Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics

Transcription

2
Contents
Page
Editorial ............................................................ 3
How do we fight overwhelming
health problems ............................................... 4
What can we do to reduce the
somatic cell count in the milk
and to improve the milk quality ? ................... 7
All hard to earn farm income
goes to the vet! ................................................ 10
Successful crossbreeding
with Fleckvieh since 15 years ........................13
The milk performance is
raising again! ................................................... 15
Just choose the right management system and even old Fleckvieh cows come up
with excellent performances ..........................16
Fleckvieh - the solution for beef stock
farmers and commercial crossings ............... 22
The bulls from Bavarian Fleckvieh genetics
are not only tested in Bavaria ........................ 28
Don´t gamble on embryos - buy calves ........ 33
c/o Prüf- und Besamungsstation München-Grub e.V.
Senator-Gerauer-Straße 19 z 85586 Grub z GERMANY
Telefon (00 49) 89 99 15 20-0 z Fax (00 49) 89 99 15 20-66
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web-Site: http://www.fleckvieh.de
Content: Dipl.-Ing.agr. Johanna Kampschulte
Design and print by C. Kohlmann, D-37431 Bad Lauterberg
Editorial
Fleckvieh - Born to be economic!
Dear Fleckvieh breeders,
Fleckvieh - the ultimate choice for purebreeding and crossbreeding! Purebred
Fleckvieh cattle probably are familiar to
you. But have you already thought about
using Fleckvieh for crossbreeding? Convince yourself about the advantages of
this new breeding strategy!
During the past 10 years Fleckvieh has
become the most important cattle breed
in the world and it becomes more and
more popular even in countries where it
was not known before. This is not surprising when one takes into consideration
that Fleckvieh is a dual purpose breed
with outstanding qualities. Besides the
very balanced combination of beef and
milk Fleckvieh cattle convince through
their outstanding fertility and attractive type
traits. Another advantage ist their enormous capability to adapt to different climates. This is why Fleckvieh cattle can
be found all over the world - in hot and
cold regions, in the mountains, in flat
areas, on high productive pastures, in dry
climates, where grass is rare. Fleckvieh
cattle are known to be very healthy and to
have a very stable metabolism. Last but
not least the breed is free of all kinds of
genetic and hereditary defects.
Dual purpose is the keyword for the future
in the cattle industry. Don’t go for the extremes was one of the bylaws of the
Fleckvieh philosophy and today more and
more people set their hopes in the big
economic advantages of this balanced
dual purpose breed.
Now Fleckvieh and the whole dairy and
beef production are facing a tremendous
revolution! More and more farmers take
advantage of the outstanding suitability of
this breed for crossbreeding. Fleckvieh
cattle pass on the good qualities mentioned above to the crossing products. This
together with heterosis effects occurring
when different breeds are crossed make
the crossing products very attractive.
They combine excellent beef and milk
performances with vitality, fertility and rapid growth.
In order to show you the good results of
these crossing products regarding the
milk performance in this magazine we
would like to present you some farmers
who have experience with breeding their
Holstein Friesian dairy cows to Fleckvieh
bulls. They all agree that the best option
to overcome the problems that come
along with extreme dairy types in milk
production is to use Fleckvieh bulls on
their cows.
When looking at the results of these
farms it has to be taken into consideration
that the feeding management on most of
the German dairy
farms is quite poor.
Farmers are just at
the beginning to recognize how much
influence a feeding
system has on the
performances
of
their cattle. Now
they start feeding a
Total Mixed Ration
and are all surprised about the enormous increase of
the milk performance of a Fleckvieh
cow, when she is
fed a good fedstuff.
To show you how
fast the milk performance raises when
the feeding management is optimized
we added another
two farm reports on
that item.
But cross breeding with Fleckvieh is not
only good for dairy cows it is also very favourable for commercial beef production.
With Fleckvieh cows the low milk production of beef cows can be overcome and
the carcass quality can be improved a lot.
In our opinion bulls that have proven to be
good sires in purebreeding are also excellently suited to be used for crossbreeding.
- This is why we added the article about
the performances of some of the bulls
from Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics in South
Africa. Last but not least their excellent results are just another prove that Fleckvieh
cattle can easily adapt to different climates. - Fleckvieh bulls of Bavarian Fleckvieh
Genetics are the right choice.
If you would like to have more information
on Fleckvieh and on the bulls offered by
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics join our
worldwide Fleckvieh-Club! Then you get
the newest edition of our magazine
Fleckvieh-Welt regulary which provides
interesting information on Fleckvieh and
contains the actual bull catalogue.
Of course we also have a web site where
you can get a lot of information:
(http://www.Fleckvieh.de) not only on address in the internet - it is supposed to be
the home for all Fleckvieh breeders in the
near future.
Haxl observes the conclusion of contracts
between Dr. Grupp (Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics) and Peter Massmann (Simmertaler
Society of Southern Africa).
And then we have a brand new video
about „Fleckvieh in Upper Bavaria“. All
cattle breeders can easily experience our
philosophy about future cattle breeding
when looking at this video. Last but not
least this video not only presents excellent Fleckvieh cows from Upper Bavaria it also gives an impression of the beautiful
Bavarian landscape.
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics - we have
the answers the cattle world is waiting for!
Participate in our Fleckvieh vision and
your breeding efforts will be successful!
Dr. Thomas Grupp
General Manager
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4
Milk & Beef
How do we fight overwhelming health problems?
This was the main question for the Vermoehlen family not long ago. They were
very frustated with their Holstein Friesian
cows as they always had to cope with a
lot of health problems among their cattle.
Particulary problems related to metabolism affected the profitability of their farm.
Up to 50% of all animals that recently calved showed displacements of the abomasum and the complications connected
with that. In addition to mastitis, fertility
and claw problems caused a lot of damage.
Mr. Vermoehlen and his family own a 60
hectares dairy farm with 64 cows in the Lower Rhine area. Til 1990 they only kept
Holstein Friesian cows, which are very typical for this region. These Holstein Friesian
cows produced an average of 8.634 kg milk
with 4,27% fat and 3,34%.
The Vermoehlens finally decided to change the breed in 1990. They began crossbreeding their Holstein Friesian cows with
Fleckvieh bulls, that were selected mainly
for udder qualities and type traits.
One of the best cows of the Vermoehlens: Anne 1 st lactation: 9.329 kg milk with 4,17 % milk
fat and 3,77 % milk protein: Her Rexon-son is to be tested at the Al-center of Munich-Grub.
Table 1:
Development of the milk performance from 1985-1999
And, what a surprise, they did not only
get rid of the health problems among their
cattle. Contrary to all expectations the
milk yield raised continually up to over
10.000 kg milk per cow and year since
then.
In addition to that the milk quality improved impressively, too. The less the percentage of Holstein Friesian blood becomes in the Vermoehlen´s dairy herd, the
more the cell count in the milk decreasses as can be seen from table 2. Now the
cell count stabilizes at about 70.000 cells.
In the meantime there are also
already results of F1 and F2
crossed generation
The Vermoehlen family.
The daughters of the Holstein Friesiancows inseminated with Fleckvieh-bulls
who have hence 50% Fleckvieh blood,
show an impressively higher milk performance than their purebred mothers (table
3 and 4).
From some cows there already exist F2offspring which are now 75% Fleckvieh
cows. Their milk performances stabilized
on a very high level and are without exception much higher than that of their
Holstein Friesian grand mothers (table 5).
Last but not least, as can be seen from
the photos, the cows of the Vermoehlen´s
also have very attractive type traits.
Milk & Beef
Table 2:
Development of the milk performance, the intercalving period and
the cell count from 1990 to 1999
Year
Number of
cows
Milk kg
Fat %
Protein %
Fat and
protein kg
Intercalving
period
Cell count
in thousand
47
52
44
42
47
69
60
64
61
78
8634
8283
9270
9539
9272
9780
10439
10784
10749
10799
4,27
4,47
4,34
4,33
4,29
4,27
4,30
4,21
3,92
3,90
3,34
3,42
3,33
3,30
3,33
3,33
3,47
3,46
3,52
3,53
657
652
711
728
706
748
811
827
799
802
378
389
382
357
382
371
372
360
352
351
254
170
131
131
147
135
114
65
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Table 3:
Performances of the Holstein Friesian parent generation
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
HF-cow
HF-bull
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Themse
Costa
Anni
Quelle
Prima
Steffi
Istra
Valentino
Stardak
David
Eminent
Tristan
Stardak
Tristan
5686
8518
6963
7644
9540
7561
8994
4,92
4,12
4,41
5,43
4,17
4,93
4,08
3,62
3,30
3,65
3,36
3,24
3,43
3,40
5
The calves are fed with whole milk till
they are about 100 days old. After weaning the heifers get the same TMR like
the cows. In addition they are fed 2 kg
CCM and 5 kg soybean flour. When the
heifers are about one year old they are
fed 5 kg corn silage and grass seed hay.
The Vermoehlens are convinced
that crossbreeding their Holstein
Friesian cows with Fleckvieh was
the best choice to make.
The Fleckvieh cows not only fulfilled, but
exceeded their expectations as they proved to be very healthy and to have no
problems with fertility. Displacements of
the abomasum have never occured
again. All these advantages of the Fleckvieh breed had a great influence on the
farm profit, since the costs for the veterinarian decreased drastically and production became much more profitable.
In Mr. Vermoehlen´s opinion the following
qualities make German Fleckvieh very
convincing and attractive for crossbreeding:
The feeding system
Aside from the breed another very important reason for Mr. Vermoehlens´ success
is that only the best feedstuffs are offered
to the cows. This begins with a careful
selection of the varieties of corn and grass
that are cultivated for feeding purposes.
The cows in milk are fed a Total Mixed
Ration (TMR) that has the following components: 10,3 kg of corn silage, 5,3 kg of
grass silage, 3,1 kg of corn-cob-mix, 3,0
kg of soybean flour, 2,6 kg of triticale and
0,2 kg of mineral feed. The energy content of this TMR amounts 7,1 MJ NEL.
This ration is fed to all cows and yearling
heifers. In addition to the TMR the cows
are fed additional concentrate via transponder. Two sorts of concentrates are
used. One of them, which Mr. Vermoehlen
calls his „Booster-Mixture“ has the following components: 70% of cereals (wheat,
triticale), 20% of soybean flour, 7% of a
special mixture (Beta-Carotin, Niacin etc.).
The other concentrate is a normal commercial feedstuff. The energy content of
the first concentrate amounts 8 MJ NEL,
that of the last one 6,9 MJ NEL. The „Booster-Mixture“ is fed during the first 100
days of the lactation till the cows are pregnant again. The commercial concentrate
is given during the whole lactation according to the level of the milk performance.
The F1-generation with impressing milk performances: 1st lactation: 7.000 kg, 2nd lactation: 9.000 kg,
3rd lactation: 10.000 kg with 3,80 % milk protein.
Table 4:
Performances of the daughters of the Holstein Friesian cows
Name
Irmi
Primel
Quecke
Anni
Corina
Bianka
Schappi
HF-dam
Bull
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Istra
Prima
Quelle
Anni
Costa
Themse
Steffi
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
11865
12363
9037
10089
8541
11857
11701
4,07
3,97
4,97
3,94
4,50
4,23
3,82
3,54
3,40
3,64
3,59
3,76
3,45
3,27
6
Milk & Beef
1. Fleckvieh cows have a more stable metabolism and endure a feeding ration
with a high energy content much better
than Holstein Friesian cows. Fleckvieh
cows show an enormous potential. The
central organ of metabolism, the liver
seems to be much more efficient in this
breed than in other breeds.
2. The fertility of Fleckvieh cows is outstanding, which is last but not least impressively shown by the short calving
interval. The cows show a regular and
easy detectable heat.
3. The raise of the milk performance at
the beginning of the lactation is much
slower within the Fleckvieh breed. The
cows rise their milk production normally not earlier than the second third of
the lactation and than show a long plateau-period. This makes it easier to get
the cows pregnant again during the
first third of the lactation period.
4. The milk quality is extraordinary high
which makes it possible to realize a
good milk price (at least in Germany).
Cases of mastitis are very seldom.
Table 5:
Performances of the cows with 75% Fleckvieh-blood
Name
Name of
F1 cow
Bull
Lactations
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein
Irma
Irmi
Fleckvieh
305 milking
days/1st lact
305 milking
days/2nd
272 milking
days/3rd lact
305 milking
days/1st lact
305 milking
days/2nd
305 milking
days/3rd lact
305 milking
days/1st
305 milking
days/2nd
305 milking
days/3rd lact
305 milking
days/1st lact
305 milking
days/1st lact
305 milking
days/2nd
305 milking
days/3rd lact
8651
3,79
3,36
10044
3,73
3,45
10193
3,79
3,45
9329
4,17
3,77
11250
3,98
3,72
14733
4,17
3,53
10037
3,52
3,45
9047
3,50
3,53
9767
3,35
3,31
10128
3,85
3,45
7606
3,83
3,58
10322
3,02
3,57
8908
3,57
3,52
Anne
Anni
Pauline Primel
Fleckvieh
Fleckvieh
Printa
Primel
Fleckvieh
Berta
Bianka
Fleckvieh
5. Fleckvieh cows have a much longer
service life than the Holstein Friesian
cows, a fact that allowes a tough selection because not every female
calf/heifer has to be used as replacement.
Table 6:
6. Beef production through cow and calf
brings about additional income.
7. In the case a Fleckvieh cow has to be
slaughtered because of a poor milkperformance she still has a reasonable
beef performance (good carcass-grades) as can be seen from table 6. In
the contrary to the Fleckvieh cow the
Holstein Friesian cow had to be fattened over a period of 3 months.
Proceeds earned with young cows that only completed a 100 day
performance at the farm of the Vermoehlens (at an estimated milk
price of 0,65 DM per kg milk)
Breed
Fleckvieh
Holstein
Friesian
100 day
performance
Proceeds
from milk
Proceeds from
calf
Proceeds from
slaughter cow
Total
2500 kg
2800 kg
1.625 DM
1.820 DM
1.200 DM
800 DM
1.650 DM
800 DM
4.475 DM
3.420 DM
The F2-generation: Horb-daughter with good type traits: 200 day performance 6.583 kg, last milk test: 36,8 kg milk with 3,59 % milk protein.
Cow from Mr. Vermoehlen, 6 years old, 5 calves, last years milk performance: 11.000 kg, 569 kg slaughter weight.
Milk & Beef
What can we do to reduce the somatic cell count
in the milk and to improve the milk quality?
Seven years ago the Schmidt family was
quite frustrated as the problems with their
Holstein Friesian dairy herd became nearly overwhelming. They urgently needed to
reduce the somatic cell count in the milk
which amounted 800.000 cells per ml at
that time. The official veterinarian suggested to try Fleckvieh cows as they nearly
never have problems with the cell count.
Having in mind the words of this vet they
immediately visited a near by Fleckvieh
farm to convince themselves of the qualities of Fleckvieh. They realized that the
use of antibiotics for the treatment of the
udder can be reduced to a minimum with
Fleckvieh.
But the high somatic cell count in the milk
was not the only thing that the Schmidts
disliked in the Holstein Friesian cows. As
the Vermoehlens, they had extremely
high costs for the veterinarian (5.000 DM
per month) since their cows had a lot of
problems caused by displacements of the
abomasum. 30 % of the calving cows had
trouble with their metabolism.
The loose housing stable.
In the whole 165 ha farm land belong to
the farm:
60 ha grassland, 10 ha of these are
paddocks, the rest are mowing
pastures
45 ha corn,10 ha of these are corn, the
rest is used for corn silage
40 ha winter wheat
11 ha rape
5 ha barley
4 ha oats
At the moment the Schmidts keep 120
cows on their farm (50 Holstein Friesian
and 70 Fleckvieh cows). They are housed
in a loose housing stable (open fronted
housing) which was awarded by the State
of Hessen for its innovative ideas and the
low building costs. The cows are milked
with a 2 x 10 side by side milking parlour.
The milk quota belonging to the Schmidt’s
farm amounts 850.000 kg milk (3,99 %
fat). The immense investments in the new
barn and milk quota are not easy to overcome at the prevailing milk price situation.
The Schmidt family: Helga Schmidt with her husband and her father-in-law.
Not much later, the decision was made:
when Mrs. Schmidt went to the auction
place at Alsfeld to sell some of their Holstein Frisian heifers, she bought two
Fleckvieh cows instead.
Farm report
The farm of the Schmidt family is located
in Ronneburg/Hessen (160 m). The average temperature is about 7,5 °C and the
annual precipitation about 700 mm.
Feeding system of the
dairy cows
All lactating cows and heifers up to an
age of one year are fed the same TMR
(Total Mixed Ration) ration. It is set out
for 30 kg milk and is mixed from the following components: grass silage, corn silage, brewer’s draff, hay, concentrate, calcium carbonate, mineral feed with carotene.
The ration is fed once a day. It is very important to the Schmidts that the cows ha-
ve something to eat all the time and are
always full. This means that a cow always
has to have the chance to reach some
feed. The Schmidts are not fond of to
much protein in the TMR-ration as recommended by some feeding advisors. In
their opinion the urea content of the milk
increases and claw problems and problems with metabolism follow. They think
it is better to have a higher energy-content in the TMR-ration.
Dry cows and heifers get grass silage ad
lib., corn silage, hay mineral feed, but no
calcium carbonate.
The Schmidts take special care that the
dry cows eat a lot and their rumen is always filled. Mr. Schmidt supposes that
this influences the growth of the embryo.
Dry cows and heifers get a mixed ration
before calving (50 % of the ration of dry
cows and 50 % of the ration of the dairy
cows).
The Schmidt family is infected
with the Fleckvieh-virus
The Schmidt family is very enthusiastic
since they began breeding Fleckvieh.
„We have lots of fun, working with those
cows“ they say.
At first the Schmidts started with absorption crossing. They mated their Holstein
Friesian cows to Fleckvieh bulls, last but
not least because this seemed to be the
cheapest way to get rid of their Holstein
Friesian cows. A little later they got the
chance to buy 17 Fleckvieh cows from a
farm where the dairy farming was given
up. In addition to that they bought some
cows at the auction place in Ansbach.
7
8
Milk & Beef
Raspel at an age of 8,5 years and more than 50.000 kg lifetime production.
Bommel - good type traits and a height a withers of 145 cm.
The Fleckvieh herd can easily compete
with the Holstein Friesian herd, as can
be seen from table 1 and 2 as far as milk
performance and milk contents are concerned.
When comparing the two breeds it has to
be taken into consideration that because
the Fleckvieh herd grows constantly at
the moment, the cows can’t be selected
as strictly as they should be, particularly
because the Schmidts want to get rid of
the Holstein Friesian cows as soon as
possible. Despite of this problem the first
official results of milk performance are
quite good.
In particular everybody was astonished
about the performance disposition of the
newly bought older cows when they came to the farm of the Schmidts and were
treated with their farm management. To
show you this we want to present some
of their results:
Raspel, a Talk-daughter is one of the
reasons for the Fleckvieh-enthusiasm of
the Schmidts. After she gave an average
first lactation at the farm of her former
owner in the following lactations at the
farm of the Schmidts she showed her full
genetic disposition.
Raspel also is an example for the theory
that Fleckvieh should not be judged after
only one or two lactations. Because this
cow is extraordinary vital, the Schmidts
hope to get some more calves from her.
Bommel, a Rambo-daughter expresses
exactly the type of cattle the Schmidts like
to have. The cow has a good constitution
and shows excellent type traits and does
not exhaust during lactation (23,8 kg,
27,6 kg and 26,6 kg at the first 3 milk
samplings).
The Schmidts are also very proud of
their cow Ondra, a Zitat-daughter, who
gave 38 kg of milk at the beginning of
her second lactation although she had
twin-calves.
The Schmidts use mainly the following
bulls: Husaldo, Samurai, Rexon, Horwart, Motor, Heribert and Geronimo, a
potpourri where no objections can be
made to.
For the Schmidt family Fleckvieh
was the solution to their problems
Ondra, in top condition after she had twins, now she gives 38 kg milk per day.
Especially because of the enormous financial burden caused by the newly
build stable and the necessity of buying
additional milk quota the Schmidts had
to find a way for an highly effective milk
production. In their oppinion Fleckvieh
cows are perfectly suited to serve that
goal.
Since their dairy herd devides into 50
Holstein Friesian cows and 70 Fleckvieh
Milk & Beef
cows, the Schmidts now have enough
experience to compare the two breeds.
The Schmidts set a high value on good
muscled dairy cows because this is a requirement for a high production. Good
muscled cows have enough reserves to
compensate eventual setbacks during
lactation.
In their opinion one of the big advantages
of Fleckvieh cows is that in the contrary to
Holstein Friesian cows the Fleckvieh cows gain 80 to 90 kg of beef during lactation without becoming fat. This means that
a Fleckvieh cow can be slaughtered at
any time during lactation without a final
fattening period. The carcass is paid for
adequate which means an additional income.
Asked about the future management of
their dairy herd they hope to take profit
of the predicted heterosis effects resulting from the crossing of two different
breeds.
According to the scientific results found
by Mr. H. Kräusslich („Are there alternatives to pure breeding?“) the expected milk
production of corssbred cows (F1) from
proved Fleckvieh sires and Holstein dams
would amount 6971 kg of milk with 295 kg
fat and 241 kg protein according to the
additive genetic model. These data were
calculated on the base of an assumed
average performance of Holstein Friesian
cows of 7076 kg milk with 297 kg fat and
238 kg protein and an assumed average
performance of Fleckvieh cows of 5866 kg
milk with 245 kg fat and 205 kg protein.
9
Table 1:
Performance of the Holstein Friesian herd 1990-1999
Year
Number of
cows
Milk-kg
Fat-%
Fat-kg
Protein-%
Protein-kg
Intercalving
period
56,0
48,6
53,0
54,0
56,3
62,0
60,3
80,8
64,4
7165
7954
7879
7227
7053
7156
8037
8688
9153
4,06
4,26
4,33
4,34
4,52
4,50
4,31
4,33
4,05
291
339
341
314
319
322
346
376
371
3,35
3,53
3,35
3,39
3,42
3,45
3,26
3,33
3,32
240
270
264
245
241
247
262
289
304
414
382
387
390
416
384
424
413
?
90/91
91/92
92/93
93/94
94/95
95/96
96/97
97/98
98/99
Table 2:
Performance of the Fleckvieh herd
Year
96/97
97/98
98/99
Number of
cows
Milk-kg
Fat-%
Fat-kg
Protein-%
Protein-kg
Intercalving
period
6,6
9,0
35,7
7962
7859
8350
4,26
4,13
4,10
335
324
342
3,42
3,45
3,49
269
271
291
428
392
?
Mr. Kräusslich, who is well known all over
the world, proposes that commercial crossing may be the most effective solution in
high yielding dairy herds in future.
The first experiences the Schmidts made
with their crossbred calves are very convincing, too. The crossbred calves appear to be very big and robust. They grow
rapidly, are more vital than the Holstein
Friesian calves and not as capable for
sickness. In the case they get sick they
recover much faster than the purebred
Holstein Friesian calves since they have
The grey Husaldo-calf clearly shows the advantages of crossbreeding - the effects of heterosis become
obvious.
Lactation of Raspel
Number of
lactation
1
2
3
4
5
6
Days in
Milk
Milk-kg
Fat-%
Fat-kg
Protein-%
Protein-kg
Intercalving
period
305
294
305
273
305
301
5021
7396
8380
8591
10123
9620
199
304
365
352
436
401
3,96
4,11
4,36
4,10
4,31
4,17
188
267
297
292
349
337
3,74
3,61
3,54
3,40
3,45
3,50
0
373
358
420
342
387
a better body condition. They hope that
the future performances of these turn out
to be as good as the young calves are
now already.
Having in mind their good experiences
with Fleckvieh cows the Schmidts advise
all other dairy farmers to exploit those
characteristics of Fleckvieh that make
this breed a strong and superior breed in
comparasion to all other breeds either
through crossbreeding of through pure
Fleckvieh breeding.
10
Milk & Beef
All hard to earn farm income goes to the vet!
Despite of an excellent management and
very good milk performances resulting
from that, Mr. Hacks noticed, that especially for the freshly calved Holstein Friesian cows the expenses for the vet got higher from year to year because as Mr.
Hacks puts it: „A high performance Holstein Friesian cow collapses faster and is
stressed very much during the first 100
days of lactation, which makes her very
susceptible for all kinds of diseases.“
These pysiological limits of his cows and
the limits set by the facilities of his farm
made Mr. Hacks think of changing the
breed.
The farm of Mr. Hacks of Geldern
Together with his wife Karola Mr. Hacks
manages a dairy farm near Kleve in the
Lower Rhine area. A milk quota of
530.000 kg milk and 51 ha of farm land
belong to his farm.
Table 1:
Milk performance of the Holstein Friesian herd from
1989 to 1999
Year
Milk-kg
Fat-kg
Protein %
Fat and
prot. kg
Cows
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
7634
8634
9254
10069
10096
10272
9639
8938
9517
9559
10271
4,24
4,54
4,08
4,01
4,08
4,26
4,17
4,34
4,32
4,50
4,37
3,45
3,49
3,46
3,38
3,43
3,43
3,43
3,42
3,50
3,52
3,44
587
693
698
744
758
790
733
694
744
766
802
26
22
25
20
32
33
35
37
40
46
48
Average
age
Intercalving
period
4,7
4,6
4,5
4,2
4,5
4,7
363
363
370
385
388
374
Table 2:
100 day performances of the newly bought heifers
The development of the milk performance
of their Holstein Friesian herd during the
last years is pointed out in table 1.
The 48 cows of the Hacks family are kept
in an open fronted stable, where a feeding place and a place to lay down are
Fleckvieh 1
Fleckvieh 2
Fleckvieh 3
HF-heifer
Milk kg
Fat kg
Protein %
Fat and protein kg
2560
3054
3066
2955
3,36
2,82
3,98
3,82
3,20
3,31
3,39
3,11
168
187
226
205
provided for each cow. Mr. Hacks sets a
great value on hygienic conditions in the
barn.
The cows are milked in a side-by-side
milking parlour. All replacement heifers,
at the moment about 90 heifers, are raised in a deep stable.
Feeding management
The lactating cows are fed a TMR-ration,
that is suited for 32 kg milk and is fed with
a mixer wagon. The feed consists of the
following components:
corn silge, grass silge, pressed sugar
beet pulp, brewer’s grain, a mixture of rape and soy beans, CCM, feeding sugar
beet, wheat, 18/3 concentrate, mineral
feed, beta carotin and hey ad libitum.
The Hacks family.
Cows with higher milk performances are
fed additional concentrate via transponder. During summer time the cows are
grazed for 3 to 4 hours.
Milk & Beef
11
Why did Mr. Hacks decide to change
the breed for Fleckvieh even though
they had an average milk performance
per cow and year of 10.200 kg milk?
The goal of his breeding activities is a vital high-performance cow with a stable
metabolism. Cows that often have problems with their metabolism and show a
high susceptability for diseases have an
extremely negative effect on the economical results of a dairy farm, especially
when the farm has to face the financial
problems resulting from leasing or buying
milk quota. Mr. Hacks discussed his
thoughts about rising the farm income
with other farmers, who already cross
their Holstein Friesian cows with Fleckvieh bulls since some time and made
good experiences with the crossing products.
Mr. Hacks got fully convinced about
Fleckvieh when he attended the AFOSchau 1999 in Traunstein and visited some Fleckvieh farms afterwards. The newly gained knowledge Mr. Hacks summarized as follows: „Cows with more beef also have the genetic potential for a high
milk performance and good milk contents.“
Back home he immediately began crossbreeding his Holstein Friesian cows with
Fleckvieh bulls. He mainly used the bulls
REXON, HUSALDO, RADAU and ZEZE.
The body condition of the cows is quite different - although the milk performance is nearly the same.
Table 3:
Results of the first three milk tests of the Fleckvieh cows
Milk kg
Test 1
Fat %
Prot. %
Milk kg
Test 2
Fat %
Prot. %
Milk kg
Test 3
Fat %
Prot. %
Fleckvieh 1
29,2
3,59
3,55
27,0
3,87
3,69
27,6
4,12
3,72
Fleckvieh 2
33,2
3,50
3,60
28,4
3,53
3,61
29,8
3,92
3,79
Fleckvieh 3
30,2
4,31
3,80
24,0
4,03
3,70
27,4
4,71
4,02
Two young Fleckvieh cows from the breeding area of Weilheim (Bavaria).
12
Milk & Beef
In July 1999 Mr. Hacks bought three
eight months old Fleckvieh heifers immediated by experts of the Al-center of Munich-Grub. Mr. Hacks is very satisfied
with the 100-day performances of these
three Fleckvieh heifers, which have all
calved in August 1999. Their performances are pointed out in table 3 together
with the performance of a Holstein Friesian heifer that was bought at the same
time.
Mr. Hacks is very happy about the increase of the milk contents, especially of
the raise of the milk protein during the
lactation, while the milk quantity almost
stays the same all the time (table 3).
A comparison with the performance of
the dams of this cows shows how much
performance potential a Fleckvieh cow
has, when her genetic potential is fully
exploited by a good management system (table 4).
Besides this Mr. Hacks is also astonished by the good constitution and the vitality of the Fleckvieh heifers.
The young farm manager hopes
to have the whole barn full of
Fleckvieh cows in the near future
Mr. Hacks is convinced, that this breed is
going to increase the family income
Table 4:
Milk performances of the dams of the newly bought Fleckvieh heifers
Fat +
Prot. % prot. kg
Milk kg
Fat %
Prot. %
Fat +
prot. kg
5/4,0
7724
4,22
3,68
611
386
3/2,7
6633
3,97
3,58
500
458
5/3,9
6109
4,43
3,55
488
Milk kg
Fat %
Fleckvieh 1
6539
4,38
3,54
517
Fleckvieh 2
5156
3,99
3,49
Fleckvieh 3
5590
4,51
3,68
enormously. Not only the costs for the
veterinarian decreased drastically, but all
the positive qualities of Fleckvieh add together and enable Mr. Hacks to realize a
profitable farm income.
Fleckvieh cows are very healthy and have
the potential to compensate eventual
sickness very good. In the case a Fleckvieh cow gets sick during lactation she
decreases her milk production and does
not step up again before she has fully recovered.
In Mr. Hacks opinion one of the big advantages of Fleckvieh cows can be seen
in the fact that at the beginning of the
lactation the cows don’t give too much
milk, which means that Fleckvieh cows
have a quite equal lactation curve. This
makes the Fleckvieh cows very easy to
handle especially since the whole performance at the end of the lactation is the
only thing that counts.
Another plus of Fleckvieh is that besides
of a reasonable milk performance the
carcass of the cow can be marketed too.
A Fleckvieh cow can be slaughtered at
any stage of lactation and a reasonable
price can be realized.
Not long ago the first cross products, calves who have Holstein Friesian dams
that were inseminated with Fleckvieh
bulls, were born. Mr. Hacks is very happy with these calves as he observed that
their development is definitely better
than that of the purebred Holstein Friesians. They gain weight much faster, are
much more vital and appear to have a
much better body constitution. He is eagerly awaiting their further development
and their future performances.
Very soon Mr. Hacks wants to begin with
the production of weaners making use of
the excellent suitability of Fleckvieh for
crossing purposes, to exploit this segment of the market. There is a huge demand for these crossing products since
they are much better suited for fattening
than Holstein Friesian weaners.
Daughter Frontal, a test bull from „Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics.“
A further aim of Mr. Hacks is to exploit
the fitness of the Fleckvieh cows in order
to raise the average age of the herd.
This makes it possible to take advantage
of the genetic progress through a consequent selection among the heifers. Last
but not least it will be possible for Mr.
Hacks to produce saleable Fleckvieh
breeding heifers.
?? & Beef
Milk
13
Successful crossbreeding with Fleckvieh since 15 years
The longterm goal of Mr. Zerbes breeding efforts is to keep 200 dairy cows
that give an average of 9.000 kg milk in
the future. Quite early he realized that
this is only possible with an easy to
handle, healthy cattle breed.
Since he always had some problems with
his purebred Holstein Friesian cattle, Mr.
Zerbe decided to start absorption crossing with Fleckvieh already 15 years ago,
because he wanted to take advantage of
the excellent health and the numerous
other positive traits of this breed.
In the following the interesting results of
15 years of experience with crossbreeding shall be presented to you:
At the beginning only natural service
Fleckvieh bulls were mated to the Holstein Friesian dairy cows. These bulls,
of course were not selected for their
hereditary performances and therefore
Fleckvieh is well suited for open barns.
Table 1:
Basic generation; pure bred Holstein Friesian
HF-cow, name
Sire
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Biena
Louis
5934
4,15
3,32
Zara
Inka
5756
4,33
3,58
Blessi
Pete
7828
4,08
3,14
Helia
Inka
6529
4,43
3,38
Halla
Eminent
7327
4,64
3,55
Louis
7310
4,12
3,35
Herla
Astramos
7417
4,80
3,44
Irene
Argon
7082
4,49
3,37
International
8222
4,18
3,27
Isar
Elfie
passed on only average performances.
Although this means that Mr. Zerbe could
not take advantage of the breeding
progress coming along with tested Al-
bulls, his cows now give an average of
8.000 to 8.500 kg milk per year.
Three years ago he started using tested
Fleckvieh bulls, in order to further impro-
14
Milk & Beef
ve the milk performance of his cows.
The average milk performance of his
126 cows was 8542 kg milk with 4,02 %
kg milk fat and 3,41 % milk protein last
year. When looking at these figures it
has also to be taken into consideration
that the feeding management is not very
intensive.
Table 2:
F1 generation, Holstein Friesian x Fleckvieh; 50% Fleckvieh
HF-mother
Sire
(natural service)
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Biena
Fleckvieh
9365
3,99
3,50
Zara
Fleckvieh
7337
4,13
3,61
Blessi
Fleckvieh
8437
4,01
3,16
Hela
Helia
Fleckvieh
8472
3,85
3,46
Table 1 shows the milk performances of
some pure bred Holstein Friesian cows
belonging to the dairy herd of Mr. Zerbe.
Holga
Halla
Fleckvieh
7801
4,55
3,27
Isaria
Isar
Fleckvieh
8765
4,46
3,32
Table 2 shows the performances of the
daughters of the Holstein Friesian cows,
that were mated to Fleckvieh bulls. The
milk performances of these daughters
are almost all significantly higher than
that of their purebred mothers, a fact
that is mainly due to heterosis effects.
Isabell
Isar
Fleckvieh
7305
4,04
3,35
Herolde
Herla
Fleckvieh
8792
4,15
3,45
Iris
Irene
Fleckvieh
5380
4,07
3,55
Elfie
Fleckvieh
11577
3,87
3,30
In the following tables the milk performances of some of Mr. Zerbes dairy cows are
shown and the development of the milk
performances with rising percentage of
Fleckvieh blood shall be explained:
Name
Bertina
Zara
Blecky
Erna
Also the milk protein contents of the F1
generation are higher than that of the
basic generation.
Table 3:
F2 generation, F1 x Fleckvieh, 75% Fleckvieh
Name
F1-cow
Sire
(natural service)
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Bertina
Fleckvieh
7206
4,23
3,29
Zara
Fleckvieh
6136
3,94
3,41
Blecky
Fleckvieh
7333
3,74
3,41
Hela
Fleckvieh
6848
3,50
3,40
Holiday
Holga
Fleckvieh
6596
4,61
3,40
Isolde
Isaria
Fleckvieh
8166
3,96
3,26
Inka
Isaria
Fleckvieh
6162
4,19
3,60
Inge
Isabell
Fleckvieh
7657
4,41
3,46
Isis
Fleckvieh
6334
4,07
3,39
Beiona
Zelia
Blanca
Helga
Indora
Table 4:
F3 generation, F2 x Fleckvieh, 87,50% Fleckvieh
Name
F1-cow
Sire
(natural service)
Milk-kg
Fat %
Protein %
Bora
Beiona
Fleckvieh
7837
3,31
3,23
Inge
Fleckvieh
7531
3,73
3,47
Ingrid
Table 3 shows the milk performances of
the F2 generation which now has 75 %
Fleckvieh blood.
There are also already few results of
the F3 generation, which are pointed
out in table 4.
Although the milk performances are not
so high in the F2 and F3 generation
anymore, Mr. Zerbe is very content with
these crossing products. Most of all, Mr.
Zerbe likes the even lactation curve of
Fleckvieh cows. This is a main reason
why Fleckvieh cows are easier to handle than Holstein Friesian cows.
In Mr. Zerbes opinion another big advantage of Fleckvieh can be seen in the
fact that the milk performance is rising
with the rising number of lactations. At
the same time the development of the
body condition of a Fleckvieh cow over
the years is very satisfactory. The additional income rising from good carcasses and high slaughter prices is one of
the reasons why Mr. Zerbe is so fond of
Fleckvieh. They make the breed very
economic.
Alltogether Mr. Zerbe is very content
because through the crossbreeding
strategy with Fleckvieh he found a way
to make a reasonable farm income and
to reach the goals he set himself.
Milk
15
The milk performance is raising again!
The milk performance of Mr. Holböcks
dairy herd stagnated already for some
years between 5500 and 5900 kg. This
made him think of possibilities to raise the
milk performance. So Mr. Holböck from
Wiesmühle (Bavaria) decided to take part
in the Fleckvieh management-course organized by the Cattle Breeding Service
Company of Munich-Grub 1996. There he
learnt about the feeding system TMR (Total Mixed Ration). Back home he immediately began to translate the newly gained ideas into action.
He was very astonished how fast the milk
performance can be raised if the cows
are fed TMR and treated with an appropriate management system. Even experts
are astonished about these consequences. Since the introduction of TMR the
performance of the herd of the Holböcks
improved about 1.200 kg a year. The fat
content of the milk became a little lower
and the protein content a little higher,
which means that the milk contents were
improved with regard to the milk quota.
Along with the raise of the milk performance the body condition of the cows improved a lot, too.
In the following we want to show what influence the feeding of TMR can have on
one single cow.
Table 1:
Development of the milk performance since 1993:
Year
Cows
Milk-kg
Fat-kg
Fat-%
Protein-kg
Protein-%
1993
46,6
5879
246,6
4,11
210,7
3,59
1994
51,6
5663
227,7
4,02
200,0
3,53
1995
52,9
5910
236,2
4,00
210,1
3,55
1996
51,3
5526
226,6
4,10
191,4
3,46
TMR-Introduction • TMR-Introduction • TMR-Introduction • TMR-Introduction
1997
1998
1999
51,1
51,5
49,5
6780
7998
7768
269,0
319,4
312,0
3,99
3,99
4,02
242,7
284,9
275,9
3,60
3,56
3,55
Table 2:
Performance of the cow SONNE 252:
Number of
lactation
Milking
days
Milk-kg
Fat-kg
Fat-%
Protein-kg
Protein-%
Year
1
288
4121
169
4,09
136
3,30
1993
2
269
5014
190
3,79
167
3,33
1994
3
256
4257
164
3,85
147
3,45
1995
4
285
4765
192
4,02
162
3,40
1996
5
6
305
310
7856
8448
337
336
Sonne, a Balist-daughter was a normal
and as far as her performance was concerned a moderate Fleckvieh cow. This
changed all of a sudden, when she was
4,29
3,97
275
289
3,50
3,42
1997
1998
fed single phase TMR with a mixer wagon. When she was almost 9 years old
Sonne was slaughtered after she unfortunately had an abortion. Without any final
fattening the carcass weight was 469,6 kg
and the carcass was graded very high
and payed for appropriate.
This example is quite extreme and is not
generally valid but it shows impressively
how the high genetic potential of a Fleckvieh cow can be exploited when the appropriate management system is applied.
This high genetic potential makes the
Fleckvieh breed very suitable for crossing
purposes. Due to heterosis one can expect even higher performances among the
crossed animals than among the purebred cattle.
The Holböck family pin
their hopes on TMR and
the genetics from the
Al-center of MunichGrub.
Unfortunately for most German farmers it
makes no sense to raise the milk performance of their cows because of lacking
milk quota. Therefore there is no use in
buying a mixer wagon as the costs of buying would be too high. Maybe this is one of
the reasons why demanding management
systems for dairy herds gain acceptance
only relatively slow in Germany. But all farmers who have an appropriate management system are convinced that Fleckvieh
is an economically very effective breed.
16
Milk
Just choose the right management system - and
even old Fleckvieh cows come up with excellent
performances
In the year 1997 Mr. Mair decided to
change the management system of his
dairy herd. He built a loose housing stable and began to feed single-phase TMR,
a feeding system he had heard of for the
first time at the training course of the
Cattle Breeding Service Company of Munich-Grub. This definitely was the right
decision to make, if you look at the performance of his dairy herd now.
Table 1:
Development of the milk performance of the dairy cows:
Year
1994
1995
1996
1997
Number of
cows
Milk-kg
Fat-%
Protein-%
Intercalving
period
23
25
25
27
7724
8482
8710
8727
4,30
4,21
4,17
4,12
3,44
3,46
3,49
3,45
381
373
386
382
The Farm of the Mairs/
Untersteinbach
The village of Untersteinbach (700 m) is
located in the hilly grassland-region (1.800
mm annual precipitation) south of Bad
Tölz (Southern Bavaria). The 32 hectares
of land belonging to the farm are used in
an intensive way. The young cows are
kept on 55 hectares mountain summer
ranges.
The main source of farm income are the
dairy cows. Several positive proven Albulls come from this farm (ELDORADO,
LIMAX). Even president Mandela from
South Africa should know this farm already, because the bull Madiba, that was given from the Bavarian State as a gift on
the occasion of the World Simmental Fleckvieh Congress 1996 in Pretoria is
out of this farm.
Georg Mair at work with TMR and his Fleckvieh-herd.
1998
1999
32
36
8745
9017
4,26
4,41
3,44
3,52
372
In the new built barn house that has a capacity to house 60 cows, now 32 dairy
cows are kept. To get a little sun the cows
can use the barnyard. All the young cows
are housed in the same barn, too. Only
the young calves are brought immediately
after birth to iglus outside of the barn. The
cow comfort was well to the fore as the
barn was planned, so the Mairs chose cubicles with straw bedding although it is
not possible to cultivate any grain to get
straw. The cows are milked in a 2 x 4 herringbone milking parlour.
Feeding + Management
After the 4th week of life all female and
male breeding calves are put into a pen
Filling of the mixer wagon.
with deep litter in group housing. In addition to milk the calves are offered TMR already. Lactating cows and weaners
(12 weeks) up to an age of 12 months as
well as genetically valuable bull-calves till
they are ready to go to the auction, are all
fed the same TMR. All other female cattle
as well as dry cows are fed a mixture of
hey and grass silage (own composition).
To cover the mineral requirements only
calciumcarbonate is added to the mixture.
Composition of the TMR (for 26 kg milk)
30,0 kg grass silage
8,0 kg potato pulp
4,0 kg brewer’s draff
3,0 kg coarse meal of barley and corn
(ratio 1:2)
2,0 kg concentrate
2,0 kg hey - 2nd cut
1,3 kg soya bean oil meal
1,0 kg sugar-beet chips
125 g mineral feed
75 g calcium carbonate
50 g salt
Milk
REPORT-daughter „Manuela“
288 milking days - 9447 kg milk - 3,90% milk fat - 3,80% milk protein.
The mixture is made in a chopping-mixer
3
wagon (8 qm holding capacity). In the
opinion of Mr. Mair the weighing part of
his feeder is very important because
otherwise no precise ration can be mixed.
The chopping-mixer wagon is filled and is
used for the dairy cows once a day (in the
morning). The mixture of hay and grass
silage is fed to the young cows and the
dry cows all one and a half days. Young
cows with a milk performance of more
than 28 kg and cows with more calves
and a milk performance of more than
35 kg are given additional concentrate at
the feed bunk. The cows are fed 1 kg
concentrate for 2 kg milk up to an maximum of 5 kg concentrate per cow per
day. It is Mr. Mair goal to stop the separate feeding of concentrate and to raise the
value of the TMR ration to 30-32 kg of
milk instead.
Egol-heifer left, Lombard-heifer right - promising genetics.
The dairy herd of the Mairs is an excellent
example for how fast the enormous genetic potential of the Fleckvieh cows becomes obious when they are treated with an
appropriate management system.
After the year 1997 in which the feeding
system was changed to TMR, the milk performance of the whole herd raised continuously. In the years 97 and 98 there was
no cow in the herd anymore that had an
intercalving period of more than 500 days,
a fact that demonstrates the excellent fertility performance of the whole herd. The lacation curves of the young cows, as can
be seen from table 2, is very even and
shows a good persistance. Their milk performance at the beginning of the lactation
is not too high but also does not drop too
much to the end of the lactation. This kind
of lactation curve is very favourable to get
the cows pregnant again.
Roman-daughter„Linda“
305 milking days
7968 kg milk
4,56% milk fat
3,62% milk protein.
Experiences with TMR influences of the new
management system
Now, since Mr. Mair has some experience here are his most important statements about TMR:
1. Much less work
2. Better fertility
3. Since they started to feed TMR there
was no cow with calving fever anymore
- more stable metabolism
4. Improvement of the persistance (even
lactation curve)
5. No extreme milk performance at the
beginning of the lactation (no cows
anymore with more than 50 kg milk)
6. Improvement of the health of the claws
7. Improvement of the fat- and proteincontent in the milk
8. Old cows reacted with new high performances to the new feeding system
9. Cows are very quiet now as the animals are fed only once a day
10. No fattening - optimal body condition
in all phases of the lactation
11. Calving without problems
Mr. Mair does not want to miss TMR anymore. He thinks this feeding strategy is
good for the future. Even though the ration is mixed without corn silage the cows
have a reasonable milk performance.
Mr. Mairs dairy herd is just one of many
examples that show what a great influence the management system has on the
performance of Fleckvieh cows. Their genetic potential is enormous - it only has to
be exploited in an appropriate way.
17
22
Beef
Fleckvieh - the solution for commercial beef herds
and commercial crossings
Worldwide there are an estimated 40 Mio.
of Fleckvieh cattle. Approximately two
thirds are kept as commercial beef cows
for the following reasons:
• Fleckvieh-cows appear to have exellent
mothering abilities, their good milk performance and persistence (even lactation curve) guarantee high weaning
weights.
• Fleckvieh weaners attract attention
through their rapid growth and their extraordinary frame and muscling. They
are perfectly suited to be fattened up to
600 to 700 kg without getting to fat.
Fleckvieh can be found in various production systems - as it easily adapts to different climates and soils as well as to new
developments regarding breeding and fattening methods. Last but not least products deriving from Fleckvieh can be marketed many different ways and can be
easily adapted to eventual changes
among the consumer demands.
During the last ten years commercial
beef became more and more popular in
Germany. This is why the National Research Center for Agriculture and Fishery
of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (northern
part of East Germany) does investigations on different aspects of commercial
beef herds since a long time in order to
help farmers to find the right breed and
production system.
In the following we would like to present
you a short summary about the results of
their research work:
Polled Fleckvieh cattle on the state farm of Schwaiganger/Bavaria.
The advantages of Fleckvieh
Next to internationally appreciated qualities
like vitality, fertility and adaptability, Fleckvieh has numerous other qualities that make the breed so famous:
Breeding performance:
As far as the breeding performance is concerned, Fleckvieh is characterized by a
high productivity. A good conception rate
(in the average 93% among heifers and
cows), connected with short intercalving
periods (in the average 378 days) as well
as a high percentage of twin births (about
5% of all calvings) guarantee a high calving
rate. Calving ease is a further advantageous characteristic of Fleckvieh, which was
improved during a long time of selection
and now stands every comparison with
other big cattle breeds.
Thanks to the calving ease, Fleckvieh calves are vital and easy to handle. Although
an enormous breeding progress was gained at the traits milk- and beef performance, the mothering abilities of Fleckvieh survived and high rearing proportions are reached.
Milk performance
The enormous milk performance of a Fleckvieh cow allows her calf, to fully express its
genetically determinated growth potential.
The milk performance and the good persistence of Fleckvieh cows are responsible for
the fact that Fleckvieh calves reach daily
gains of 1.100 to 1.500 g, depending on the
length of the suckling period. This means
that without the feeding of additional concentrate even on less productive pastures
high weaning weights can be reached.
Beef performance
Fleckvieh cattle for commercial beef production in Namibia.
Fleckvieh is also famous for its high beef
performance. Already at the turn of the century the high prices for slaughter cattle, the
good expectations regarding the market for
slaughter cattle (because of the fast growth
of the population) and the growing demand
Beef
for beef from foreign countries led to an emphasis on the beef performance of Fleckvieh.
One of the big advantages of Fleckvieh has
to be seen in its high growth potential. Depending on the fattening intensity young
bulls reach daily gains of 1.100 to 1.300 g
(Table 2+3). The long lasting growth period
and the fact that fat deposits are build up
very late allow excellent fattening results
due to high carcass yields and a high percentage of pure beef. Depending on the fattening intensity the carcass yields range between 58 and 62% and the percentage of
beef in the carcass amounts 69 to 71%. The
beef produced with Fleckvieh cattle is well
marbeled and tender and it is of minor importance whether it derives from bulls, heifers or from steers.
Suitability for commercial crossings
- a particular strength of Fleckvieh
Simbra bull in the South African bushland.
The crossing products of Fleckvieh are
easy calving and convince through a high
growth potential, an excellent beef performance and extraordinary beef qualities.
emphasized breeds. Both, crossed bulls
and heifers show a high growth intensity
and growth capacity, even when they are
fattened up to an higher final weight and
it is possible to produce lots of beef of an
excellent quality.
Fleckvieh bulls crossed with cows of dairy
breeds
The good calving qualities are one of the
reasons why Fleckvieh is perfectly suited
for commercial crossings as can be seen
from table 4.
Thanks to consequent bull testing today
we have a huge number of easy calving
Fleckvieh bulls. Besides this Fleckvieh
improves the beef performance of milk
A specialty not only overseas - Fleckvieh
as basic breed for new breeds.
Because of its growth capacity and milk
yield Fleckvieh became an important
crossing partner for the establishment of
new breeds. The influence of Fleckvieh
on the performance potential of the diffrent crossing products is tremendous:
Table 1:
Calving ease of different pure bred beef breeds
Breed
Normal births -%
Dystocias - %
Assisted births -%
99,0
92,9
91,6
94,9
99,0
98,3
98,7
1,0
5,2
5,4
4,4
1,0
1,4
0,9
0,0
1,9
3,0
0,7
0,0
0,3
0,4
Aberdeen Angus
Blonde dÁquitaine
Charolais
Fleckvieh
Hereford
Limousin
Salers
Table 2:
Simbrah
Pure bred Simbrah have 5/8 Fleckvieh
(Simmentaler) and 3/8 Brahman genes.
This breed combines the advantages of
Fleckvieh with the longevity, the heat tolerance and the disease resistance of Brahman. Especially American and Australian
farmers are interested in this breed.
Similar as with the breeding of Simbrah
Fleckvieh is used more and more for the
improvement of other Zebu-lines as well
as for new breeds with Nelore or Sahiwal in South Asia, East Africa and South
America.
With Simford (50% Fleckvieh genes)
and Beefmaker (25% Fleckvieh genes)
in Australia two synthetic breeds were
established, which are adapted excellently to the Australian fattening systems
and allow the production of excellent carcasses.
Uckermärker
This breed was bred since the beginning of
the 70ties from Charolais and Fleckvieh
and combines the calving ease and the
growth capacity from Fleckvieh and the
high beef performance of Charolais. This
breed can be used for commercial crossings with dairy cows but also as pure bred
commercial beef herds and as sire breed.
Growth capacity of Fleckvieh-bulls and heifers at field conditions
Age in days
Birth
210
365
Weight in kg
42
309
491
Daily gains
Weight in kg
1271
1230
40
267
372
Daily gains
1081
910
Fleckvieh cows as mothers for crossing
programmes
Because of their milk yield Fleckvieh cows
are excellently suited for crossing programmes established for the production of
weaners of high quality.
23
24
Beef
Depending on the intentions and the system of production various sire breeds can
be used as crossing partners. The combination „dam with high milk yield and growth
capacity“ and sire with „excellent beef
yield“ brings clear advantages for farmers
keeping commercial beef herds and fatteners. As sire breeds for the different production systems the following breeds would be
suited:
• Calves fattened with milk (e.g. for direct
marketing):
German and Aberdeen Angus
• Production of weaners to be fattened on
farm or for sale:
Charolais, Blonde dÁquitaine, Limousin
However, Fleckvieh has to compete as a
commercial beef breed, but also as crossing partner for commercial crossings
with different specialized beef breeds.
Thanks to the high breeding and milk performance, the high daily gains as well as
the excellent quality of the carcass and
the beef it can easily bear this comparasion as the following scientific results show.
Comparative investigations in order to
judge the suitability of various breeds
for different production systems
In the year 1995 investigations on the finishing period of fattening cattle were done.
Weaners deriving from a commercial beef
herd were compared to bulls from a dairy
cow population in order to give the commercial beef farmer and the owners of
feedlots some information regarding the
performance of the different beef breeds.
The following breeds were included in the
investigations:
• weaners deriving from those beef breeds
and crossing products that are most
common in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
= Limousin, Charolais, Cha x FV, Fleckvieh, Angus, Hereford, Salers, Pinzgauer
Table 3:
Growth capacity of young bulls at a test station
Limousin
Charolais
Uckermärker
Fleckvieh
38
48
47
40
Weight at the beginning
of the test period in kg
286
322
314
317
Weight at the end of the
test period in kg
465
515
495
513
1432
1544
1448
1569
127
129
130
132
Weight at birth in kg
Daily gains during test
period in g
Height at withers cm
• weaners deriving from dairy breeds
used for various production systems
= Gelbvieh as a dual purpose breed with
emphasis on beef production
= HF as a breed with emphasis on milk
production
= Red Holstein as a dual purpose breed
The weaners deriving from the commercial beef herds were purchased from
farms located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg that have their
cattle registered in the studbook. The
weaners came at an age of 200 days (+/28 days). The weaners deriving from the
Gelbvieh breed (purchased from a Bavarian farm) and HF- and Red Holstein
cattle (purchased from dairy farms located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and
Schleswig Holstein and raised in the experimentel farm) used for investigations
were all the same age.
During the finishing period the cattle
were kept in group housing with a mobile
feeding system (own mixture of concentrate with 23% of protein and corn- and
grass silage in a ratio of 70:30% ad lib.).
All bulls were slaughtered at an age of
530 days (+/-4 days).
Fattening of weaners - despite of a good beef
performance this specialization of production
can be economically problematic for the fattener
In the tables 5 and 6 show some results
of the investigations. They demonstrate
the high level of the fattening period,
which allowed the complete exhaustion of
the individual growth capacity of the
young bulls. The results show the good
performance disposition of cattle deriving
from commercial beef herds, as well as
Gelbvieh cattle as far as the growth rate
and growth capacity are concerned. In
addition to that differences in the expression of single traits between the breeds
and genotypes become obvious. While
evaluating these results one has to keep
in the mind that the good performance level of the Fleckvieh bulls is the result of a
strong selection for beef performance for
the last 25 years at the farms in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thüringen.
The best results as far as the fattening and
slaughter performance are concerned were
reached by Charolais and Fleckvieh as
well as the crossing products from these
breeds (table 5). The superiority of the Limousin bulls as far as the carcass yield is
concerned was not high enough to compensate the deficit of the carcass weight
and the net weight gain with regard to the
other groups.
Table 4:
Influence of the sire breed on the weight at birth and the calving
ease of crossed animals
Breed
Limousin
Charolais
Uckermärker
Fleckvieh
Weight at birth kg
Normal calvings %
Dystocias %
Stillbirth rate %
39,8
42,4
40,6
40,4
97,4
94,5
95,5
97,0
1,6
3,1
3,1
2,1
1,0
2,4
1,4
0,9
The beef quality was rated with the following criteria for beef quality:
Marbling (grade) 2...4
pH-value
5,4...5,8
Colour
34 (pale red to dark red)
Only small differences were detectable
between the examined breeds. Pinzgauer-, Cha x FI and Hereford-bulls tended to
show a darker and Angus bulls a lighter
colour of the beef. The tenderness, that is
Beef
firmly correlated with the marbling grade,
showed up to advantage of the Angus
bulls and was unfavourable for Limousin
bulls. The breed the bulls belong to has a
great influence on the evaluation of the
carcass and in consequence on the effectiveness of fattening process.
The grading of the carcass shows the excellent beef performance of the Charolais
and Fleckvieh breed and their crossing
products. This is also true for the Limousin and Gelbvieh bulls because of their
high carcass quality. The Pinzgauer, Red
Holstein and especially the HF bulls were
graded much more disadvantageous.
These differences between the breeds as
far as the beef performance is concerned
have a great effect on the economical effectiveness of commercial beef herds.
But a farmer has to think not only of feeding, keeping and marketing his cattle but
also of where to buy cheap calves or weaners. The maximal amount of money
that can be spent for buying the animals
was calculated from the difference between the proceeds and costs the animals cause during the fattening period.
These costs amount between 482.- DM
and 1.137 DM.
For the owners of commercial beef herds
this means that weaners are a product
that is not very easy to market, even if the
growth capacity and growth intensity are
high because one has to keep in mind the
proceeds-cost relations for the fattening
process. Therefore it is very important to
unite the management-, breeding- and
marketing efforts in order to make com-
25
Fleckvieh T-bone.
duction possibilities (with regard to the
production site and the marketing possiblities) as there is a huge gene pool of
different breeds.
mercial beef herds as well as fattening
economically efficient. The current market
conditions give the farmers only little
space to move.
The many different breeds and marketing opportunities of commercial beef
herds meet the consumers demands
for high quality beef and beef products
as they are:
Conclusion
The following conclusions can be drawn
from the investigations done on the performance of different breeds in the finishing period:
1. Commercial beef herds can be kept under many different production conditions and can easily adapt to nearly all
climates. Farmers have to select such
breeds or crossing products which are
most favourable for their special pro-
• a „standard quality“ (high quality products, that have to be supplied continuously in a sufficient quantity)
• „Special products“ products with special
dietetic qualities as well as products produced under certain ecologic principles.
Table 5:
Economic evalution of the fattening process of bulls from different origins
Limousin
Charolais
Cha x FI
Fleckvieh
Angus
Hereford
Salers
Pinzgauer
Gelbvieh
Holstein
Friesian
Red
Holstein
1,97
2,11
3,30
2,62
3,25
3,41
2,64
3,60
2,54
4,21
3,45
73,98
72,13
70,15
71,93
68,02
67,41
70,09
68,60
70,32
66,44
66,95
3,50
3,90
3,30
3,50
2,90
3,00
3,10
2,70
3,40
2,00
2,80
Muscling
6,70
6,60
6,00
7,00
6,10
6,00
5,80
5,90
6,30
4,40
5,20
Shear
resistance
7,18
6,30
6,70
6,23
5,58
5,97
6,20
6,78
6,55
5,95
6,07
Quality Index 1,027
1,050
0,913
1,000
0,920
0,902
0,941
0,857
0,967
0,779
0,865
Slaughter
weight
386,1
412,0
422,9
413,0
356,6
362,6
389,7
362,7
381,4
316,7
323,2
2299,94
2574,50
2441,28
2371,48
2341,96
2388,55
2422,44
2425,26
2338,44
0,990
0,965
0,908
1,000
0,804
0,786
0,869
0,736
0,906
Beef tallow %
Beef %
Beef
classification
Costs
Index of
efficiency
1881,23 1885,87
0,753
0,851
26
Beef
perfectly suited as mothers for crossing
programmes because of their high milk
yield. Their crossing products show daily
gains that are almoust 200 g higher and
weaning weights that are 36 kg higher
than that of the pure bred Charolais calves. Fleckvieh weaners show frame, rapid growth, as well as a good muscling of
the beefy parts and are perfectly suited
for the fattening for high slaughter
weights without fattening to much.
Last but not least - as pointed out in
table 6 - the feed conversion is very favourable among Fleckvieh cattle and the
crossing products between Fleckvieh
and Charolais.
Balaton daughter in the Cape Regron of South Africa.
2. The production of „standard quality“ is
normally bound to the conventional
market. Farmers keeping commercial
beef herds should favour big and
middle sized breeds, that have a high
growth capacity and a good conformation in order to produce in an efficient
way. The results mentioned above
showed that Carolais, Fleckvieh, Gelbvieh and Limousin appear to be most
suitable. Commercial crossings show
very favourable results, too. The combination of a suckler cow with a high
milk performance (Fleckvieh, Pinzgauer and Salers cows) and a bull with a
high beef performance (Charolais, Limousin, and also Fleckvieh or Gelbvieh bulls) makes it possible to exploit
economically relevant heterosis effects. However, one has to select the sires for the crossings very carefully, because the crossed cattle have to compensate the lower proceeds (especially
with Pinzgauer and Salers) caused by
the pure bred animals originating from
the natural reproduction of the herd.
3. „Special products“ are marketed mostly through „direct relationships“ such
as cooperations of producers (e.g.
cooperations of organic farmers). Because these marketing techniques normally are connected with higher proceeds, the question of which breed to
use is not well to the fore. This means
that advantages of all breeds kept in
Germany can be used for this production specialisation, depending on the
production sites and the preferences of
the producer.
4. Fleckvieh used in commercial beef
herds has to compete with specialised
beef breeds. Because of its extraordinary breeding qualities and milk performance, the excellent daily gains and
the good carcass and beef quality
Fleckvieh is able to bear this comparison.
As can be seen from table 5 fattened
Fleckvieh bulls don´t reach the highest
grades among special traits. But alltogether the traits are very balanced and
especially the growth potential, as well as
the good quality of the carcass and beef
quality are the most obvious advantages
of this breed. At the same time the results
of the crossing products Charolais x
Fleckvieh show, that Fleckvieh cows are
However, it is not easy to make a lot of
money with commercial beef breeds, because in contrary to dairy cows, all a commercial beef cow produces is a calf that
can be either used for restocking or sale.
In addition to the calf you have some
slaughter cows. This is why farmers
keeping commercial beef herds are extremly dependent on the beef prices.
Therefore it is very important to choose
the right breed for this kind of production
system.The facts explained above show
that Fleckvieh has many advantages and
allows an economically very effective beef
production either through pure breeding or
through crossbreeding. So it is no wonder
that people say: „If you keep in mind that
the Fleckvieh population amounts 54 million animals all over the world, there must
be at least some farmers that have to be
convinced that it is possible to earn money
with this breed.“
Fleckvieh cattle in South Africa show high performances even though not much feed is available.
Beef
27
Table 6:
Fattening performance of bulls of different origins
Breed/
crossing
product
Limousin
Charolais
Cha x FI
Fleckvieh
Angus
Hereford
Salers
Pinzgauer
Gelbvieh
10
10
9
18
7
10
10
9
10
Weight at 200
days (kg)
223,3
255,1
290,8
280,8
215,7
254,2
262,9
278,4
239,7
Weight at 530
days (kg)
613,4
696,7
725,6
696,8
616,9
652,7
659,1
Birth to 200
days (g)
910
1054
1246
1199
915
1106
1155
1219
999
729
738
201 to 530
days (g)
1182
1338
1318
1261
1216
1208
1201
1149
1282
1192
1174
Birth to 530
days (g)
1079
1231
1291
1238
1102
1169
1184
1176
1175
1017
1009
305,2
252,7
225,6
230,7
300,1
256,3
249,9
240,8
262,2
317,4
312
Dry matter total
(kg)
6,58
6,97
7,05
6,84
7,20
6,68
6,89
6,82
6,57
7,22
7,42
Dry matter per
100 kg weight (kg)
2,03
2,15
2,17
2,04
2,22
2,06
2,06
2,1
2,02
2,22
2,28
Energy (MJ ME)
73,93
78,12
78,96
73,06
79,57
73,27
74,69
76,45
72,21
78,81 80,93
Energy intake
(MJ ME/kg)
55,38
56,65
52,78
56,37
64,22
59,52
70,46
74,44
53,02
62,5 63,18
Daily gains (g)
1335
1379
1496
1296
1239
1231
1060
1027
1362
1261
1281
461,9
394,5
365,6
385,7
446,7
418,2
407,6
399,6
406,8
481,2
485
Dry matter total
(kg)
8,7
9,35
9,73
9,27
10,05
9,59
10,22
9,38
8,87
Dry matter per
100 kg weight (kg)
1,66
1,82
1,85
1,77
1,91
1,83
1,95
1,79
1,69
Energy (MJ ME)
94,69
103,33
104,78
100,01
108,89
103,26
110,44
101,7
95,88
110,57 110,3
Energy intake
(MJ ME/kg)
78,71
73,49
76,15
74,36
86,76
77,64
91,5
87,67
76,28
106,01 102,22
Daily gains (g)
1203
1406
1376
1345
1255
1330
1207
1160
1257
Number of
cattle tested
Holstein
Red
Friesian Holstein
10
10
Development
of weight
184,8 186,5
Weight gain
Feed intake at
325 kg
Age (days)
Feed intake at
525 kg
Age (days)
10,31 10,28
1,96
1043
1,96
1079
28
Beef
The Bulls from Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics are
not only tested in Bavaria
For Fleckvieh breeders in other parts of
the world it is extremely important to
know what performances they can expect from the progeny of our bulls under
different climatic conditions. This is why
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics tests some
of the bulls not only in Bavaria but also in
South Africa and Canada.The bulls tested in other countries are carefully selected for their performances and type
traits prior to the testing period.
Since we have good connections to the
Simmentaler Society of South Africa they
agreed to include some of our bulls in
their bull testing system. Now we are
proud to present you the newest BLUP
estimation of breeding values from our
bulls in South Africa.
Fleckvieh breeding in South Africa
Haxent 7246/11.
“It is not possible to produce beef without
milk” - The good maternal qualities of
Fleckvieh are one of the reasons why
lots of South African cattlemen keep
Fleckvieh and are fully convinced of this
breed. Fleckvieh proved to be the most
effective breed in South Africa in several
scientific investigations.
Fleckvieh as a dual purpose breed holds
the 3rd place among all beef-cattle breeds
in South Africa and is the most successful
European cattle breed among 26 other
beef-cattle breeds worked on. An official
analysis of the herdbook showed that
42.863 Fleckvieh cattle were registered in
1999.
In the mean time some breeders recognized that they are extremely dependent
on the prices if they rely on the production of only one product (beef).Therefore
they decided to try those bulls from Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics that are expected
to transmit the highest milk performances. Now the first REXON and SAMURAI
calves were already born and we are eagerly awaiting their further development.
The marketing of the combination of
“milk+beef+breeding cattle” could become a new survival strategy in South Africa for cattle breeders.
Eldorado 27843/10.
The type traits of South African Fleckvieh cattle are very attractive. In our opinion the Fleckvieh-cow from the southern part of Africa combined with the
quality of the udder and the performance
disposition of our German cows would
come the ideal typus of a “extremly effective cow” quite close.
Beef
29
The joint test bull programm
Thanks to the joint test bull programm,
the results of the South African estimation of the breeding values of our bulls
BALATON, ELDORADO, BARABAS and
BALTIMORE and some other bulls are
available now.
Especially the progeny of the ELCH-son
ELDORADO,
bred
from
Georg
Mair/Gaißach (see page 28) showed
sensational results. This bull convinced
with all important traits and was named
“traitleader” for wean direct, year direct
of the female progeny, eye pigmentation
and beef performance of the male progeny tested under field conditions. In
South Africa bulls that are ranged as top
bull as far as certain traits are concerned
are called “trait leaders”. ELDORADO
proved to be the best German Fleckviehbull ever exported to South Africa.
But the other Fleckvieh bulls from Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics were also very
convincing in various traits as the following tables show:
(The accuracy for each breeding value is
given in brackets):
(*** top bull for this trait / traitleader)
Birth direct (maternal)
Bulls with low breeding values for this
trait produce progeny with a low birth
weight which reduces the probability for
difficult calvings. Three bulls from Bava-
Baltimore 1043/13.
rian Fleckvieh Genetics, STEWARD,
ERBHOLZ and HAXENT were ranged as
traitleaders for this trait. However, the
BALIST-sons BALATON, BALTIMORE
and BARABAS, as well as the ELCH-son
ETOSCHA appear to cause difficult calvings more often.
ELDORADO
BALATON
BARABAS
BALTIMORE
ETOSCHA
STEWARD***
ERBHOLZ***
HAXENT***
RELLO
HUSALDO
Birth direct (paternal)
-1,8 (92)
-1,7 (76)
-1,5 (94)
-0,3 (64)
0,6 (72)
1,0 (99)
3,0 (98)
3,3 (97)
4,7 (87)
6,5 (89)
Cows differ regarding their capacity to influence the development of the calf before birth. The lower the estimated breeding value of a bull is for this trait, the lower is the possibility that his daughters
show calving problems. The BALISTsons BALTIMORE and BARABAS are
traitleaders in this trait.
BARABAS***
BALTIMORE***
ETOSCHA
BALATON
HITCHCOCK
HUSALDO
EISENHERZ
ERBHOLZ
ELDORADO
ZAMUTO
-2,5
-2,2
-0,7
-0,6
-0,2
-0,2
-0,6
-0,1
0,1
1,4
Wean direct
Barabas 7767/11.
The estimated breeding values for weaning weight express the growth capacity
of the calves. The higher these values
are, the better are the weaning weights.
The ELDORADO-calves show a nearly
30
Beef
Year direct
The yearlings weights of the female progeny show the differences in growth potential up to one year. No Fleckvieh bull
reached such high values like ELDORADO ever before. He is as far as this trait
is concerned the top bull in South Africa.
The ELDORADO-daughters seem to have
inherited the almost incredible growth potential of their sire, who himself showed
daily gains of more than 1800g from birth
to the age of one year.
Balaton 7699/11.
incredible growth capacity with a high
accuracy.
ELDORADO***
HAXENT***
STEWARD***
BALATON
BARABAS
EISENHERZ
HUSALDO
ETOSCHA
ZAMUTO
BALTIMORE
26,3 (98)
17,5 (88)
17,0 (81)
15,3 (97)
15,2 (93)
9,3 (76)
8,9 (43)
6,6 (78)
-1,4 (67)
-7,0 (67)
ling in South Africa. As far as the milk
performance is concerned, they have to
adapt to the environment as the prevailing circumstances may require.
ELDORADO
BALTIMORE
ETOSCHA
HITCHCOCK
STEWARD
HAXENT
EISENHERZ
ZAMUTO
BALATON
BARABAS
Maternal (milk) weaning weight
This trait is above all dependent on the
milk performance of the daughters of the
bull. This value shows the capability of a
cow to provide an appropriate environment for her calf (for example through
her milk performance). The higher this
value is, the better is the milk performance of the cow. If you compare these values to our milk values, you won´t necessarily find a correlation. Possibly the environmental circumstances, such as
adaptability and additional maternal qualities are important, too. For the future it
would be interesting to test bulls from
South Africa in Germany for their capacity to produce milk and then compare the
results with those from suckler cow
herds. On the other hand the results
show, that bulls are good in milk in Germany do not necessarily express these
qualities under ranch-conditions prevai-
Hitchcock 1431/13.
1,6
0,8
-0,3
-1,0
-3,9
-5,7
-5,8
-6,1
-7,3
-12,2
ELDORADO***
BARABAS***
ETOSCHA
ELDANI
STEWARD
EISENHERZ
HITCHCOCK
BALTIMORE
HAXENT
BALATON
49 (94)
24 (80)
15 (63)
10 (26)
8 (67)
5 (45)
-2 (15)
-10 (52)
-10 (54)
-18 (89)
18 month direct
The 18 month direct expresses not only
the growth capacity but also to a certain
degree this value allows some hints to
the weight of the grown up animal. Under field conditions very high weight
gains, respectively high breeding values
are not favoured.
Unfortunately the reliabilities for this trait
are quite low, which means that the results can not be taken as guaranteed for
all bulls.
Beef
ons, too. However the development of
the scrotum seems to be less than average among all BALIST-sons, a fact that
was already mentioned to us by breeders from Canada.
More than 5.000 bulls form the base of
comparison for each of these single
traits.
Eye pigmentation (% eye
pigmentation and % brille/specs)
The eye pigmentation of the Fleckvieh
cattle is still an important selection criterion for the beef industry. Commercial
beef producers nearly never use bulls
without eye pigmentation as service
bulls. The danger to loose animals of
eye cancer is too big for this group of farmers, who use Fleckvieh bulls for single
crossings and terminal crossings.
Husaldo 1043/13.
Table 1:
Results of the progeny test under field conditions-phase D
ELDORADO ***
BALATON
ZEUS
ELDORADO
BALATON
STEWARD
ETOSCHA
ELDANI
BARABAS
HITCHCOCK
BALTIMORE
HAXENT
Daily gains
Feed conversion
Development of scrotum
106,2
0,43
7,1
31,1
0,24
-8,4
-76,8
-0,38
8,2
8 (74)
6 (66)
6 (32)
3 (25)
2 (19)
-2 (45)
-2 (15)
-5 (34)
-4 (25)
ly top results as far as daily gains and
feed conversion are concerned and also
the development of the scrotum is highly
positive. On the contrary to the results of
his daughters, BALATON shows extraordinary results under these field conditi-
Progeny test under field
conditions - phase D
Determined by the big size of the country
special institutions are needed for progeny-testing. Therefore the phase D test was introduced, where daily gains,
feed conversion and scrotum circumference are included. The feeding regimes
used during these tests are the same as
in feedlots. The young bulls are kept under optimal conditions, so they can fully
express their beef performance. From
our bulls up to now only BALATON and
ELDORADO were tested this way and
as a comparision you can take the results of the well known sire ZEUS (table1). ELDORADO has shown absolute-
Eisenherz 7623/11.
STEWARD***
90% pigmentation of the eyelid
71% brille
BALTIMORE***
74% brille
ELDORADO***
64% brille
BALATON
62% brille
31
32
Beef
BARABAS
58% brille
HAXENT
26% brille
Colour of the coat and pattern
Whereas in Germany one has the saying: “a good animal has no colour” in
South Africa and Namibia it is nearly impossible to sell Fleckvieh cattle with
much white coat. Many investigations
were done on the heat tolerance of cattle, and it was shown that the adaptability
of red, brown or yellow animals is significantly higher. Therefore special inspectors classify all progeny regarding the
colour of the coat and the spread of the
colour. Up to now the progeny of 1270
bulls were classified with all together
86.000 animals. The Al-bulls of Grub
showed the following results:
Zamuto 4686/13.
Colour from 1 = cream to 3 = dark brown
Pattern from 1 = spotted to 3 = covered
BALTIMORE
ELDORADO
STEWARD
BARABAS
HAXENT
BALATON
2,90 and 2,95
2,85 and 2,97
2,85 and 2,91
2,77 and 2,98
2,73 and 2,75
2,67 and 2,81
The results obtained in South Africa and
Namibia clearly show, that it is very important to select the bulls whose semen
is to be sold to countries with different
climatic conditions very carefully. The
only way to find out about a bulls performance under various environmental conditions is to test him in different countries. Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics reco-
gnized this problem very early and now
we are proud to present you a selection
of thoroughly tested bulls which we can
recommend all Fleckvieh breeders because we know the performances of
these bulls under different climatic conditions. Each year we select the test-bulls
together with the inspectors from South
Africa very carefully regarding type traits,
pigmentation, and growth capacity.
During the International Pretoria Show
last year Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics
presented several bulls to the Simmentaler Society of Southern Africa to select
the next young bull to be tested in South
Africa.
All agreed to choose the MALF-son
MASSMANN, a bull from the HUSALDO
family and named after the manager of
the Simmentaler Society of Southern Africa, Peter Massmann, probably the
most famous Fleckvieh-specialist in the
whole world. This new test bull MASSMANN is the son of the HORB-daughter FEMINA, a full sister to the highly positive bull HOT.
Massmann-the newly selected test bull for South Africa.
You can always find the latest results of
each estimation of breeding values of
our bulls in South Africa in our web site:
http.//www.fleckvieh.de. Just have a look
from time to time!
Beef
Don´t gamble on embryos - buy calves
It´s better to import calves than embryos
when you want new genetic material for
your stud cattle herd, advises Roe Wiid,
retiring president of the Simmentaler/Simbra Cattle BreedersÁssociation
of South Africa.
“It costs a bit more, but the risk is smaller, and you have a good idea of what
you´re getting before you buy.”
Mr. Wiid sent his son Andries to Germany
on a “prospecting” trip last year, and imported a batch of 20 calves as a result.
“The purchase price of calves is about
double that of embryos,” he points out.
“The average is about 1000 Deutsche
Mark, as against 500 Deutsche Mark,
but that balances out when you consider
that you sometimes only get a 50% success rate with embryo transplants.
“Nor do you always get the quality you
want, because of the genetic variations
you can get from any mating, even of the
best breeding pairs. When you choose live calves, you have a pretty good idea of
what you are getting, and you can also
select males or females.”
Freight charges for importing the 20 calves were much lower than the cost of importing mature animals, because several
calves were transported in each crate.
“It was an expensive exercise, but we´re
well satisfied with what we got,” Mr. Wiid
says.
Andries spent about six weeks with
Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics, accompanying the technicians on their visits to Simmentaler breeders all over Germany.
Outstanding young bulls being prepared for sale.
Whenever he saw a good-looking cow,
he studied it, asked about it and later traced its pedigree on the station´s computer.
He built up a list of some 60 possible
cows, then went back to study their calves and make his final selection.
”In this way I was able to get genetic material which would not normally be available to South African breeders, largely
because so many of the cows are unknown to us, as they are not available for
embryo transplant. The greatest risk was
that some of the calves would not survi-
Father and son, Roe and Andries Wiid, standing behind one of the imported heifers.
ve the journey, as they had to be weaned at a very young age.
“Many of our friends were very sceptical
about what we were doing, and I must
admit that some of the calves looked
very sorry for themselves when they came out quarantine. Fortunately they all
survived, and have grown into very fine
cows and bulls.”
“They grew as fast as, if not faster than,
some of our own animals of the same
age. They first heifers are due to calve
soon, and we are looking forward to getting some very good calves.”
A group of Mr. Wiid´s cows and their calves.
33
34
Beef
Highlights of SA Simmentaler
history
Mr. Wiid has been actively involved in the
Simmentaler world for more than 30
years. He became a member of the breeders´society in 1960, and has served on
the board of the society since 1978. In
1992 he was elected president. For a
number of years he was also a member
of the SA Stud Book board.
He says it has meant a great deal to him
and to his family to be so closely involved in the Simmentaler cattle world.
“I have been able to travel all over South
Africa, and abroad too. Meeting people
from all over the world, and learning about various organisations connected with
Simmentaler cattle, changed my point of
view about many things.”
“These experiences meant a great deal
to my family as well, and I am very pleased that my son has developed such a
keen interest in the breed.”
He looks back with satisfaction on a
number of highlights of his term as president of the society. The establishment
and rapid rise in popularity of the Simbra
breed, which was registered 1987, was a
development which gave him particular
pleasure.
There are already abut 95 Simbra breeders in the society. After only ten years,
this makes it the tenth largest beef and
dualpurpose breed.
Promising young Fleckvieh bulls
“I have always been impressed with this
breed, because the results I have seen
of crossing Simmentaler and Brahman
cattle are excellent. When it was proposed that we establish the Simbra as a
new composite breed in South Africa, I
fully supported the idea, and I am well on
the way to having half my own herd made up of Simbra cattle.”
Over the years he has proved that the
Simmentaler is a very hardy breed in its
own right. His farm is near Hopetown in
the upper Karoo.
“Strictly speaking this is not cattle country” he points out. “It´s a harsh, dry region with little grass, although we have a
lot of karoo bush, which has good feed
value.”
“Fortunately we have good water, because the alkaline content of the soil is high,
and the bushes have quite a lot of salt in
them. The farm has a low carrying capacity, but the cattle thrive and even the
animals which were imported as calves
have done well.”
“Unless conditions are very bad, we never give additional feed. Our cattle certainly demolish the idea that Simmentalers can´t cope on the veld.”
Registration - going it alone
The quality of Mr. Wiid´s Simmentalers is obvious.
Seeing the Simmentaler/Simbra Cattle
Breeders´Society become a registering
authority in its own right, in terms of the
new Animal Improvement Act 62 of
1998, was another highlight in his career.
“I am very happy with the new Act. To
some extent the change was forced on
us,” he explains. “We had been having
discussions with the Stud Book Association from about 1990, in an effort to resolve various problems.”
“One of our greatest difficulties was to
have them give us a registration certificate which would be on a par with that of
other countries, a certificate with all the
information we felt to be of importance to
breeders and their clients, such as full
performance test information and BLUP
breeding values, classifications and at
least five generations of breeding.
“Somehow they were not able to do this,
so when the law was changed and we
were able to take over the task of registering our own animals, we decided that
we should move in this direction, and offer a better service.
“We upgraded our computers, and within
seven months we had programs written
to suit our needs. This was one of the
best investments we´ve ever made.
The system will be about 10–20% cheaper than the Stud Book system, and the
certificate turnover time much faster.”
“The first of the new certificates for Simbra cattle, containing all the information
we wanted, were printed out late in June,
and those for Simmentalers in July.”
The society has also been looking at
possible alternatives to the South African
Beef Cattle Performance Testing Scheme.
Beef
“We have had offers from a few other
countries which feel they have a good
system, but we have decided that, for
the present, we will stay with the ARC.”
the World Congress auction. The proceeds were used to give previously disadvantaged farmers information about
the cattle industry - not just about Simmentalers and Simbras, but all breeds.”
Winning friends and influencing
people
A pioneering Simmentaler
breeder
From 1992 to 1994, during his tenure as
president, the South African society made
contact with Simmentaler breeders in
neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe
and Botswana.
Mr. Wiid bought his first Simmentalers
locally. He imported animals in 1970,
and again in 1974, to form the basis of
his stud herd.
“Namibian breeders have been members
of our society for many years, but we
wanted to include more of our neighbours. We offered to assist Zimbabwe,
but they felt that their society is still too
small. Our breed improvement services
have been extended to Botswana and
Kenya.”
A variety of Simmentaler types were imported at that time, some of them com-
pletely unsuitable for veld conditions in
South Africa – generally because they
were too big.
“It has taken a lot of careful selection to
eliminate unsuitable animals from the
national herd,” he says. “Because we are
farming in a country with extensive conditions, and cattle must be able to produce on low-quality roughage, we set out to
reduce the size of our animals to a middle-of-the-road, medium-frame score type
of animal.
“For several years now we have insisted
that animals competing in agricultural
shows must be measured, so that judges
Mr. Wiid pays tribut to Simmentaler breed
director Peter Massmann and his staff.
“The breed´s success is due in no small
measure to the hard work of these fine
people, and the friendly service they render. This is reinforced by the services
provided by our breed improvement
officers, Willem Volschenk and Fred
Dell.”
“We make use of professional people,
because our breeders prefer this to having fellow breeders do it on a part-time
basis. Regular herd visits enable the society to maintain personal contact with
members.
“The inspectors take down all the information about a breeder´s herd when
they visit him. They discuss each animal
with the farmer, giving him good advice
and urging him to eliminate poor perfomers highlighted by performance
testing.
“These visits are expensive, but I believe
that if we can eliminate a single weak
animal by doing this, it will be of benefit
to breeders and the breed as a whole.”
Hosting the Simmentaler World Congress in Pretoria in 1996 – the biggest
up to that point – was the crowning
achievement of the Simmentaler/Simbre
Cattle Breeder´s Association.
“We had more than 860 cattle on show.
Twenty-eight of 30 member countries in
the Simmentaler World Federation were
represented. Thoko Didiza, our new Minister of Agriculture, was at the show.
“We donated three bulls, and Germany
one, to President Mandela, to be sold at
Above and below: One of the top cows in the herd with her calf. Note her full, well formed udder.
35
36
Beef
way in which farmers can improve their
income is by improving reproduction.
This is what our society has been giving
its attention to for the past 22 years.”
Because of the drought of the past year,
and also because he is making room for
more Simbra cattle on his farm, Mr. Wiid
has reduced the number of breeding
cows in his herd to about 60 of the 120
animals. As well as the stud herd, he
runs a large flock of sheep, but no commercial cattle.
Because he only keeps stud cattle, the
cows are allowed to calve at any time of
year. He makes considerable use of AI.
Semen is obtained from his own top
bulls and from carefully selected local
and overseas sires.
He emphasises how important it is to take
every possible trait into consideration
when you select bulls.
Simmentaler and Simbra heifers.
have guidelines for deciding which are
too big and wich are too small.
“This is Simscore – a new system developed after measuring a few thousand
Simmentalers at different shows.
“We award a points score ranging from
one to nine. Animals which score eight
or nine are regarded as too large, six to
seven is large, four to five is the middleof-the-road type which we feel is ideal for
our conditions, two to three is small, and
one is too small.”
Another very important index used for
the breed is the Simdex. Developed by
Mr. Massmann, it replaces the intercalving period as a yardstick for evaluating
the reproductive capacity of cows.
“In the period 1977 to 1987, we judged
all our Simmentaler cows on appearance
and ICP,” Mr. Wiid explains. “As ICP on
its own is not an accurate measure of reproduction, we were compelled to introduce a better yardstick, which we call the
Simdex, for “Simmentaler or Simbra Index.”
“Everything centres around production
and reproduction, and we are looking for
the most productive animals. As profit
margins decrease, the most important
A view of the harsch terrain Roe Wiid´s cattle have to contend with.
“Not all the bulls available in Germany
are suitable for our requirements. I believe that when it comes to hardiness and
suitability for extensive ranching conditions, we are far ahead of the German
breeders.
“This was another reason why Andries
went over – to be able to study bulls and
cows before deciding on their progeny.
We wanted to boost milk production in
our herd, and improve udder conformation.”
For further information, contact Roe Wiid,
tel (053)203-1064, or
Peter Massmann, tel (051)447-3596.
The Wiid´s also run a large flock of sheep.
Trait leaders
37
Trait leaders from Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics
Bulls selected for crossbreeding with Holsteins
Bulls selected for suckler
herds and commercial farms
HUSALDO
HAXZEUS
MANAGER
HIAS
LORINT
HOFRAT
PLACO
PROMOTER
STORNO
ZEISS
BARABAS
ELDORADO
BALATON
BALTIMORE
HITCHCOCK
HUSALDO
EISENHERZ
HAXENT
ZAMUTO
MASSMANN
MAJOR
RANDY
STEGREIF
SAMURAI
STERLING
HENRY
HOFRAT
RANGUN
BOSS
POLARIS
Beef value
Frame
Muscling
RAMSES
BALTIMORE
RADON
PLURAL
ZEISS
RANGUN
POLARIS
RAI
MORGAN
HOFRAT
136
135
129
125
124
123
122
121
121
120
Udder
REKRUT
RADON
HUMANIST
RANDY
ZILLE
RASCHID
HORBMOR
ZIRKUS
WHISKY
STEREO
123
121
117
117
117
115
115
112
112
111
Milk-kg
129
128
128
126
125
120
120
116
115
114
Protein-%
RAMSES
BALTIMORE
BOSS
PLACO
STORNO
POKER
HIAS
RELLO
STERLING
HORBMOR
HUSALDO
PLACO
WHISKY
HORBMOR
FONTANE
RADON
PORSCHE
RANDY
ZIRKUS
HENRY
RANDY
MAJOR
STEGREIF
RADON
HENRY
WICKY
RADAU
SAMURAI
PRODOMO
ZASTER
HUSALDO
ZEZE
WHISKY
RA
PLURAL
HAXZEUS
FONTANE
STEREO
GERONIMO
MORGAN
HUSALDO
HAXZEUS
WHISKY
PORSCHE
STORNO
PRODOMO
RAI
PORTWEIN
PLURAL
GERONIMO
Milk value
139
136
133
132
132
130
130
129
128
126
1374
1370
1356
1315
1262
1228
1220
1219
1217
1211
RANDY
MAJOR
STEGREIF
SAMURAI
STERLING
HENRY
BOSS
HELL
ZASTER
RADON
123
119
119
115
113
113
112
111
111
110
ZILLE
ZOBEL
RASTELLI
RADETZKY
HUMANIST
HENRY
RASCHID
RAMON
POLARIS
RAI
146
143
141
140
139
137
137
135
135
133
HIAS
POKER
STEREO
RASTELLI
BOSS
ZEZE
HUNANIST
RADON
ZICO
PRODOMO
120
119
118
118
113
113
113
112
112
112
Milkability
48
46
44
43
39
39
39
38
38
37
Fertility
124
121
118
118
118
115
115
114
113
112
RANDY
MAJOR
STEGREIF
SAMURAI
BOSS
HENRY
REKRUT
STERLING
ZASTER
HELL
Conformation
Protein-kg
Cell count
0,41
0,20
0,16
0,16
0,11
0,11
0,11
0,09
0,08
0,08
Total merit index
PLACO
HUSALDO
STEREO
ZILLE
RADAU
WICKY
STORNO
BOSS
ZEZE
RADETZKY
0,37
0,34
0,30
0,23
0,21
0,15
0,15
0,07
0,01
0,00
Calving ease
119
115
114
113
113
112
112
112
111
111
RADETZKY
RAMON
ZILLE
ZICO
ZOBEL
RASTELLI
RANDY
ZOM
ZIRKUS
WHISKY
130
121
120
116
115
114
113
113
112
111
Come to Bavaria
visit us in Munich
Join
our
Fleckvieh
vision!
We
compose
the
genetics of
the 3rd
Millenium!

Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics

Transcription

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