Futuraland 2020
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Location: Williamsport,Maryland U.S.A
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Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Found this picture and It's the first Picture I've come across online of the way Holsteins looked way back...I've got several of the Old Holstein History Books of the U.S. and Canada that published pictures of the Great Show and Milk Production Holsteins from there time. Anyway for those that have never seen one before here what I found.
Thank God we've improved Teat Size!
http://www.futuraland.com
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18/6/2003, 1:39
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stuart
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Whatever anyone else thinks the lad in the picture looks proud of it. I wonder if it was his calf show calf and he couldn't stop loving it even when it came down with that udder?.I guess we've all had one of those!
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19/6/2003, 21:57
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imont
GP84
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
It is always worth looking back to see what progress the breed has made. I was just looking back at our first home sale catalogue which was held in the early 80's.
Our advert read " 100 lots for sale featuring daughters from 7 Ex dams and G. Dams, 6 with H90 Dams, 60 with VG Dams and G. Dams, 4 with 3,000 gallon Dams, 5 with 3,000 G.Dams and 33 with 2,000 gallon Dams and G. Dams".
The calving interval on these cows was mostly 12/13 month intervals and at that time they were fed silage behind an electric fence at the silo face in the winter and grazed grass in the summer.
There was no out of parlour feeders or TMR mixers just cake twice a day in the milking parlour.
If you think of the better nutrition the cows are getting 20 years later just how much progress has the breed made from a fertility and production point of view?
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20/6/2003, 17:15
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Bob
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
I am sure the breed has moved on a long way in the last 20-30 years. Udders are far better today compared to the old swing bags I used to see. What is more is that the cows are giving so much more today than ever before and therefore under so much more stress. The average farmer 30 years ago would not believe you could get 6 gallons out of a heifer- never mind 10 gallons which we see today. They would have thought that a ten gallon heifer would have the deepest udder imaginable and yet we regularly see high VG heifers with Ex mammary giving 10,000 kgs plus.
Rear udder height and width seems to have improved the most. Teats are shorter (perhaps getting too short) and placement has made great progress. Not sure about legs and feet. It is hard to separate genetics from management and high protein feed sometimes in this trait.
Today we expect 50 tonnes milk in 5 lactations or less. In previous days they would get an award for doing it in 10, 11 or even 12 lactations! We can all point to some great old cows in every generation but today the best cows are giving 100 tonnes before 10 years old and scoring Ex95 or EX96. Todays feeding and milking 3 times a day helps make this happen - so it is hard to know for sure what they could accomplish in a different era.
Styles and fashions change and some of those great unbeatable show cows from 10-15 years ago would struggle today at the highest level. We probably admire a slightly different sort of cow today without actually realising how much our tastes have changed.
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24/6/2003, 19:34
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Will Richardson
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 Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Were leiutenants really as good as this  ? I never had any myself but from what I've heard they were pretty awfull.Makes you wonder how the hell the bull was number 1 LPI bull in Canada when his initial proof came out.
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25/6/2003, 18:31
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mckeague
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Poor old Lieutenant!!!!! Looks as if there were a few unsatisfied customers out there!!! We have an 88 point 3rd calF Lieutenant, attempting to single-handedly fill the bulk tank, just a pure dairy milk machine!!! However it doesn't really make up for the seven others that we culled!!!! Quick question for all the knowledgeable breeders out there, we have a Progress X Formation (NC as culled at calving due to real bad mastitis) X 90pt Rudolph X Walkerbrae Astre Linda (one time Astre covergirl), any ideas what to breed her to?? Not classified as yet, looks about 84pts, id like to clean her legs up a little plus more ligament would be a bonus, anybody out there like to offer advice????
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26/6/2003, 15:18
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simon powell
EX94
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Whilst there's certainly some really good Progress's about, they scare me, particularly one's in need of more cleft definition. My priority would be to weld the udder on, with emphasis on ligament. There's plenty of Starbuck in the pedigree but no Blackstar, so I'd go for a bit of his blood. Jordan,Boss or Gordon maybe??? If fashion isn't an issue try Starboy, you wouldn't regret it!! You may need to work on bone quality the following generation depending on the results of this cross. I guess Jordan with Aerostar as maternal g.sire stands the best chance of doing both jobs at once. Let us know what you decide.
We only had two Lieutenants by the way. They were both the image of the cow above!!!!!
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28/6/2003, 0:09
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stephen dalton
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
I work with a great progress from a mason from templedale rosina enhancer family she is 63' very tall and long not to wide very straight legs and a bad predicted cell count so i used linjet i think he will do a good job on her as well as any other progress
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28/6/2003, 15:09
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mckeague
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Looks like someone out there agrees with us, she was Ai'd yesterday to Roylane Jordan, we felt he could give us that little bit of dairy quality and the extra definition in the ligament, fingers crossed for a heifer!! (p.s. i have to agree with the last comment, Linjet does spell out 'wood' not exactly what we are loking for!!!)
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1/7/2003, 13:39
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mmt95
EX95
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Location: USA
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Remember, we breed for need. What type of a milk cow did we need 50, 60, or 100 years ago? The wife and children did most of the milking, and by hand. So the need was for a gentle cow with an accessible udder and teats long enough to accomodate hand milking. Who cared about the rump? With little, if any testing records, udder size was thought to indicate the amount of milk a cow would give.
Milk was usually seperated, with butter and cream for the family, and skim for the pigs. Unless one could sell milk in town, there was no need for heavy producers.
We all know this, so no wonder the dairy cow has changed. Several hundred years ago cattle were tri-purpose, draft, meat, and milk. With the advent of the horse collar, the shift was to dual-purpose cattle. Now we breed for milk.
If the electricity went off, we couldn't milk very many of our cows by hand. We couldn't even feed them. But now our genereators take care of that problem.
There are no cattle genes present today that weren't available 200 years ago, but due to narrow breeding, many of the genes available then may no longer be accessible. That could become a problem when we again need to breed for natural good health, maternal instincts & calving traits, longevity, temperament, and foraging ability.
Genetic conservancy may well become of prime importance.
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12/1/2004, 4:12
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Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?
Re: Just How Far the Holstein Breed has come?