To cross of go pure?

newtodairy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hi everyone. We are new into dairy 18months to be precise farming in Africa. We started with a crossed herd bought from a commercial farm near us (Holstein x Ayrshire). They only cross their lower end of the herd. They have been pretty good we wanted to go the Ayrshire way but not much straws available so we crossed with Montbeliarde. The calves seem strong at the moment no issues really. We want a pure herd the question is what breed to stick to. The crosses with montbeliarde seem fine the the moment getting inseminated soon. Anyone who looks after pure or crossed montbeliarde and how they found them?
We know the fleckvieh have been used in Kenya with good results.
Another thought is to just maintain the crosses continuously.
Feed- cowpeas, fresh brachiaria, veld grass, wheat and soya hay, sorghum crushed and dairy mill when milking.
Thanks in advance for your responses.
 
The lack of replies is simply that although many contributors have experience in a varied field very few will have encountered management problems in your situation. This is true of myself but one factor common to all livestock is the effect of hybrid vigour contributing to overall performance and should not be ignored when considering future breeding ,luck with your endeavours.
 
Of the duel purposes breeds I recon the forum consensus would favor fleckvieh. Big cows in general are going out of fashion tho. Your choice should reflect your available nutrition and end market requirements.
I would say a lot of Fleckvieh are getting rather small framed these days, and I'm not sure it's working if them in a higher yielding situation, where some are seeking larger bulls to maintain capacity.

Even a larger Fleckvieh is generally smaller framed than a Holstein, she just carrys more flesh.
 

Conrod96

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co. Antrim
Suppose the biggest reason was wanted something with bit more fight in her as we had a really bad hit about 15 years ago of ibr, neospora and micotoxins in the silage had 90 cows aborted in 3 weeks watched my dad spent an hour morning and night giving cows antibiotics just to get them to live. We were at 11,500 litres at that time but never again so we crossed with the monty and that had worked for us ever since 9500 litres with better fat and protein we are better off, more money for beef calf’s too as we’ve over 250 of those sold every year do get the odd one that can give you a hard time but get those with all breeds lol
 
Location
Cornwall
Suppose the biggest reason was wanted something with bit more fight in her as we had a really bad hit about 15 years ago of ibr, neospora and micotoxins in the silage had 90 cows aborted in 3 weeks watched my dad spent an hour morning and night giving cows antibiotics just to get them to live. We were at 11,500 litres at that time but never again so we crossed with the monty and that had worked for us ever since 9500 litres with better fat and protein we are better off, more money for beef calf’s too as we’ve over 250 of those sold every year do get the odd one that can give you a hard time but get those with all breeds lol

What made you go for the monty instead of fleckvieh?
 

Llmmm

Member
Mont
Just more milk with the monty we thought more breeding records to go back thru over the years of the breed too
Monty holstein is the only dairy cross apart from holstein british friesian that people have used for a long time and are pleased with them i see them more of a high input cow which requires feeding
 
Conrod96 sounds as if you are reaping the value of hybrid vigour in your desire to instil more fight into your stock tell all as not only does your gross output increase on a manufacturing type contract but also barren values are increased as well . This is bottom line production on a worth while scale sepa rating profitability from yield as a major factor in the real world as conceived by many.
 

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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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