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VikingNews AU 2019-2
10 / 28
r esearch has also found that by using a three way
cross
system like vikinggenetics
golden
cross
(vikingholstein x viking jersey x vikingred) the aver- age heterosis is 86%, while in a two- way
cross
the heterosis in the sec- ond generation will be 50%, and will level out at around 67% in fu- ture generations. hence you would expect a three way
cross
herd to be more profitable than the same herd run as a two way
cross
. golden
cross
farmers state that by
cross
ing the three breeds they get the production from vikingholsteins, the compo- nents from vikingjersey and the health traits from vikingred. golden
cross
is a three-way
cross
that combines different characteristics from vikingholstein , vikingred and vikingjersey , all of which comple- ment each other. all three breeds are in the top positions for health and production traits among their peers worldwide and have been bred in the nordic countries where health testing and record keeping is arguably the most detailed in the world. golden
cross
benefits of using golden
cross
® so, why are we
cross
ing breeds? by
cross
ing breeds you introduce the best traits of each breed into their progeny and you get what is called a heterosis effect, or hybrid vigour. heterosis or hybrid vigour is the increase of favourable characteristics of a hybrid organism over those characteristics of its parents when two unrelated breeds are
cross
ed. what research has found is that heterosis improves traits like vitality, fertility, health, survival and lifetime production. studies on golden
cross
a study conducted by dairy austral- ia , the national service body for the australian dairy industry compared the different
cross
breds and purebred herds on a pasture-based system. the researchers analysed data from more than 23 million lactation records from almost 900,000
cows
on 18,207 farms. the study showed that in terms of the three-way
cross
, there is no significant difference in volume of milk; however, the protein and fat percentages, the survival (how long the
cows
are in the herd), conception rate (cr), the six weeks in calf rate (6wicr) of the three breed
cows
out- performed the back
cross
animals (two
cross
system). researchers from seges in denmark, ruth bonlokke davis, anders fogh and lisa hein have found that three-way
cross
cows
, when compared to holstein
cows
are healthier, have less repro- ductive disorders, less metabolic dis- orders, better hoof health, and fertili- ty is better with results showing calv- ing intervals 15 days shorter for golden
cross
cows
. how can it be possible to have higher gross margins on the same amount of milk ? the answer is that a golden
cross
cow is more fertile. this means that the cow lives longer in the herd and the effect is that she depreci- ates less each year. that change in de- preciation cost is pure profit into the farmer?s hand?, one of the researchers says. if you manage your farming system appropriately, you make fewer re- placements to keep your herd togeth- er, so this is less money in rearing costs. within a herd that requires 25% replacements, is $500 per cow, per year cost in replacement. so, to- gether the reduced depreciation plus reduced rearing costs are extra in- come for the
cross
breeding
cows
. among the conclusions regarding three-way
cross
breeding, three of them can be emphasized: the long- term commitment brings the best re- sults, the smaller size of the
cows
brings benefits and the importance to select only the best bulls of every breed. 10 vikingnews | september 2019
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