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VikingNews AU 2019-2
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t he australian dairy industry is made up of a number of different purebred and crossbred
cows
. our national
herd
is predominantly purebred holstein, followed by purebred jersey. what might surprise some is that the third largest identified group of dairy
cows
under
herd
test in australia is a two-way cross between the two most popular pure
breeds
. this group of dairy
cows
is simply referred to as the holstein/jersey-cross. many dairy farmers are a bit unsure of what to do with these crossbred
cows
, and manage the
herd
and its breeding plan without focus. many continue to develop the
herd
with holstein sires to grade the
herd
back up to pure holstein or continue going back and forth between the two
breeds
resulting in very inconsistent results. many benefits can be achieved by adding a third breed - vikingred - in the cross, and keeping up with a systematic rotation of the
breeds
. why to add vikingred? vikingred is the strongest red cow in the world. the breeding comes from a strong base of over 200,000
cows
in the nordics that are
herd
and health recorded and scored for conformation. it is very hard to find a stronger cow to breed with your holstein and jersey
cows
. a super combination when you combine the three
breeds
in a three-way continuous rotation you achieve steady and high heterosis effect, and inbreeding is not an issue as you are using a different breed in each mating. continuing the systematic rotation of the three
breeds
in the mating plan, you can get the strong health effects of the three viking
breeds
. the result the end result is a
herd
of medium sized
cows
that have optimum health with superior tolerance to the weather extremes of heat and cold. they are ideally suited to walk long distances between the pasture and the shed because of their economical frame size and strong feet with dark hooves. what goldencross farmers have found is that by crossing the three
breeds
they get the production from vikingholsteins, the components from vikingjersey and the health traits from vikingred.
herd
uniformity the vikinggenetics sires selected for australia are well suited for goldencross crossbreeding. the selected vikingholstein sires are medium to smaller in stature, vikingjersey sires are tall and virtually all vikingred sires are suitable as they are medium sized. so how do you get started with goldencross? what does a goldencross breeding system look like and how do you achieve it? this depends on what you are starting with and we will go through a few of the most common scenarios below. if you already have holstein x jersey cross
cows
, then you are already 2/3 of the way into the programme. you simply pick 1?3 top vikingred sires, depending on how you like to breed and the size of your
herd
, and mate them to your crossbred
cows
. if you only have pure holstein, jersey or red
cows
and want to do goldencross, then you pick what breed you want to start with. it doesn?t matter which breed you pick to start with, the only consideration would be the cow size. if you have very large holsteins and want to dramatically reduce the size of the
cows
, then use vikingjersey. if you want to how to get started with goldencross ® getting started with goldencross ® is easy and you can see the benefits in just a few generations. by eric thompson, vikinggenetics australia 5 september 2019 | vikingnews
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