s and F2shad more body condition than the pure Holstein –even though dry matter intake was the same for

all three groups. The extra body condition was‘free’ and, according to the data, did not causecalving difficulties or get metabolised by the liverafter calving (a common problem in Holsteins).

The cows with extra body condition got back incalf much sooner – F1s 33 days and the F2s 47 daysearlier – a marked difference and huge economicadvantage, according to Miss Hazel.

She said they hoped to understand more aboutthis by looking at early embryonic death and theuterine environment, but this would requiremore time, more cows and more money.

Funding had been provided, a large chunk byCoopex Montbeliarde, so the next stage was to col-lect data from 10 large herds in Minnesota usingHolstein, Montbeliarde and Swedish Red crosses.

“Everyone in the Holsteinbreed says they want longevityand better health and betterfertility, but they are leaving itto someone else while they canbreed show cows,” he said.

Prof Hansen said he wasworking within Holstein US, notagainst the organisation, to‘provide a wake-up call’ andmove towards ‘rounder, shorter’cows. “I’m looking forward tothe World Dairy Expo some dayin the future when the judgesays, ‘the first cow over thesecond cow because she’ssmaller and rounder’.”

est for the Holstein cow to keepimproving, as the ‘gift’ of het-erosis would then be evengreater for those crossing her,he said.

Prof Hansen outlined a futurewhere a handful of pedigreebreeders would keep pushingthe Holstein as far as theycould, while commercial farm-ers would continue to crosswith her and enjoy even betterresults. “The better the Holsteinbreed, the even better the het-erosis will be on top of that forthe cross-breeders,” he said.

The trick was to maintain het-erosis, and that was impossiblewith a two-way cross. ProfHansen said the first cross (F1)would give 100 per cent hetero-sis, but if the second cross (F2)was with one of the originalbreeds, then heterosis wouldinstantly half.

If the F2 was a cross with athird breed, then heterosiswould only reduce by a fractionand would then be sustained ata high level for as long as thatthree-way cycle of breeds wasfollowed.

A four-way cross would main-tain heterosis at an even higherlevel, but the science relied oneach breed being completely dif-ferent to each other and ProfHansen said he did not believethere were four distinctly differ-ent gene pools in the worlddairy population.

He said working with the Hol-stein, Montbeliarde andSwedish Red, as the Californianfarmers were doing, workedwell because the three breedsshared different ancestry.

That was why he and hisresearch team were mimickingthe cross with the universitydairy herd, ending its involve-ment with the Jersey, which hadinitially been used in its cross-breeding project

“We like the Holstein and wereally like the Montbeliardefor cross-breeding,” said Prof

The climate alone makes the University of Minnesota a very different place to Calfornia, yetthey are using the same cross within their herd – a cross that could work all over the world.

Hansen. “We’re going to usethe Swedish Red as well, butwe’re done with the Jersey.Now could we find a fourthbreed? What’s the fourth breedgoing to be for us?”

Prof Hansen said the RedDane was too similar to theSwedish Red to offer any advan-tage in a four-way cross. In asimilar way, the Ayrshire, DairyShorthorn, Illawarra and Nor-mande breeds contained toomuch Holstein blood to work.

The reason he was ‘done with’the Jersey was because the

research revealed ‘as many dis-advantages as advantages’ withthe breed. The same was true ofthe Brown Swiss.

The Swedish Red and RedDane were actually part of alarge group of breeds, which hereferred to as the ‘Red Revolu-tion’. This included the AussieRed, Finnish Ayrshire, GermanAngler and Norwegian Red.

The challenge for farmerskeeping those breeds pure wasto keep them as a distinctly dif-ferent gene pool, he said. Thatwould involve eliminating any

Around 90 of the university's 125 milking cows are in atied-stall barn, the rest outside on a loose yard.

Holstein blood (a problem in theDanish Reds and GermanAnglers) and avoiding in-breed-ing. He encouraged them towork together and share knowl-edge and breeding pro-grammes.

Prof Hansen encouraged theAyrshires and Dairy Short-horns, ‘if they wanted a role onthe world stage’, to eliminateHolstein blood and ‘join the RedRevolution’. He also warned theMontbeliarde breed not to intro-duce any more Holstein blood.It was currently operating ataround 4 per cent and, in ProfHansen’s opinion, should not gomuch higher.

He said he realised some ofthe Californian dairy farmerswere nervous about crossingback to the Holstein breed, buthe said it was the best thingthey could do in order to main-tain heterosis – but they werealready on the right track bycross-breeding in the first place.

“The future for commercialbreeders the world over is prob-ably cross-breeding. We stillneed pure Holsteins, but 90 percent of cows in the US are justcows, just kept for milk produc-tion, so who cares if they arecross-bred? It’s pretty clearthat’s the way to go.”

■ Any questions or com-ments on cross-breeding inthe USA? Visit www.farm-ersguardian.com/livestock

Amy Hazel.