AyrshireI was just thinking of starting a 'what Friesian '? thread but mine was going to be about what Friesian bull(s) to use over my jerseys. I guess this thread has the attention of most of the Friesian enthusiasts on here so here goes....
I started crossing 8/9 years ago when the farm was organic but when I came out of organic 4/5 years ago the only contract I could get was a channel island one so I sold the mongrel mob and went back to pure jerseys. I now have the opportunity to move to a standard manufacturing contract again so I'd like to have another for at crossing.
I only used 2 bulls, one was Hugo a kiwi Friesian and the other was Winnoch Officer a BF. I didn't really rate the Hugo daughters all that highly they mostly had jersey yields with Friesian solids. They were all sold as second calvers so may have got better as they matured. I preferred the Winnoch officer daughters, this was one of them.
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I'm all spring calving and want to send more protein off the farm because it pays so much higher than fat, so I'm looking for a bit more volume than the jerseys while maintaining a good protein %. I also want to breed a slightly hardier animal, better suited to living out most of the year but I'm keen that the cows don't get too big.
Any thoughts? I certainly haven't ruled out using kiwi bulls again but also quite like the look of Quentin and some of the Catlane bulls.