cows-holstein-born-5.html
VikingNews UK 2018-02
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6 vikingnews | november 2018 by uliana langeland, marketing department vikinggenetics
farm
visit in denmark f uglsøgaard
farm
is owned by erik dolby and his wife anne-marie and located in the central jutland region of denmark, around three kilometres inland. the
farm
produces 12,880 kg milk on av- erage per cow and uses the milk par- lour system (side by side with fast exit). for several years, dolby has fo- cused on breeding for medium
size
holstein
cows
and today he can see the results of this breeding strategy. dolby is pleased with the perfor- mance of the herd when it comes to production and the health status of his
cows
. ?when choosing bulls, we go for the ones that breed medium
size
cows
, and this is because optimal
size
cows
are easier to manage for our employees. we have become better at feeding the
cows
, so they grow bigger and through breeding, we are able to compensate for this trend and achieve the
cows
with the
size
we aim for.? this focus on
size
has been particularly important be- cause of their barn system, as the pens are not suitable for
cows
that are too big. dolby explains that at his
farm
they consider medium
cows
offer a lot of advantages, including excellent health and a longer productive life. ?on our
farm
we like to see healthy
cows
that look well. mastitis fre- quency is 1% on average, and we are happy with this,? he says. he also reports that lifetime pro- duction has increased in recent years and explains that the reason is that
cows
have become stronger in the body. what is more, smaller
cows
mean fewer problems with hooves and stronger feet and legs in general. another important benefit of focusing on medium
size
in the breeding strat- egy is easy calving. the herd uses 100% x-vik in heifers and this results in excellent calves with good
size
. for
cows
, calvings are also very easy. regarding the breeding strategy, the herd also focuses on improving health. ?we are sad when we are ?in our barn mastitis is 1% in average, and we are happy with this? erik dolby and his wife anne-marie have been breeding for a medium
size
d cow at fuglsøgaard
farm
in denmark and as a result of this strategy, they are now increasing production while decreasing diseases in their herd.
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