In response to the crossbreeding blog
Holstein World: To begin this week in the All Breeds Blog we will be hearing a response from one of our readers regarding last week’s discussion on crossbreeding. Kevin Jorgensen of Waupun, WI, has been working in the AI industry since 1992 and is currently employed as a SMS Evaluator for East Central/Select Sires as a SMS Evaluator – a position he has held since 1998. Kevin is also a Registered Holstein breeder and his herd operates under the Ke-Jo prefix.
As purebred dairy publications, Holstein World and All Breed Access, are proud to promote the purebred dairy cow and the people who work with them. We are delighted to see the enthusiasm of each person who contacted us last week regarding this issue and are happy to share their views, opinions and experiences with the rest of our blog audience. If you would like to weigh in on this subject, please contact Sarah Schmidt at sschmidt@dairybusiness.com.
Kevin Jorgensen: In response to Dr. Hansen”s conversation last week about crossbreeding, yes, there are things about the Holstein cow that could be different and we need to continue to make strides in the right direction. That passion about making cows better is what gets most of us up every morning to either milk cows or work with dairy producers. However, many of the problems that Dr. Hansen talks of have more to do with what geneticists over the last 30 years were telling the industry that we need to breed and select for numbers and production solely. Single trait selection caused some of these other problems. If we used a balanced breeding approach, we could have averted many of the issues we are facing today.
Another point I”d like to mention in response to his answers regards size. First of all, it for the most part has very little to do with longevity unless you are talking about the 64 inch plus cows of which there are very few. Ag Engineers who design 44 inch stalls are dictating which cow is ideal. The cow isn”t saying she is too big. Ask producers that have renovated their barns to bigger stalls if size is now a problem. Secondly, the whole issue of crossbreeding never seems to look very long term into the equation. I hear of how well the crosses compare to pure Holsteins for production but the comparisons are always in first calf heifers and it is always on a fat corrected milk basis. If you start looking at second and subsequent lactations, the Holstein often is milking 3000-4000 pounds more. This can”t be ignored! That is a lot of milk if you are milking hundreds of cows. Additionally, Dr. Hansen never talked about the type aspects of what happens to the crosses as they age or the udder issues of F2”s. Additionally, they are worth less which affects your balance sheet, the bull calves are worth less, and all of this is hardly ever mentioned.
I could go on an on but the reality of the situation is that crossbreeding is not a silver bullet to challenges that producers face and we as a Holstein industry need to start talking about the good things that Holsteins offer. There is a myriad of sire choices available for every breeding philosophy which is great because BREEDERS should have the freedom to decide which kind of cow they like and select for the traits that they deem important to them. Additionally, this big tent allows for improvement of the breed and I believe that we can solve the issues that Holsteins face without crossbreeding. I aspire to the fact that if we have once created a sire like Durham that meets the needs of the type conscious breeder and the commercial dairyman alike, that we can do it again.
I work with commercial and registered breeders alike and breed and develop my own animals. The greatest part of my travels in this business have been all the forms of success that I have found. Selecting for type, selecting for milk, breeding for red and white or breeding commercial cows that pay the bills. There is no one right way or wrong way to breed cows or be successful.
Another aspect of my involvement in this industry is working in the sale industry. I help producers buy and sell cows both commercially and elite registered animals. I find it ironic that with all the problems that Holsteins have, there are countless producers with extra cattle to sell. Most of these folks that do (especially large producers) are not crossbreeding and most employ that balanced approach to breeding as well as provide superior cow comfort and care. We need to learn lessons from these producers versus add other breeds to the mix.
I finish with an example of why I don”t agree with crossbreeding. 15 years ago in my first job out of college, I also worked for one of the companies that Dr. Hansen used to work for. Each year, I was sent to Nebraska to mate cows for two weeks. One of the stops I made in 1992, the producer wanted all his Jerseys mated to Holstein and all of his Holsteins mated to Jersey. About 1/2 of the cows were crosses already and quite honestly, they were really nice cows. In 1993, when I went back, the producer greeting me at his milkhouse was almost crying. He said in the last year his cows have gotten considerably worse and was sick about it. We went to the barn, and the F2”s had been calving since shortly after I left. It was a train wreck! They weren”t milking and the type was awful. I will never forget the pain in that producer”s eye and it drives me every day to deliver results for the producers I work with. There will be many more producers with that same pain in their eyes after they”ve tried crossbreeding on their farm.
