New three-way crossbreeding programme for spring-grazing dairy herds

The programme, called VikingGoldenCross, brings together VikingHolstein, VikingJersey and VikingRed in a rotation which delivers efficient, high-quality milk production from fertile, high-health cattle.

The system achieves this by using breeds developed in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Here, farmers have measured and improved their herds’ health and fertility through national genetic programmes for over 40 years.

Hybrid vigour

VikingGoldenCross also optimises the benefits to be gained from heterosis (hybrid vigour). This gives the programme a particular relevance to dairy producers already crossing with two breeds.

By introducing a third breed, hybrid vigour produces greater long-term benefits than a two-breed cross. These benefits – which give the progeny of unrelated animals better performance than the average of their parents – are seen in health, fertility and lifespan more than any other traits.

Matt Stott, VikingGenetics country manager says: “The first cross between two unrelated breeds will give the benefit of 100% heterosis. However, when the first (F1) generation is bred back to either of the same breeds, heterosis levels out at a lower level. Over the generations, a backcrossing, or two-breed system, levels out at 67% heterosis.

“However, when a third breed is introduced to the rotation, heterosis stabilises at a higher level, at 86%.”

Fertility and milk solids – backed by research

The benefits of three-way crossing have been demonstrated around the world, especially in New Zealand and Australia. Here, the VikingGoldenCross system has grown in popularity over recent years.

The dairy levy board, Dairy Australia, has compared the performance of two-breed and three-breed crossbred herds.

Using data from nearly 7,000 cows with over 25,000 lactations on pasture-based farms, they found the Holstein/Jersey/Red cross showed significantly higher lifespan, conception rate and six-week in calf rate compared to the two-way cross.

The three-breed crossbreds also showed no significant difference in volume of milk but outperformed the two-breed cross for milk solids production.

“This research, along with on-farm experience, is giving more and more producers confidence to go with the three-way cross,” says Mr Stott.

“It helps overcome many concerns of those involved in crossbreeding who have sometimes lacked a long-term breeding direction. By using VikingGoldenCross, they have a clear system to follow which will maintain the benefits of hybrid vigour at the maximum practical level in their herds.”

The right combination of breeds

With the right combination of breeds, dairy farmers can achieve significant gains in fertility, lifetime production and ease of management.

By choosing the three breeds from VikingGenetics, UK dairy farmers are tapping into decades of research and structured breed improvement. Denmark, Sweden and Finland have been renowned for their breeding innovations such as hoof health index and udder health index for many years.

In VikingGoldenCross, the three unrelated breeds complement each other and bring different traits to the programme:

• The VikingRed brings calving traits, longevity and overall health.
• The VikingJersey brings milk solids, fertility and hoof health.
• The VikingHolstein brings milk volume, excellent udders and medium stature.

All of this has helped earn VikingGenetics bulls high genetic rankings in the UK, and elsewhere in the world.

“National rankings show VikingGenetics bulls of all three breeds score well on UK indexes,” says Mr Stott. “This includes the £PLI [Profitable Lifetime Index], £SCI [Spring Calving Index] and £ACI [Autumn Calving Index].

“Now, we are delighted to be able to offer UK farmers a means of benefiting from the qualities of each of these breeds in a structured crossbreeding programme.

“We can also make the system easy to use with colour-coded eartags, which clearly indicate which breed of sire should be used for every female in the herd.

“All of this will contribute to our ultimate aim, which is to help UK producers breed cattle which efficiently produce good yields of high-quality milk over long lifespans, perform well off grass and have low costs of production,” he says.

Discover VikingGoldenCross