TexasBred wrote:You bring out the exception rather than the rule.
http://www.progressivedairy.com/topics/ ... -pound-cow
Not an exception, crossbreeding is on a continual growth. We have 1 to 2 calls daily from producers looking for bulls of our breeds. The bulls of our breeds are selling for well over $4,000 per head and their are few bulls available.
To often producers are so closed minded and think that if a milk cow isn't black and white, then it is not a milk cow. Bankers also fall into this close minded group.
The Fleckvieh being the second largest breed in numbers in the World only behind the Holstein says something in itself, that means they our number Jersey's too.
What is really ironic is that some producers have tried some crossbreeding, and usually end up using the semen on the cow that they are having problems getting bred or they use it on one of the lower end producing cows just so that they can prove that a crossbred can't produce. What happens, the animal that they were thinking would be a failure is producing right with or above Holstein herd mates. Just think what the outcome would have been had they used the semen on some of the higher producing animals.
Their is too many advantages to crossbred dairy animals, but some people as the saying goes "can't seem to see the forest for the trees" and are unwilling and unable to think outside the box.
Don't get us wrong, the Holstein is still a good animal, but she has been bred so much for production and they will kill themselves trying to produce. What value does a dead cow have? Utilizing our strength breeds, Fleckvieh and Montbeliarde, will produce an animal that is able to sustain that higher milk production and is more sound, fertile, healthier, more trouble free, and longer-lived.