Norwegian Reds are ‘more fertile’ than Holstein Friesians
Take Home Message: Norwegian Red cattle can significantly improve the fertility of UK dairy herds.
Reproductive performance of Norwegian Red dairy cows was significantly better than Holstein Friesian cows when managed under typical commercial farm conditions in Northern Ireland.
That was the conclusion of a study, co-funded by DARDNI and AgriSearch and carried out by scientists at Hillsborough’s AFBI, the results of which were presented to delegates at this year’s British Society of Animal Science’s annual conference.
Fertility traits have been included within breed selection programmes for the Norwegian Red dairy cow population in Norway for more than 30 years,” said AFBI’s Conrad Ferris. “And as a consequence, a 60-day non-return rate to first service of 72.5% was recently calculated for this breed of cows in Norway.
“In view of this long-term breeding programme, and current fertility performance within Norway, there is considerable interest in the Norwegian Red as a means of overcoming the high levels of infertility that currently exist within the Holstein Friesian breed,” he added, explaining the rational behind the study.
“But farming systems in Norway are very different from those within the UK, with herd sizes in particular being much smaller.
A total of 221 Norwegian Red dairy cattle were imported into Northern Ireland as maiden heifers and placed on 19 commercial dairy farms (11 or 12 animals per farm). An equal number of ‘home bred’ Holstein Friesian animals of similar ages were selected on each farm. And more than 25 sires were represented within each breed.
On each individual farm, animals of both breeds were subject to the same rearing and management regimes pre-calving, and to the same feeding regimes during their first lactation.
During successive lactations, farmers managed individual cows as they believed to be appropriate. The 19 participating farms were selected to cover a range of production systems, and represented both spring and autumn calving herds.
Throughout the study, animals were bred by both AI and by stock bulls, with breeding policy varying from farm to farm. A total of 46, 130, 96, 54 and 30 Holstein Friesian cows were inseminated by AI as heifers, and in all four following lactations respectively.
The equivalent figures for the Norwegian Red cows were 54, 154, 107, 71 and 45, respectively. Conception rates to first service were calculated based on a subsequent calving.
With the Holstein breed, 197, 157, 117, 88, 57 and 35 cows calved into lactations one through to six respectively. The Norwegian Red figures were 208, 184, 144, 112, 78 and 59 respectively.
Calving intervals were calculated for cows which calved into lactations two and six and the proportion of cows culled as infertile between the start of the experiment and the start of lactation six was also calculated.
“And we found that conception to first service was significantly higher with the Norwegian Red breed than with the Holstein Friesian breed in lactations one, two and three, while not being affected by breed in maiden heifers and in the fourth lactation,” said Dr Ferris.
“Calving interval was significantly lower for Norwegian Red cows in lactation three, but not affected by breed in any other lactation. And of cows culled during the experiment (excluding cows culled for statutory reasons such as TB and Brucellosis or due to farmers leaving the study) a significantly greater proportion of Holstein Friesian cows were culled due to infertility, compared to Norwegian Red cows.
Presented to the British Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting, March 30 to April 1, 2009, Southport, UK.
Full details: Ferris CP, Patterson DC, Kilpatrick DJ: “A comparison of the reproductive performance of Holstein Friesian and Norwegian Red dairy cattle on commercial dairy farms over five lactations.”
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Summary (pdf) presentation_061ferris (pdf)
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