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JonnyLungs
VG89
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Registered: 02-2009
Posts: 134
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Re: …
quote:
errolston wrote:
Are those records made on 3x and/or BST?
Both 3x and BST.
quote:
smous wrote:
JohnnyL, We have been looking at an alternative to Scandinavian reds in three way crossing systems, how do Swiss rack up in your opinion?
Is the HxSwiss not too big?
If Jersey is in the mix that should bring size down and reduce age at puberty?
What size are the calves?
I don't have very many Chocolates (sometimes what the Holstein X Brown Swiss are referred to) milking as of yet. Just freshened another one a while back and she is doing very well so far.
Using them in conjunction with Jersey and Holstein really all depends on which order they occur. When it's H X B and you breed to Jersey, it will be more Jersey. When it's H x J and you breed to Brown Swiss it will be more Brown Swiss.
We've got calves on the ground that go both directions. I would warn against breeding younger HoJo's to Brown Swiss. I wouldn't ever breed ANY heifer to Brown Swiss to tell you the truth. 1st lactation with sexed semen works well, though.
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1/3/2009, 15:40
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Eryl Vet
EX95
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Registered: 11-2006
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Re: My Crossbred Cow Thread....
Yes, this does illustrate the crossbreeding dilemna - great F1 generation with bags of vitality and great production - but where do you go then? Go back to Holstein and you risk losing a lot of the vitality and vigour, but continue away from the Holstein and you lose a lot more of the production.
Perhaps in a few years, commercial herds will just buy sexed F1 embryos from nucleus herds and mate everything else to a beef bull.....
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1/3/2009, 17:19
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JonnyLungs
VG89
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My Crossbred Cow Thread....
I'm not sure I'd call this cow family an illustration of diminishing returns of crossbreeding.
I'd probably say it's more an issue in this case of poor mating decisions on this particular cow.
The F2 daughter pictured actually is outproducing the F1 mother in the first lactation. Like I said, her problem is fertility. Her sire is an 88 for daughter fertility (with 100 being average). This showed me that you cannot rely on hybrid vigor for health traits in a crossbreeding system.
I blame my father for using the wrong bull on her the first three times around. Once I got a hold of her, I used Peterslund twice, with two bull calves resulting. That's why I'm pretty excited to get a Q Impuls daughter from her.
The breeding behind this cow is actually pretty mediocre. We simply got lucky with an outstanding F1. But we can't continue to put mediocrity into her and expect results just because I'm throwing a third breed into the mix.
That's a pretty important part of crossbreeding if you ask me. Don't rely on hybrid vigor. Use the best possible from each breed.
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1/3/2009, 22:51
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JonnyLungs
VG89
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Registered: 02-2009
Posts: 134
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Re: My Crossbred Cow Thread....
quote:
ExpectingRain wrote:
JonnyL pointed out in an earlier thread that he intended to keep the majority of his herd pure holstein to give himself a constant source of F1 crosses.
Indeed. I still consider Holstein to be the best breed out there and such don't want to suffer the consequences of only injecting Holstein blood every third (or fourth) generation that a straight crossbreeding system would entail.
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1/3/2009, 22:54
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foxleigh
Ex97
True blue dinky-di maverick
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Registered: 06-2003
Location: southern,oz
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My Crossbred Cow Thread....
I think we all get too hung up on the BREED instead of concentrating on the TYPE and consequently production.HAVE a criteria that covers all breeds.
my fathers was dam of bull to 12yo or older and in milk.Her udder floor had to be over the hocks.She had to have a hard top and track straight,up on her toes.She had to have daus in milk that looked like her.NOBODY keeps a cow 12 years if she doesnt get in calf,if she gets sore feet,if she has mastitis and she doesnt produce.This criteria was used for every bull purchased, one evry 2 or 3 years to blanket herd with.
They were jersey,british friesian,ayrshire,aussie red,jersey, guernsay,braunswiss ,braunvieh.His initial herd was jersey,holstein,red holstein,fleckvieh and their crosses as well as some red angus crosses.
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2/3/2009, 0:27
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PEOVEREYE
EX95
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Registered: 02-2005
Posts: 629
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My Crossbred Cow Thread....
They look 2 decent functional cows too many round here crossing with jersey and i hgtink going to lose production too much.
Jonny sorry to go off thread but i like the look of your sand beds do you mind telling us your routine and approximate sand uasge on your system ? we put in about 200kg a bed every 3 weeks with a skid steer and rake it daily in between
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2/3/2009, 20:13
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