First hand experience with crossbreeding – Curti Farms, CA
For an “on-farm” experience regarding our recent blog topic of crossbreeding, I was put in contact with Pat Silva of Curti Farms in Tulare, CA. The dairy consists of three locations and, up until about 8 years ago, was a purebred Holstein herd. Prior to working on the dairy, Pat worked with Holstein USA and is a past president of the California Holstein Association. “Those breeders who choose to incorporate crossbreeding on their farms may site fertility, components or longevity as the problems they are looking to fix. For us, our primary concern was calving ease.”
The decision was made to breed half of their herd at the time, approximately 2000 cows, to Jersey bulls. “Looking back, we are glad we crossbred half the herd and kept the other purebred. Doing it this way we were able to make comparisons.” The unscientific results were pleasing. They noticed that the Holsteins bred to Jerseys bred back an average of 21 days quicker than their Holstein counterparts that had Holstein calves. Also, it appeared that those Holsteins bred to Jerseys produced a half gallon more milk per day.
From that point, the dairy decided to continue to breed their crossbred cows to Jersey bulls. Thereby increasing to a predominantly Jersey cow. “The F2s and F3s are doing well. Our Jersey service sire selection is based upon components and type, and is largely Select Sires based. We have seen an increase in the components which has allowed our milk to be contracted at component pricing.”
Currently the three locations are milking a total of approximately 5,200 cows. The first dairy is home to 1,900 Holstein x Jersey crossbreds. The rolling herd average is near 23,000 with 4.3% fat and 3.8% protein. The second dairy is comprised of 2,900 Holsteins with an RHA of 24,000M and 3.5% fat, 3.1% protein. 470 predominantly Jerseys reside on the third dairy and have an RHA of 18,000 with 4.8% fat and 3.8% protein.
“It is our goal to become a Holstein herd and Jersey herd. They are treated as two separate entities on our dairy and it has worked well for us. We would definitely do it again and do it exactly the same way. This approach has allowed us to keep a good volume of milk and yet lock in on contract opportunities with component pricing – a definite help to our bottom line.”
