Exporting Elsenburg into the dairy world
Dr. Carel Muller Institute for Animal Production, Elsenburg

The opportunity for the name Elsenburg to gain worldwide recognition (in the dairy industry anyway) has become a great possibility because of research projects that were started at Elsenburg recently. Bavaria Fleckvieh Genetics, a bull semen company in Germany, bought two Fleckvieh bulls for progeny testing in Fleckvieh and Simmentaler herds. These bulls were named Elsenburg and Westkap (see enclosed pictures) and semen from these bulls will be made available to dairy farmers in Germany and the rest of the world where Fleckvieh and Simmentalers are used. They will go through a progeny testing programme and if they have positive breeding values for milk and beef production, their semen will be made available for use by dairy farmers all over the world.

The Fleckvieh breed (also known as Simmentaler in South Africa and other countries) is a dual purpose dairy cow producing both milk and beef. The superiority of Fleckvieh cows is based on fitness traits such as fertility, calving ease, productive life, and high milk components while their milk yields are also above average. Many dairy farmers, after many years, are beginning to realise the benefits of dual purpose animals in their herds. The present day Holstein cow was initially a dual purpose dairy cow. About 30 years ago more than 80% of the beef produced in Britain was from the British Holstein-Friesian type dairy cow. Since then there has been a heavy selection to improve the milk yield of dairy cows. The reason for this was to counter the negative effects of inflation, low world milk prices, high capital and labour costs. A large number of Holstein bulls are being tested annually in the USA and there is a heavy emphasis to improve the milk yield of dairy cows. The original dual purpose Holstein-Friesian cow eventually became a Holstein. These cows are sharper (more angular) while showing more dairiness. They have an exceptional ability to produce large quantities of milk per day under optimal feeding and management conditions. Unfortunately they seem to do this at the expense of body condition and reproductive ability. This seems to be aggravated when the feeding conditions are poor. The modern Holstein cow seem to suffer more in pasture based systems.

It is not clear whether the genetic ability of cows to produce milk has outstripped the level of management or whether the reproductive ability of cows has deteriorated genetically. Because of poor reproductive performance, the productive life of cows has also been affected negatively. It is quite obvious that cows that are not able to reproduce, that is, become and stay pregnant until the next calving, will not remain in the herd past a certain stage of the lactation. Cows not pregnant at the end of the lactation are usually culled because of poor fertility. The problem for dairy farmers is that it will take a considerable time to improve the fertility of cows by genetic means. One generation interval for dairy cows, i.e. the time that it takes to be replaced, is approximately three to four years. Another problem is that at present, very few semen companies in the world have in their progeny testing schemes a system in place that evaluates the genetic merit of bulls for daughter fertility. Productive life, that is the number of months that daughters of bulls stay in a herd, has been used as a measure of fertility. This can, however, only be determined almost at the end of a bull’s productive life. Recently in the USA, daughter pregnancy rate is being included in sire testing programmes.

Most farmers believe that the only short term solution to the problem of poor fertility is crossbreeding with related breeds. This means that dairy farming in South Africa is at a cross road as crossbreeding is not very common here. In countries where milk production relies on cultivated pastures, crossbreeding in the dairy industry is much more common. Holsteins are usually crossbred with Jerseys to improve the reproductive ability of cows and to get a medium frame cow that is able to produce high component milk from pastures. Other breeds that are being considered recently in the USA are Norwegian Reds, Danish Reds as well as Ayrshires. The Fleckvieh, being a dual porpose breed, does not seem to get the same attention as the mostly dairy type red breeds.

Two projects to evaluate the effects of crossbreeding in both Holstein and Jersey herds with Fleckvieh recently started at the Elsenburg Experiment Farm. Pure and crossbred Holstein heifer and bull calves were obtained from a commercial dairy farm to be reared at Elsenburg to provide specific answers about crossbreeding. Bull calves will be marketed at 6 and 18 months of age to compare the beef production ability of the crossbreds to that of pure bred Holsteins. Heifer calves will be taken up in the milking herd after calving at 24 months of age. The first lactation milk yield of crossbred (50% Holsteins) and pure bred Holsteins will be compared within the current production system. Heifers and first lactation cows will be bred again by Holstein and Fleckvieh bulls to provide more Holstein and Fleckvieh combinations in the F2 and F3 progeny. The lifetime milk yield and longevity of the Holstein and Fleckvieh crosses will also be compared. Jersey cows and heifers in the Elsenburg herd were divided into two groups according to milk yield breeding values and age. One group will be inseminated with Fleckvieh semen and the other group with Jersey semen. The treatments will be changed over with the next reproduction cycle to get a sufficient number of experimental animals. The Jersey and Fleckvieh crossbred heifers (F1) will inseminated again with either Jersey or Fleckvieh bulls providing F2 animals that are pure Jersey and 75, 50 and 25% Jersey crosses.  

Because of the Department of Agriculture’s decision to do these trials, Bavaria Fleckvieh Genetics has decided to honour that commitment by naming these two bulls after the farm and the province. There is a large interest in the dairy industry in these projects especially the effect of crossbreeding with Jerseys. To our knowledge this is the first research project in this regard in the world and the results could influence dairy economics in countries where milk is produced from pasture based systems and where Jerseys and Jersey crosses are used. Data from these projects will be combined with a larger data set obtained from commercial herds all over South Africa. It is the first time that a project of this kind has been conducted in this country. The collaboration of geneticists from the Universities of Stellenbosch and Free State have been obtained as well. Dairy farmers who are keen on using Fleckvieh bulls in a crossbreeding programme in their herds irrespective of breed, are urged to do milk recording to increase the number of experimental animals. This will add to the results of the present crossbreeding trial at Elsenburg. Dairy farmers and breed societies in countries like Argentina, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand are also very interested in the outcome of these trials.

Small scale dairy farmers in South Africa will also benefit from these trials. They are under the same economic pressures as large scale commercial farmers. To increase income, the milk yield of the cows of small scale farmers should also be as high as possible while the reproductive ability of these cows is even more important than that of cows in commercial dairy herds. The total income of the farm is spread over a smaller number of cows making each cow more important than in a large herd. This makes it vital that each cow becomes pregnant again and remain in the herd. Feed is usually the first limiting factor in small scale farming systems making production conditions for cows even more difficult. The response of crossbred cows under these conditions will provide some answers to these farmers as well.

Photos:

Elsenburg
Sire: Engadin – with 81 daughters producing 6107 kg milk,  250 kg fat  (4.10% fat) and 214 kg protein (3.49% protein) in first lactation.
Dam: Eifel - a Romen daughter producing on average 10 496 kg milk at 3.82% fat and 3.35% protein in 4 lactations.

Westkap:
Sire: Wespe – with 1304 daughters producing 6090 kg milk, 242 kg fat (3,99% fat) and 208 kg protein (3,41% protein) in first lactation.
Dam: Honda - a Rexon daughter producing on average 9 727 kg milk with 3.50% fat and 3.52% protein in 4 lactations.