Are pure Holsteins coming to an end?

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
If you’re a vegan , yes, if you’re one of the majority who consume beef, maybe not.

It’s the Flexitarian's who will concern you far more than any vegan, they consume less beef and will most probably be a lot more picky when it comes to sourcing it.

I can’t see why any retailer in their right mind would knowingly put embryo beef on the shelves, we’ve enough bad press to answer to at the moment without inventing a potential “scandal” ourselves.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
I'm probably very biased on this subject :D
Grazing systems is not my strongest expertise, and i don't know what you are comparing them to.
But they have good fertility, feet and legs and health, and some variation in size between breeding lines, so it is possible to adjust for what you need.
I only have mine on grass in the summer, but not for intensive grazing.
They do well on lower feed intake, as they don't milk till they die as holsteins. They take care of themselves first, and produce milk after. They just make more if you feed them more. Mine eat a lot of forage.
There is a lot of hype on these Scandinavian breeds.

Having been to both Denmark, circ 25 years ago and Sweden circ 15 years ago I found the Swedish red production and health traits to be on a par with the Swedish B and Ws. It's not the breed it's the breeds genetic history that sets it apart.

Milk from grazing is not the norm in these Scandinavian countries, many herds only have loading paddocks in a similar vein to many US systems.

Picking the right bull is far more important than just picking a breed IMHO.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Can embryo transfer calves cause calving difficulties, putting big beef calves in jerseys?
Switching to embryo implantation across who herds would be a PR disaster waiting to happen IMHO.

Look how the antis pick up on lines of spring calvers waiting for insemination let alone waiting for an invasive process such as ET
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Except they are on a mission to find reasons to not eat/eat less meat or generally make a fuss. I gather that the present low beef prices are down to a relatively small supply/demand difference, so upsetting as few people as possible would be preferable.

Its not the ethics thats the problem its public perception, taking embryos out of a dead heifer/cow and implanting them into another cow so we can make more money isnt going to go down well.
 
Can embryo transfer calves cause calving difficulties, putting big beef calves in jerseys?

I'm pretty sure a jersey cow would calve a pure blue calf more easily than a pure blue cow would.

I can't see it happening though and there's nothing wrong with a standard jersey X blue calf anyway. They're easy calving and they finish fine.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I'm pretty sure a jersey cow would calve a pure blue calf more easily than a pure blue cow would.

I can't see it happening though and there's nothing wrong with a standard jersey X blue calf anyway. They're easy calving and they finish fine.

tell the beef industry that!

was shooting with a Irish dairy farmer other day and he said any pure black calves in Ireland are worthless as people have been registering jersey x bull calfs as Angus's and no body wants them over there.
 
tell the beef industry that!

was shooting with a Irish dairy farmer other day and he said any pure black calves in Ireland are worthless as people have been registering jersey x bull calfs as Angus's and no body wants them over there.

Angus X jersey are probably harder to meet spec but blues are fine.

There's huge demand for jerseys in Ireland at the moment, I've got 40 IC heifers going over this week and hopefully another 40 next month.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Angus X jersey are probably harder to meet spec but blues are fine.

There's huge demand for jerseys in Ireland at the moment, I've got 40 IC heifers going over this week and hopefully another 40 next month.

this chap was a pedigree BF breeder so may have been slightly bias thinking about it.

Dehorning would soon cover up the horn issue.
 

Serup

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Denmark
Its not the ethics thats the problem its public perception, taking embryos out of a dead heifer/cow and implanting them into another cow so we can make more money isnt going to go down well.

I didn’t know anyone was taking embryos from dead animals?
I’ve only ever seen, heard of and tried it on living animals.
Wouldn’t that be eggs then? Or are they hormone treated with the purpose of killing and taking embryos?
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I didn’t know anyone was taking embryos from dead animals?
I’ve only ever seen, heard of and tried it on living animals.
Wouldn’t that be eggs then? Or are they hormone treated with the purpose of killing and taking embryos?

i Was under the impression before a finished beef breed heifer was due to be slaughtered she is flushed/sync’d and served a set Amount of days before being slaughtered and fertilised eggs harvested and frozen.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
never heard of that happening, always thought you flushed live. Talking to 2 suckle cow producers yesterday, 1 had sold his cows, the other was trying to think of a good reason to keep them. Both said there was very little return on them, for the work that went in to them. The 1st was now rearing for a scheme, but not impressed with that, the 'in spec' was so tight, it was hard to hit, with all the calves. The other had reached an agreement to take all the calves, of a dairy farm, except replacements, and having reared calves from marts, the 'same' calves off just 1 farm, were doing much better than market calves,
 

Serup

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Denmark
i Was under the impression before a finished beef breed heifer was due to be slaughtered she is flushed/sync’d and served a set Amount of days before being slaughtered and fertilised eggs harvested and frozen.

If i had a heifer good enough for flushing, i wouldn’t be sending her for slaughter.
i never heard of this - it’s an expensive procedure and the remaining part is small compared to the part you need to do before slaughter, so i don’t see the reason for this. But i don’t know everything - someone wrote about embryos for 30$.
 
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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