Tyrone dairy farmer shows ProCROSS breeding outcomes

The advantages of ProCROSS breeding have been mentioned at a latest open day hosted by Co. Tyrone milk producer, Des Kelly, who farms near the village of Ballygawley.

The brand new entrant into milk imported 80 ProCROSS in-calf heifers from Denmark in three batches. 

The primary animals have been milked by a Lely A5 robotic initially of 2023. There are 67 calved heifers within the milking group nowadays.

A lot of the heifers introduced in from Denmark can be calving down for the second time over the approaching weeks.

ProCROSS breeding

The ProCROSS has its origins within the US 25 years in the past. The cow sort represents the results of a protracted breeding programme undertaken in that nation below the aegis of Viking Genetics.

It brings collectively three breeds: Holstein, Montbéliarde and Viking Purple.

This particular breed combine delivers for milk producers from a lot of views: Sustainable milk yields, milk high quality, longevity and fertility.

However by far essentially the most vital advantage of ProCROSS cows is that of enhanced feed effectivity throughout a large variety of dietary choices.

Viking Genetics’ Sven Johnsson spoke on the occasion and confirmed that ProCROSS cows can ship as much as a 33% enchancment in lifetime profitability, relative to all different cow varieties.

“These outcomes have been confirmed courtesy of a 3,500-cow trial, carried out in Minnesota 10 years in the past,” he mentioned.

“Dairy farmers wish to earn a living from their cows. Maximising feed effectivity is the best way to attain this. The US trial work has confirmed that ProCROSS inventory can obtain this goal throughout a variety of diets.

“ProCROSS cow numbers have elevated considerably in a lot of nations throughout Europe over the previous variety of years.”

Considerably, Johnsson indicated that the cows are in a position to make most use of forages.

“This makes them very suited to the grazed grass and grass silage – based mostly methods that predominate in Eire,” he mentioned.

The Kelly farm

Des Kelly defined that two basically necessary selections have been made when the preliminary resolution to get into milk manufacturing was made.

The primary was to decide to a longtime cross-breeding programme, the place the cows are involved: the opposite was to put money into a robotic milking system.

“I’m glad to substantiate that each selections have been the right ones to take,” he mentioned.

On the coronary heart of the ProCROSS breeding programme is the sequential use of Holstein, Montbéliarde and Danish Purple genetics.

“All of the animals have been imported from Denmark as in-calf heifers in three batches,” Kelly mentioned.

“The breeding historical past of every animal was confirmed, going again over a lot of generations.

“In consequence, the place of every within the ProCROSS breeding cycle will be clearly recognized.

“This enables me to pick the precise breed of sire for use on every animal in an effort to keep the total affect of ProCROSS programme throughout the subsequent and future generations of cows on the farm.”

The animals at present on the robotic are averaging 32.3L/day at 4.27% butterfat and three.35% protein.

The open day was collectively hosted by Ai Companies (Northern Eire) Ltd.

“There’s a rising demand for medium-sized cross bred cows that may ship vital volumes of top of the range milk over a protracted variety of lactations,” firm breeding supervisor, Ivan Minford, mentioned.

“The ProCROSS possibility meets this requirement in a greater than significant manner.”

Lely’s Tommy Johnston, who was additionally current on the occasion, highlighted the distinctive milk pace being recorded by ProCROSS animals throughout the herd, recording a median milking pace of 3kg/min.

“The typical determine for Northern Eire is 2.5kg. This quicker milking pace is the explanation why a single robotic can deal with 65 plus cows throughout the identical group,” Johnston mentioned.