Crossbreeding
Worldwide Dairy Farmers are realising the potential of crossbreeding.
This hybrid vigour results in a great improvement in health traits,
fertility, mastitis, live births and calving ease.
SRB X Holstein
We considered all the options available for crossbreeding and are convinced that the SRB is the ideal cross for Holsteins.Trial results from California underlined the amazing benefits of this cross. Click here for the results.
Trial results in Italy are even more impressive;
The data comes from 6 herds in the province of Parma - Reggio Emilia and consists of official APA (Milk recording System) data only from 1st and 2nd lactation cows. The herds have different management levels but have that in common that all milk goes to production of Parmesan Cheese ( Parmegiano Reggiano).
The Swedish Red crosses actually out milk the Holsteins in the same herds with 2% on fat+protein combined. The cell content is 47% lower than the pure Holsteins!
| N cows | Milk kg | Fat % | Protein % | Fat + Protein kg | Cell |
Holstein | 411 | 10019 | 3,4 | 3,2 | 663 | 291' |
SRB x Holstein | 108 | 9964 | 3,5 | 3,3 | 667 | 156' |
Compared to Holstein |
| -1% |
|
| +2% | -47% |
Data on fertility was also collected on these 6 herds from first lactation cows. The data was also in this case official data from APA. The Swedish Red crosses showed 35 days shorter Days Open! They also needed less services / pregnancy.
| N cows | Days Open | Ins/preg |
Holstein | 225 | 138 | 2,45 |
SRBxHolstein | 133 | 103 | 1,56 |
Compared to Holstein |
| -35 days | -0,89 ins |
Data on calving difficulties and still births was collected by veterinarians in 110 herds in the provinces Parma - Reggio Emillia and Modena. 88 of the herds had Holsteins and 22 herds also Swedish Red x Holstein crosses. The data are only from 1st calvings.
Sire | Dam | N calvings | Difficult | Still births |
SRB | Holstein | 389 | 3% | 1,2% |
SRB | SRBxHolstein | 127 | 1,5% | 0,8% |
More data will be collected and will be analysed by the University of Parma.