Population of crossbred dairy animals in the U.S.
Holstein World: What is the current population (an estimate would be fine) of crossbred dairy animals in the U.S.? How has this number grown in the last 5, 10 or 20 years?
Dr. Les Hansen: It is very hard to gauge the extent of crossbreeding with accuracy. Only 50% of cows in the U.S. are in DHI, and many herds on DHI do not provide accurate records on young stock. Also, there has been a major hurdle in getting uniform coding of sires from the European breeds. I believe the Holstein World conducted a survey last year that indicated a remarkably high percentage of dairy producers are at least dabbling with crossbreeding.
The typical entry point to crossbreeding is the use of an A.I. sire of another breed on problem-breeder cows. That eventually results in crossbred cows in the herd. The Canadian Dairy Network, which does the genetic evaluations for Canada, recently confirmed higher non-return rates for Holstein cows bred to sires from another breed compared to Holstein cows bred to Holstein sires. Therefore, a problem breeder is probably more likely to conceive to a sire from another breed.
However, the number of crossbreds has to be growing rapidly in the U.S. For example, in 2006, 250,000 units of Swedish Red semen were imported into the U.S. Domestic use of Jersey semen continues to climb very rapidly – a good share of the increase must be semen going into commercial Holstein cows.
The first large wave of Swedish Red/Holstein crossbreds are calving in late 2006/early 2007, and the preliminary reviews are very favorable. Time will tell – and dairy producers will tell their fellow dairy producers their opinions on crossbreds versus pure Holsteins. Dairy producers listen to fellow dairy producers much more than they listen to breed associations, A.I. companies, or university researchers. I frequently comment, “If you listen to enough commercial dairy producers, you will usually get the story about right.”
My personal prediction is that 50% of the dairy cows in the U.S. will be crossbreds within a decade. Inbreeding continues to mount unabated in the Holstein breed at the rate of about +0.12% per year. Blackstar now has a 16.2% relationship to American Holsteins, and Starbuck has a 20% relationship to Canadian Holsteins. Together, Elevation and Chief now comprise roughly 30% of the Holstein gene pool internationally. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict where this will take us.