Improvement of health and grazing qualities for Red's - Fleckvieh x Swedish Red

Since about 2 years the relatively small Swedish Red population is attracting a lot of attention. Some years ago the biggest research project on crossbreeding in dairy farming was started in California with the goal, to minimize the shortcomings of the Holstein breed and to find out which cattle breed can be combined best with Holstein Friesian giving optimal results regarding production and fitness. As sire breeds were used: Jersey, Normande, Montbeliard, Swedish Red and Brown Swiss. Especially in Scandinavia there is a long tradition of breeding for health traits - already 20 years ago health traits were included in the total merit index.

Why Fleckvieh in Sweden?

This is an absolutely justified question when you look at the positive results from the US investigations. However, the intensive breeding for production traits also led to shortcomings within the Swedish Red breed. The Linnarson family experienced the same problems, that we already know from the Holsteins: „Our cows are getting skinnier and their health leaves quite a lot to be desired.“ Mr. Linnarson looked for a cattle breed that has more substance and a higher carcass dressing percentage, fewer incidences of mastitis (lower cellcounts) and a better health, in short, he looked for long-lived, profitable animals.

The farm of the Linnarson family, St. Heden, Larv, is located near the city of Vara in Western Sweden. Up to a few years they had 45 Swedish Red cows in their barn. Although these red cows are a little beefier than the Holstein cows, as Mr. Linnarson observed, their lifeweight, 550 to 600 kg. Finally Mr. Linnarson decided to go for the dual purpose breed Fleckvieh, as he hoped to get both: a good milk production and a good beef production.

Scepticism at the beginning

The decision to work with a dual purpose breed at first demands a change of the way of ones’ thinking. This is why most farmers are a little sceptical at the beginning. Although we do not recommend the strategy to use Fleckvieh sires at first on the less productive quarter of the herd we can understand those farmers who think: „In the case crossbreeding does not work in my herd, we have not lost everything“. Already the first crossed calves dispelled the doubts of the Linnarsons and they soon were convinced that they had made the right decision. Meanwhile all daughters of test bulls of the Swedish Red cows are inseminated with Fleckvieh and only the daughters of Swedish- Red elite bulls are continued to be inseminated with tested Swedish- Red elite sires.

The rearing costs decreased a lot

After only a short time the Linnarsons realized the advantages of crossbreeding with Fleckvieh. Since the Fleckvieh crosses grow faster than their colleagues, rearing costs decreased substantially. The female as well as the male fattening animals can be slaughtered or mated about three months earlier because of their enormous growth. The rearing costs per animal now are about R1.800 (1 Swedish crone = 1 Rand) less than before. The slaughter weight of the fattening bulls is about 50 kg higher than that of the Swedish Red which means another R800 more profit per animal.

Fleckvieh/SRB crosses are perfect grazers

During summer the cows of of St. Heden are grazed day and night. They are milked in the barn and fed grass silage and concentrate according to their needs. During winter time and in the transition period the ration of the cows consists of grass silage and concentrate.

The Linnarsons observed that their crossed cows produced a better milk yield out of forage. For the same milk production a Fleckvieh cow needs about 1 kg less concentrate than a Swedish Red cow. This is where the Linnarsons spotted a further chance to reduce their production costs: 300 days x R2 makes R600 per cow per year. Their experience showed, that the ration fed to Fleckvieh cows can be a higher percentage of dry food, which furthermore has a positive effect on the health of the cows.

The milk production of the crossed cows is excellent

The milk production of the whole herd with 45 lactating cows (July 2004 to July 2005) was 9.472 kg milk with 4,3% butterfat and 3,5% protein. The production of the 9 crossed cows did not differ from that of the Swedish Red cows, a very positive effect since the cros productive quarter of the herd. Cow No. 475 (see photo attached), a Rennodaughter for example produced 1st lact. 9.325 kg milk with 3,7% butterfat and 3,4% protein in 360 days (Jan. 2004 – Jan. 2005). Her intercalving period was 350 days. The first test milkings are very promising so in the second lactation there will be a further increase of production.

The future

The local breeding association is not amused about the breeding decisions of the Linnarsons, since the Swedish Red population is quite small (at the moment only about 180.000 Swedish Red cows take part in milk recording against 908 000 Fleckvieh cows in Germany and another 259 000 Fleckvieh cows in Austria). The breeding program looses efficiency if the population is decreasing through crossbreeding and inbreeding is already raising among the Swedish Red population.

Lennart Lennarson is very satisfied with the first results on his farm. Despite of the doubts of his breeders’ association he is eager to follow his way consequently. He is sure that cows have to have a high percentage of Fleckvieh-genes in order to be profitable.