Our Norwegian Red Zoom webinar in association with our partner Geno Norwegian Red took place last Thursday evening, 11th of January with presentations from Diego Galli, Regional Manager EMEA for Geno Norwegian Red & Niall Duffy Dairy Programme Manager at Dovea Genetics.
Guest speakers included
-Lars Timpelen, Norwegian farmer running a 50 cow Norwegian Red herd on a robotic milking system
– Maria Keane, 3 way Norwegian Red cross-breeding programme – Operating a once a day milking system focused on health & components
– Noel Griffin, 3 way Norwegian Red cross-breeding programme – Large grazing farm focused on fertility & components
Dovea Genetics Leaders in the area of bovine artificial insemination and suppliers of dairy & beef semen, D.I.Y. A.I. Training & Liquid Nitrogen. Located in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
www.doveagenetics.ie
Facebook, Instagram & Twitter
So I’d like to welcome everyone to the Norwegian Norwegian red webinar and thank you very much for joining us this evening um we’re joined by four guests here um Diego G the uh export manager with the Norwegian witho Norwegian red we’re also joined by large who is a
Norwegian Dairy Farmer and also works with as a breed a neutral breeding advisor with the milk processing company called tina um after that Maria Keen is joining us who is a once a day Dairy Farmer and also using Norwegian Reds and uh finally Noel Griffin who is farming
With his nephew David power and uh using Norwegian Reds for over 20 years in a three-way cross breeding system so we’ve got presentations here tonight um four present four presentations and uh going to last the the zoom call will be over in an hour so um for each presenter if
You want to ask a question type the question into the Q&A and uh and I will ask it on behalf of yourselves and nobody else will be able to see the question so so ask plenty of questions and um I hope you enjoy the webinar tonight so Diego thanks for
Joining us do you want to take it away there yep let me share the screen yep and let’s see if this work well just a second um yeah should be okay now that’s okay yeah okay okay thanks thank you than thank you DOA for organizing this
Webinar once again this year my name is Diego Gali and I’m working at Gino Gino is orano if you are in Norway goo is the Norwegian breeding Organization for Norwegian red dairy cattle and is owned by is a cop is a Cooperative is owned by Dairy Farmers approximately 7,000 Dairy
Farmers that’s farmer we have in Norway uh we are active in every region worldwide in about 30 countries and this includes also markets that are um typically grazing markets like Ireland of course but New Zealand for example and and the UK or or more correct to say
Some part of UK we are present in Ireland since early 2000 and uh the of course is our exive distributor so norvan is the dairy cutle we have in Norway that’s um unique situation and uh about 94% of the cows da cows in Norway are Norwegian R pure
Bread cows we have just a little bit of atin and just a little bit of of jersa and uh when you compare what we have in Norway this situation for example with other Scandinavian countries again we are unique and there is a benefits for da Farmers that we have this unique
Situation I believe because uh for example in other Scandinavian countries htin as everywhere in the world is the main Dair cow and then there is the red and there is the J say for us is different this means that we have been always focusing uh and doing all efforts
And investing all the resources to developer and improving Norwegian red cattle I I will share something about that after uh some slides so in preparation of this uh interesting webinar we have been spending some um time making reflection uh about uh what’s what are the biggest benefits for Dairy Farmers
In typical grazing markets as as I said New Zealand Ireland UK uh by using nor genetics and while we were reflecting we have been in touch as well with these Farmers using nor red for years even for decades and uh the first first off it’s um important to say
That we had a very consistent answer both from the markets and also from the farmers and this is what basically this is what we got from from from them so the the the four benefits everybody agreed uh is fertility so they say that Norwegian red genetics help them to
Improve fertility compared to the the previous situation they they had we know of course noreg red is a has a very good reputation for fertility this is since the beginning and uh and you you also know that um in your system the system you have in Ireland the compact Calvin
System uh fertility is key fertility is extremely important of course that’s the first benefit we have been told the second is that norvia red was uh was able to provide I milk solid components and of course this extremely important I know myself and you know better than I
Do because the milk output solid fat and protein is your outcome is your source of income uh because this is the the main um yeah source of how you generate the revenue so of course that’s important and we we we met the needs of the farmers also about the the me
Production the third benefits was was about I mean Farmers used to say that norwegia red is producing or breeding a cow that is uh capable of holding the the condition very well the body condition very well in all the stage of lactation and you know of course as da
Farm this is important this is not just you know keep a good body condition and you know you know managing well the the the transition period for example but the good body condition is also positively correlated with the fertility for example so that’s a big Ben benefit
In in my opinion the four benefit we we have been reported is that Norwegian red are consider or yeah regarded as easier to manage compared to pure bread o and cow what does it mean of course there’s a there’s a lot about easier to manage and
Maybe what is easy for me is not easy for for you but basically it means that according to to these Farmers means that Norwegian red have lower frequency of disease not you know a huge difference but a difference and um especially in your system of course I’m stressing and
Focusing on your system system you have in Ireland this evening with the the compact calving uh season you have this means that you have a lot of cows calving of course you have big amount of CES calves for example on ground if you have cows that are easier to manage
Because they have a bit even a bit less problem issue this means that you can of course and you can save money as a consequence and you also have a better quality of life I believe so just to sum up this was a super consistent message we had from different markets in grazing
Condition as you have and uh from from all the farmers that we have been in touch with so this is what you should expect by using NV red bottom line this is just a nice picture I always like to share some picture of cows of course uh these are
Pure noran red cows in a in a grazing situation in Norway and um I don’t know if you can get but Norwegian R is a extremely good combination of dairy type with good muscles and some musles muscles is good in da cows I believe not too much but
Some so it’s a good medium siiz cows that is well equipped to work well in a ex ensive grazing condition yeah I said before that we start our journey in Ireland more than 20 years ago now and uh the reason why we were starting that Journey uh was
Because there was a need uh in those years from the arish da Farmers milking G and frian cows to improve forced off the fertility and secondly the health traits and as a consequence to improve the lifetime production of cows that was a need absolutely and Norwegian red was uh
Proved to be a good solution for the Irish Dairy Farmers even 20 years ago this is a very good question not just because I made the question I expect that most of you would have this question so was proved to be good solution for I the
Farmer 20 years ago but 20 years ago is a quite a lot of time uh since now so what’s the situation today is still noreg R the good solution for for for Irish farmers and I believe is still a good solution for the Irish Dairy Farmer this
Picture um is uh yeah that’s not something that this is was provided as you can see top left this was provided by Tash and this how the cow for the future in Ireland must look according to Tash so the cow for the future in irand must have good reproduction good
Longevity must be easy to manage must have good conformation must must be good in grazing of course producing good MEK fat and protein meat as well what it’s new year compared to 20 years ago is the low environmental footprint of course that was not a topic 20 years ago
But as we well know it’s a topic today that we we we we are aware and we we have to consider everybody in the industry so TW bottom line is that 20 years ago Norwegian red was fitting well with the Irish uh Dair industry was fitting well with the needs of Da
Farmers because providing extra fertility uh very good health trades and providing cows with better longevity and today 20 years uh later the need for the Irish da farmer in my opinion is exactly the same as 20 years ago there’s really no difference this is the cow that you
As a farmer there are breeding for or you’re aiming for so norwegia was working well 20 years ago this was proven and not by Gino by independent organization and today is still the case that red is working well even I would say that noria red today is even better
Equipped compared to 20 years ago and I believe you will understand why I’m saying that in a in a while oh this is just a few numbers I you know most of the times uh farmer are asking for some information regarding the average uh you know phenotypes in in the breed and this
Is the phenotypes mean phenotype for noria red da cows that’s updated 2022 but I can tell you that’s exactly the same in 2023 there’s no difference really so just a few things that I can highlight is that uh yeah Norway we have a new situation also when it comes to the
Number of cows with the miling robot it’s a big number is 61% of the cows are are in a robotic system we produce a good me yield with very good fat and protein content and the area as I say just say the area where we are shining where
Norvia R is shining is fertility and either you look at the C interval or the non R rate uh you know we are shining of course in both area so 72% of the cows in noreg cows in Norway are pregant at Fourth insemination in 2022 that’s
Extremely high of course I I I’m sure you understand that and uh also it’s important to stress that um just a few numbers of cows are synchronized in Norway it means that we have a natural I can say a natural excellent fertility that that’s in our population and last point is about the
PO Gene the PO Gene is is getting more and more popular uh everywhere especially here in Europe and um it’s good to say that norvia red is the Dair C with the highest frequency of the gene po the pole Gene sorry about 40% of the Cs in 2022 born in Norway
Were ped and and that’s good to that’s good to know grazing is mandatory in Norway so every farmer in Norway has to do grazing and the period depends on where you are because Norway is a long country different environmental condition different weather condition depending where you are usually May to
September but depends and important also keep in mind that we have still milk water in Norway and the milk production the phenotype the average of course is is partly influenced by by that it’s not that easy for farmer in order to improve milk he just because they
Want when I travel to Ireland and I’m lucky I’m I’m traveling quite often to to Ireland learning a lot there so when I’m traveling there one of the most frequently question I get is okay I maybe consider nor as an option but what about the fat and protein
Percentages what’s the the potential and that’s a question that I I’m especially ask from Farmers using Jersey for example but not only even htin honestly so that’s the question it’s a question that of course and the answer is that’s not per at all noreg can deliver extremely
Goodes of fat and protein if that’s the concern as always and that’s my strong suggest as always it’s a matter of which Bulls you are going to use so that’s your decision that’s your selection but as an average or as a potential noran is capable of producing extremely high
Percentage of fat and protein this is these are the best 10 hers in Norway with pure bread Norwegian red cows for fat and protein average percentage in 2020 2022 it’s extremely good numbers and they are not too far from Jersey I believe so again yes we can provide and
It’s just a matter of boo just make the right decision this is not a mistake is still slide as before I know but just because it’s an important question so again yeah norig was fitting well but what today uh that’s an important question seriously because very often um both
Farmers and people in the industry the these days are commenting um that uh yeah maybe there was a need for crossb with noria red or using norwegia red 20 years ago 15 years ago but there is need today because Austin improve yeah yeah that’s that’s absolutely correct and the fact that
Austin improved on fertility for example is just good things also for Farmers just using pure bread otin but especially for Farmers doing cross breing with nor in because you know if the the two Brees you are using are just improving you have just benefits is really that simple so yeah
That’s the comment Norwegian red is still good Boston is competing well unfortunately genetics is a very long journey and it takes a lot of years decades and many decades to get Improvement especially when it comes to traes like fertility or Heth trades that have a very low reability so it’s
Complicated it takes time and also you need the a lot of big reliable data to select for fertility this is what we did in Norway you may recall that we start selecting for daughter fertility is more than 50 years ago now it was in the
Early 70 and um we we placed a big weight on fertility in our index because we thought that was important also you in Ireland start selecting for daughter fertility in the atin uh early 2000 that’s 30 years later compared to what we did in Norway that’s good that you
Did of course but as I said it takes time this is my my bottom line noreg red is still Superior to hoston or Irish hoston when it comes to fertility uh system are different I know but yeah the genetic Merit of norig R when it comes
To fertility here we have C interval can be subd rate can be PR rate can be number of insemination per prancy but the situation doesn’t change nor nor is still the solution in my opinion if you want to improve fertility faster than using pure bread host and cows and this
Is something we can prove this is one of my last slide and this is something we as G as a company we are really proud to share so I think it’s important for you to have a look this is about the genetic progress of nor cows female population over the
Years in the past 20 years so it’s a long period of time you can see yourself the progress is very strong especially in the past I will say three four years we are really improving really fast what is that we are improving fast really I will make it simple we are producing
Cows today that are producing more fat more protein they are even more fertile they are even more healthy and they have much better fertil uh sorry much better others conation and much better feet and legs confirmation this is what we are producing so noran red cows today are
Much better than even five years ago you can imagine imagine compared to 20 years ago and I tell you not every breed is improving as this fast pace as we are doing it’s not just that I’m like taking credits for this this is this is reality
And the reason why we are improving that fast especially fat and protein kilo those are the threats that we improved the most in the past few years again again sorry for repetition but since we start 50 years ago to select for a balance you know to have a balance
Selection so not only milk and confirmation as many breeds but fertility yes 50 years ago Health tra yes 50 years ago and production and conformation of other X so we we gain we have a competitive Advantage compared to most of the other da breeds and that competitive Advantage especially on FTI
And death is placing us in a position where we can improve really fast easy trades to select for like production for example conformation of other legs so that’s good for us it’s good for noran Farmers but you as Irish farmer you have a big benefits and I’m
Pleased with one of the bullet point that Noel you are going to talk about uh when you talk you will talk about the you know the genetic gain of theal red and the you know the strong group of boost that we are able to produce every year real that’s really
Probably this is one of the most important um message uh for da Farmers about Norwegian red and why there’s a strong reason to use Norwegian red today even if H improved on some trades and one of the reason we are in this position is that number in red top right
Is the massive number of genotype testing that we are doing so at the moment we are 20 200,000 220,000 genotype animals in our population and considering that we have a nucleus of 200,000 milk cows that’s a really big number and that helps a lot and we are just contining improving and
Or investing on that that’s okay Diego yeah perfect yeah I’m think I’m done and that’s really the the bottom line I mean I believe that fertility is still key for your system it’s high correlated with profitability and I also believe and that’s what I learned traveling there that as I said mix solid
Is is the most important you make money there but you can achieve that with a good grass management uh Plus Great fertility and that’s where noreg Red can can simply help you yeah I’m finished thank you Diego welcome great presentation um so will we move on to
Lars next so as so Lars for anyone who’s just after joining us is from Norway he’s a Dairy Farmer and also a neutral breeding advisor and worked for a for one of the largest milk processors over in Norway so we we’re delighted to have Lars here tonight
And he’s going to speak a little bit about his own ha here and uh he’s operating grazing system um with great performance so just it’s a great chance to to learn how they’re doing it over there so Laris can you yeah I’m going to share the slide for lar
Okay can you see the slide yes we can see the slide perfect so this is this is large’s her and U yes L yes okay yes you hear me is the sound okay perfect yeah can hear you really good thank you very much thank
You for having me here I uh work as a Dairy Farmer together with my wife I hope you understand my English my Norwegian is way better if you want that but I try in English no you do you can you can see my heart we have a five months grossing
Season and that is the longest season in Norway in our district in the southwest we are at the corner of Norway closest to England and Ireland U but still we are thir on North we have U as you told mostly Norwegian red her we have some cross Breads and
Some JY CS but in my work as an adviser I also work with holon and JY and I I like all braids I’m not the racist find good house in all all brds yes a little bit fact about my our H we have a 50 55
Cow um average yield about 11 ton of milk uh 475 375 solids last month we have 5% fat and 4% protein um and we focus on the solids also when we select the Bulls because we are paid per extra we have aill quot still in Norway and we are paid extra
For fat and protein we have uh compared to other farms in Norway we have still a quite low amount of concentrate and we think it’s imposs important to show that you could have a high yield both with grassing and still also a high yield without very high use of concentrate so
That this means we have we produce a lot of milk from grass that’s our main main focus our yeah the cell count is uh we don’t Focus it’s uh it’s low we no no focus on mastitis it’s not a problem we have also no problems with other diseases we had
Have one milk fever the last year and no other diseases the last year uh no carving problems the last five years uh we have heers usually carve about about 22 23 months age we want them to start early so we can uh uh earn money on then as fast as
Possible and also have around 11 11 and a half between 11 and a half and 12 months carving interval yes I think that’s enough about our H we focus a lot of um cow welfare and we focus on U lifetime uh so we one of the main focus is to get the longlasting
House on this picture you have a mother and daughter which both passed 100 ton the white one in the left she produced 125 p in nine lactation and her daughter in the the closest one in the middle she produced also nine lactation and 110 tons and their daughter is still
Produced she has now past 90 ton so we have around 100 ton cow per year and I think that is okay with only 50 cows very good large um yeah a lot of questions coming in here now I suppose um as a breeding advisor why do you think that the
Norwegian red is also suitable to to Ireland and the conditions we have here on the milk payment system I think uh the the red breed is best suited for the breathing for a grassing system uh they are always have always been bread in Norway for grass it’s the
Only uh we don’t have corn mace in Norway uh little Bley we use grass all over nor that is what we breed for uh we have a cow that as mentioned we have a very good balance in body condition I talk sometimes about the selfish cows cows that use all energy to themselves
And do not produce milk and you have some cows that I call suicide cows cows that are milking too much and only last one lactation and don’t keep ourself in good condition I think the red cows have a very good balance between this you have a quite um little variation in the
Condition and you will have cows we are cows after milking that uh have their Peak at 50 60 L and have no weight loss and uh this is what we need we need a cow that could U could produce a lot and still take care of herself and I think
The red cows are doing that very well in the grassing system yeah as you know larish for grazing systems Farmers like cows with that have a lot of capacity intake capacity for for eating the grass maybe you could talk a little bit about how you how you control that in your ha and
How farmers and Ireland can choose Norwegian Red Bulls that will um promote higher intake capacities something similar to the Cross breads that are maybe like the jerseys or yeah uh for example a jersey has a very high yield compared to the body size it’s uh different difficult for a Jersey to keep
Up with the volume in her R to eat enough grass compared to the production so therefore when we select Bulls we always look at the uh we want a balanced body between size and body depth and production um they should not be too big either because then you get a too heavy
Cow you get too much maintenance to keep the cow going I think that is the problem with the other Dual Purpose breeds like Mont Bard fle Fe and so on they could be very good cows but they’re very heavy uh Norwegian red is still a quite light cow they’re not very heavy
Um and also good for the feet and legs that you don’t have a too heavy cow okay so when you’re selecting BS you’re looking for the look focusing on the chest width and the rump width is it and the depth uh I want to a good balance
Between stage sh or body dep if you have a a cow with a low stage sh you could Al also have a less than average on body depth but they need to be in Balance you shouldn’t have a a very tall cow with a a very low body depth for example but
Chest width is usually uh good on the Red Cow not various it’s more on the holin Jersey you need to look for a good chest width okay thank you Lis the questions are really coming in fast now so um on the Norwegian Red Bulls we get a
Breeding value or a no not a breeding value we get the predicted mature weight of the daughters is that an accurate figure for Irish Farmers to use yes I think that’s a good figure and um if you’re looking for a dairy cow you want a cow with not too uh not too high
Index of body weight but still a high index of body capacity you you could have the opposite we have a small cows with small heavy cows they are more Dual Purpose cows for for people who want to focus on the carcass value but um a cow with a little
Bit average above average on sture and body depth and still under average on Lite I think is very positive okay yeah so another question for you large the what’s the replacement rate on your farm um do you aim to breed I know you talk about uh you you
Probably do aim to breed um High lifetime yields or maybe you could talk a little bit about the replacement rate uh yeah I don’t know if you have we have the same figures but okay but we uh we have a we also sell a lot of uh first
Citation cows for lifestock so therefore our figures are not correct but in the average I think we have around 20% u u replacement rate if you uh if we take away those going for for sale for livestock around um we use normally we use only sex stean beef cattle or or
Norwegian red and uh we get around 50% of the CES bread by Norwegian red and 50% of them again we sell for livestock livestock so we only need 25% around 25% of replacement for for our s yeah that that’s similar to to most Dairy Farmers here in Ireland so another question and
I’ll ask you two more questions and then we’ll move on to Maria um but thanks everybody for the questions remember keep typing them in and we can ask them at the end as well um so milk and speed large how what is the breed like for milk and
Speed uh uh I think it’s uh in in the middle of Holstein and Jersey and uh um in our farm we have a lily robot and our figures are around 2.8 2.9 lers per minute for those having a lily robot they know the figures and I think um
Not not very much difference from holin around the same but uh it’s very uh they vary quite a bit and also holin vary a bit so it’s necessary to look at the index on each sire each bull I think okay and the last question in and
Of a so the could you describe the order confirmation on the Norwegian red cows and um that’s just describe the order confirmation has is it good uh the the others are varying more than Holstein and Jersey uh and if you look at the others from uh from rare uh
You have a less rare udder on the Red Cow you have a better for UD you have a more uh longer udder in front and I think the four other attachment is the most important for for the lasting of the cows so the the average other under
R cows will be further in front of the of the cows and you have less rare other but when you see of um of the lifetime of the cows not very many cows are going out because of the others but we have more variation so therefore I think also
Necessary to look at each bull each s when you select perfect thank you very much l for that that’s a great presentation and I think uh it was great to see a her in Norway that’s so similar to what we’re trying to do in Ireland so
Now we’re going to move on to Maria Keen so Maria is farming um with her husband Podrick um so take it away Maria hello how are you and uh we will uh we get started um right so just introduce myself you can see I’ll see
That okay and hear me okay anyway y um so yeah as n said there my name is Maria keen and I farm in partnership with my husband Podrick um we’re operating a one state spring cab and dairy farm in County affley um so I suppose the purpose of the presentation really is
Just to share our experiences um um both with on to-day system that we’ve newly converted to the past two years and with introducing Norwegian right into our breeding policy um so this is by no means a blueprint of what to do or what not to do but just sharing kind of what
We’ve learned and uh so any and all feedback is very much welcome um so I’ll give you a quick overview kind of of the farm and uh for anyone um that’s interested about where it kind of came from so in 2014 pul came came home from New Zealand um after completing his uh
Work experience and education and the home Farm here was the suckler FM converted to dairy uh with the purchase of 45 um inaf heers so they would have been high ebi black and white stock that was purchased by um two good local farmers here in our area um so from 2014
To 2021 we um we move twice a day and um we uh the farm kind of grew I suppose over those years um from the 45 inaf eff to 140 dairy cows um and that really was on the back of lease ground that was introduced and that double the size of
The myin platform um in 2022 was when we first started once a day milking and uh the opportunity kind of presented itself with Gambia um coming out with that milk voluntary reduction scheme so it was something that we had thought about down the line once day milking um but
Probably more like 10 or 15 seni years down the line um but sometimes when opportunities land in your lap you’re better off to just go for them and take them so we probably were pushing to it a little bit earlier then we we maybe would have um planned for ourselves but
We said we’re better on going in with two feet in so um in terms of the breeding then we began crossbreeding with Jersey straws um in 2016 and that was again just on the back of listen to Farmers and their experiences with crossbreeding um up to that point we had
Been breeding with black and white um and then the following year we added Norwegian Reds so I’ll touch on that kind of later on in the presentation um about why we made those uh breeding decisions um so there’s a lot of data here now and
Uh I I like data I know not everyone loves data but I just kind of I picked this out because we’ve been looking at kpis and we have it gone back all the way to 2014 when we started and um it’s interesting to kind of just look at I
Suppose Trends and see where things are going which are heard um and in particular kind of our transition from twice a day to once a day and um so anyway most of them are self-explanatory um but just a couple to point out obviously the biggest one being the milk
Um and the drop in milk you know from the twice a day to the once a day system so there was about a 25% drop in milk uh once we went into once a day um the first year and similar enough the second year um and about a 23% drop in Kil of
Milk salads um so that’s kind of we were expecting that um and that’s what we had heard on the ground from other farmers who you know were mil are milking once a day um the first kind of couple of three or four years um you take the kind of
Heavy hits in terms of production and we would hope then that as time goes on that that um the more suitable cows will stay in the system and and that that will continue to pick up um so when you’re looking at this as well like you can see there you know the concentrates
Fed per cow per year has dropped back as well and especially with the one today we’re looking for a low input low maintenance type of system um so you know we’re looking for a kind of a cow that can fit in with that system um and um that’s um
Yeah that that’s pretty much it we it was interesting when I was doing out these figures I was looking back you know all the way to 2014 and like we started with a bfat percentage of 3.92 and a protein of 3.58 uh the very first year so it’s nice
To see the progression as the years have gone on and I suppose the the breeding decisions and the decision the decisions we’ve made on the farm you know pay off um as the years have gone on and seen the increases you know in our percentages um
So uh I move on here kind of just to the breeding strategy as we’re touching on it and and the decisions that we did make um that have kind of affected a lot of those figures and the results um that are coming from them so your girl on the
Left there like that was what we started with was the black and white um and we went then in anyway with the jerseys to start with and um about 40% of our herd now would be that first cross Jersey cross and when we were kind of going on
From there you have three options you have uh go back with a frian go go on with a jersey again or introduce a different breed altogether and that was kind of what you know we decided to do was to introduce um a different breed and that and that breed being the
Norwegian red um so it was kind of the natural progression of the herd um so to give you kind of a visual aid in determining kind of our breeding policy I I found this online a couple years ago um so you can pretend they’re that Scandinavian red says norian red because
It basically explains exactly um how we breed so if you take that that first animal there your fan um we put a jersey on her and then go back in then with a Norwegian red and back with a frian like most of our herd now would be made up of
Those first crosses and we’re only starting kind of to go back now with the frion you know on your three-way AC cross um and continuing this cycle hopefully will maximize hybrid vigor um and it was obviously one of the reasons we we kind of chose to continue
To introduce other breeds and um it it wasn’t the only decision but I’m sure there’s plenty Farmers on here that you know know about hybrid Vigor and I don’t need to go into too much detail on it but um they actually did do an interesting study um where they found
That in particular the health traits of um an animal when you cross two different breeds there’s about an 18% benefit um in the health traits so obviously with the introduction of Norwegian Reds into our herd you’re bringing a lot of super Health traits because you know that’s what they’re
They’re known for and that’s what they’re fantastic at um but because we’re putting them onto a completely different animal and crossbreeding them you actually get a little bit more of a benefit even um milk milk traits are about 6% benefit but the health trait you get a little bit higher about
18% um so the reason as well that we kind of went this route um we could have gone you know Norwegian red first um and there’s different ways of doing it and different systems but for our particular system we wanted to get our milk components up as
Quick as possible um so that was the decision to go Jersey first of all um and also that first cross animal for us uh of a frion and then putting a Norwegian red on her that first cross uh mightn’t be suitable for our particular system because
Um obviously you know with W today as well we want the milk up as high as possible and she just might be too big of a cow for what we were looking for so going in with the Jersey first and then the Norwegian red kind of provides us
With a better balanced animal um for our particular system um so again now this is more information but um uh I just thought it would be interesting to take out the three breeds that we kind of have on the farm um and look what them now it’s by
No means a fair comparison because obviously you know if you can see there the average lactation of the three-way crosses the nrxs is 1.8 you know compared to six and four for fions and jerseys but um it’s still interesting to kind of look at and see if there’s you
Know any emerging patterns um but one thing when we were selecting Bulls was um we heavily focused on protein and water fat percentage um when we were looking at nor Red Bulls and it’s nice then to see like that that has paid off um if you see the you know the figures
There this is this pasture now on once a day like the Norwegian Reds and the jerseys there’s not really anything you know in the difference between their percentages um which we’ be very happy with and um the Kila a mil solids like with their with their average lactations
Being a bit lower like if you’re working off about 80% you know of their maturity that would work out that they’d end up doing about 440 kilos of milk solids at mature um lactations you know at full maturity um into the future so like that
And a once a day system again would be very very good um so overall the you know the cross breeding has definitely worked for us um what’s interesting actually is so if you see there on the frian um the kilos of milk solids that they produced like their average
Lactation is six and it was 407 and um Freedom does seem to be a better twice a day cow because when I was looking back here over the last couple of years and um I did this for the last number of years just to ensure I had a fair comparison before obviously
Presenting it to everyone but uh the kilas of milk salads between the frean and the Jersey went on twice a day you know there was really nothing um between them that there obviously is you know their percentages but production wise they’re kind of there are even pairs so for us um for
Going once a day and the cross breeding does seem to be hopefully paying off um it’s still early days I mean like you know the numbers and the lactations will tell tell more so as time goes on and we’ll you know be able to add more data
To it but um it’ll be great to see the results you know in four to five years time and see how those animals are kind of folding their own as they you know are fully integrated into the heard um but I kind of I I’ll I’ll go on from the
Data and uh I’ll just kind of finally talk about selecting Bulls um for our system now again like we’re only once day for the past two years so there’s uh a lot of farmers out there that are want to stay a lot longer and uh we’ve only
Kind of you know been picking up bits of information as we’re going along and seeing how hard you know is adapting um to the system and the system changes but um originally when we were uh selecting Bulls we were you know getting Norwegian Reds from do and actually Gene Ireland
Had a program going as well um with Norwegian Reds so we would have got them from them um and then I don’t know I think I was Googling one night and I I’d be interested in breeding and genetics and I came across the Gino website um with the whole sire catalog of Norwegian
Red Bulls and this was like a treasure throw for me I thought oh my gosh this is great so so um uh we kind of we spent the night then on that on that and looking at all the Bulls and um we uh we kind of picked out a few
Bulls that we liked and again the focus really was just on protein and butter fat percentages um so we kind of took it for granted I suppose that the Norwegian Reds would bring the health and the fertility and um and things like that so um and we had we had known from the
Previous few years of USS in Norwegian read that the ebi conversion you know um was um not act I would say not accurate but it we felt maybe it wasn’t doing the Norwegian red Justice in terms of what they were doing on the ground um so we
Had kind of accepted that and um and put that you know to the back of our minds and when we were picking Norwegian Red Bulls we were just focused on you know um what they could bring to the herd instead of getting caught up on you know know absolutely having to have the
Highest ebi Bulls as possible um like for instance one of those Bulls there now uh Toral like he was3 when we brought him in in 2021 which will be quite a low ebi you know for a bull um but it’s up to 220 now in 2024 so I
Think as they’re kind of coming in and they’re in the system um and they’re producing data here in Ireland it does help you know in terms of ebi and bringing them up um but uh Diego actually In fairness now showed me um on the Gino website there there’s a whole
Section for how to interpret the TMI system um up to that point I was only kind of trying to figure it out myself but they have a whole explanation of it so I feel like I’m going into this season a bit better uh prepared to know
How to um pick Bulls um and also I suppose now that we have two years once a day under our belt um there are kind of you know little areas like fertility probably is an area now that we want to focus a bit more on um just in terms of
Our empty rate and C an interval so it’ll be easier you know to pick um and be really selective about those kind of traits from now on and when you do go onto the you know the TMI um and The Sire catalog you like there’s lots of information there and um it’s actually
Quite straightforward to you know pick your problem on your farm or whatever you you may have an issue with or something that you want to focus on and uh and find a bull that will suit that um that issue so um yeah when we’re kind of matching Bulls to cows um I like
To use a variety of traits so you’re looking at um yeah i’ usually have a bll that’s strong on milk a b that’s strong on percentages of B that’s strong on fertility and those would have been obviously the areas that we would have focused on traditionally in the pass as
Well with twice a day um unless so maybe on the kind of the the smaller you know subcategories um but please God as kind of time goes on and our cows start to reach you know their kind of their Peak production abilities we’ll be able to focus in on some of those subcategories
Which um ifence the Norwegian Reds have so much data on like the uh just disease resistance and somatic cell count which are two big things for us now going forward in once a day um that we will have to really hone in on um and and
Keep right for our system so um yeah the one to day Focus for us going forward is obviously trying to keep milk in the hard um keep SE sematic cell count as low as possible and keep improving our fertility um because yeah we just want cows that live long healthy lives please
God like ourselves so um that’s that’s pretty much it um thanks everyone for listening and uh hopefully that was uh that was all right yeah on behalf of everyone Maria thank you for sharing all that data with us and your journey on one today so far um yeah nice clear
Messages for us as well and we can see how how it’s how they working so far so yeah it’s going good so some questions for you Maria I suppose the first one was um any specific advantages and I know you’ve touched on a lot of this already but is there any specific
Advantages of the nor Norwegian red daughters for the on today system what’s the main advantages do you think from just milking them yourself from milking them ourselves yeah uh a couple of things obviously would would be sematic cell count in health um because like you’ve only one chance the day to milk
Them and to get it right um and we we are looking for a cow that can kind of look after herself you know you’re only going to see her once a day as well so um she needs to be able to kind of yeah um be robust and be low maintenance um
So so those will be the things that we would see that the Norwegian red um can bring and please God will bring to our heart um as we continue all right so here’s a question then on the bull selection or or even on the m and matching up C so the question
Was if Maria you didn’t have the three-way cross there you didn’t have the cross bread there and would you be choosing different bulls for just the hibi black and white cow do you think so if you had some just straight black and white cows there would you be using the same balls
Uh sorry can you clarify the question would I be using yeah would you be would you so if you had uh some straight cows would your sire selection change compared to having some crossbreed cows oh yeah yeah yeah I see what you’re saying um it it possibly would um
Because and I think Black and Whites uh can vary a lot so you could have a black and white her that could be super infertility or black and white her that could be super and milk so I think that would be more my focus than the I than actually particular breed
Um because we have obviously introduced the jersey and that has brought the milk up that’s less of a focus for us now but um yeah does does that answer your question it does yeah I hope that answers the question for for the person there so yeah thanks Maria um any other
Questions keep them coming and I’ll ask them to Maria at the end and uh so now we’ll move on um to the last presentation um Noel Griffin now so I I’m going to share my screen now I’ve got no this presentation here there’s Rowan on the
Website Noel can you can you hear us there you can yeah no thanks very much for joining us this evening so um again any questions folks keep keep them coming and I’ll ask no them on behalf of yourselves um fman here um here in just outside cap Queen
Place called Kappa in County County Waterford West Waterford um we’re farming 92 hectares here uh we’re milking 220 cows with a a her DBI of 229 um you can go to the next one that’s yep H we started using Norwegians there in 2003 as part of the more Park
Trial uh the main reason was we had very poor fertility here uh we’re mainly using Dutch uh hin Coes High yielding Coes with very poor fertility lot of Coes not on in calf so the replacement rate was very high here so we wanted to kind of change that so
Um we kind of in then like we did that for for a number of years then and then in 2008 we brought in the jerseys to do a three-way cross to see what it it would help things more on solids and and fertility as well across across
Everything so we done that and we were very happy with what we done there in that overall go to the next slide then um the solids and the cows this year uh was 452 kyos um the reason why it was back on last year was um the weather there towards
The end of the year cows were brought in earlier uh that affected the fat and proteins as well and as well as that we had a high replacement this year because the herd was so good on fertility our cows were getting older so we said the only way we
Could do it is bring in plenty of heers coming in so we brought in 70 heers in 2023 and uh so that kind of affected the fat and protein overall and the cell countown is 128 there it’s a little bit High there probably overall averaging for the year because what we normally do
Is we’d milk on towards the end of December and maybe going once a day and we could milk them on then in January maybe the ones that aren’t in calf kind of as well and that would bring up our average then with the cell count so it’s
Probably looking a bit higher than what it should be kind of it should be around 70 or 80,000 only uh we feed 900 kilos of solids and our stock and rate then is 3.2 CS per hectare you can go to the next one please yep um our six we cing rate is
81% our 11 week empty rate is 4% and our three-week Sub sub submission rate is at 93% % H our cing interval is at 363 days and our conception our first serve is 63% and conception on sex seman is at 58% uh how we managed the H the sex
Seman is we put on collar though on the cows there two years ago and um it helps us a good bit on the sex Sean because it shows on how long how many hours the cows are cycling and so you can judge then like if you can
Use sex Sean or not or if you can delay the IM man coming or whatever like you can you get a higher rate on on the on the conception then on the Sean over that you can go to the next one please um we do 11 weeks AI three weeks
Six three weeks Dairy and five weeks beef 65% of the cows are served to sex Sean and 100% of the heers two rounds of AI we do on that um cows under cows under the herd average serves to the beef bull we’re trying to keep up the the higher ebis on on the
Cows H fian cross served to Norwegian Norwegian crosses served to Jersey and Jersey cross classes are served to fans H there’s a list of the Bulls there on the right hand side there um you want to talk about those there while ago n you were saying yeah maybe it’s on the
Next slide no um but we can see here the the yeah there’s the list of bulls there and it’s on the next slide then Diego’s going to come in and maybe talk there’s a list of the Bulls we used there for this year anyway and um they’re kind of you can see yourself
On them as it is sure yep let the people go through them yeah no problem so a very there’s a range of ebis there no um there is H from 303 to 180 I’d say is the low lowest one there yes I suppose again um Maria touched on
It as well and you’ll see it in the next slide you’re you’re your farmer there with your nephew David and you are using the Norwegian breeding values in the country of origin figures mostly I think we are yeah definitely yeah yeah yeah so I’ll move on now so there we go now um
All Norwegian Bulls are chosen by by Norwegian index TMI which which Marie was talking about there a while ago um targeting fat and protein kilos are fat and protein percentages at 120 cing to First insemination for fertility H monitor stature and body depth others are are generally good on most Norwegian Bulls
Now perfect Diego I’ll invite you in here to maybe to maybe just do a quick presentation and explanation on the TMI and here’s here’s the production index here yeah uh thanks uh you very just quickly because as you said Maria touched the topic earlier and um first
Off I of course you know you know I support uh the concept or the idea to consider noreg red breeding values for Irish Farmers that decide to use Norwegian red uh or at least uh also you know not only just looking at thebi but also on the Norwegian breeding Valu
Simply because they are more reliable so that’s really the the the honest and simple reason why what Maria and Noel is the good things to do and uh it’s simple I mean 100 is the average is the mean for the breed so this is an example for
Production Trad for example if a bull has 100 means that you expect from the progeny of that bull that is going to perform uh as the average for mil kilo protein and the rest one standard deviation for us is equal to 12 points so a bull 124 means that proin is expected to
Perform to standard deviation above the average for any single trade okay so this is simple 12 standard deviation positive numbers it’s good negative is uh below the average and in order to have a good interpretation of what does it mean one standard deviation just I just suggest to do exactly what we were
Discussing with the Maria so go to our website noreg red.com and you easily find a page you know it’s a table where you can see what it means one stand devation for milk protein fat fertility on cows on for Cale count and everything that’s really simple but
This is a the suggested way to yeah select nor boost so you have a good the right idea what is good what is on average what is is below average and in the DEA colored catalog which will be coming soon maybe this weekend um we also Pro we provide the
Norwegian red breeding values for each Bull of the Norwegian bulls and also the ebibi so farmers so just keep them keep keep that in mind whenever you’re looking at a ball so will I move on then to your last SL there slide no can yeah H the benefits of using Norwegian um high
Fertility hype High submission low empty rates like our empty rates this year were I think 4% um extremely good health trates low sematic cell counts uh low mastitis cases H moderate cow size and I suppose like hybrid Vigor 87% without losing production um High rates of genetics
Gain in Norway and new Bulls every year you went through it there like in the new bulls that there good selection every year on on bulls there like so thank you very much thank you very much no a couple of questions here now and I’ll get reading them now but to
Start off there one for myself um you’ve got also got you’ve got cross spreads at home but you’ve also got 25 pedigrees I believe so so maybe you could tell us a bit about the pedigree Norwegian red cows you have well we we when we did the
The the more part Norwegian study thing um we kept the pedigrees there we as pure Breads and uh we we just kind of we we kept the heers and we’d have Bulls there as well and we sell a few Bulls then as well like over that and sell them as
Earings and two two-year old Bulls so we just we just carry that on through like from for here like you know yeah and you’ve bred the pedigree Norwegians to I think there’s lots of there’s a few of them at 4% protein isn’t there that’s right yeah that’s right yeah that’s
Exactly just it just goes to show you when you when you when you when you face your breeding program in that direction you can achieve you can still achieve it through couple of questions from the floor so keep them coming um so Noel do you use kiwi cross and pure jery balls
Interchangeably and are you concerned with heterosis being suppressed because of this so the question is around no we don’t use any kiwis we use them um what is it new Zealand fan we use yeah okay so they have yeah new new jerse and the New Zealand jerseys as
Well y they’re the main ones we use for breathing okay and uh a question here um for Noel as well um typically what type what um breed of beef bow would you use on the her Noel H we use um Belgium Blues we’ve used this this year now we’re just
Starting to use a small few charl because um with the three-way cross they’re pelvis no problem caling them so we we just said we try a small few this year but we’ve no problem cing Belgian blues uh herfords um that’s it mainly like overall kind of we use kind of across
And from your experience Noel does the customer do they like to see the Norwegian red in the and getting a c a beef C from the Norwegian red red cow or is there any difference definely would yeah yeah yeah so another another question then for Maria then um and then we’re going
To finish up here now we’re just gone over the hour so Maria have you an a Target weight for the for the cows your mature cows in the future or what do you expect them to be really yes anywhere around 500 to 550 kilos um and that was
Our Target when we were twice a day was kind of like a 500 kilo cow producing 500 kilos of milk salads you know and 500 kilos of meal that was kind of the the dream Target but now that we’re gone one St was it’s changed a little bit but
The live weight has probably stayed you know in around the same so around that 550 kilos um we’d be we’d be happy with and they do seem to be on target kind of to do that they they wouldn’t be a very you know I suppose large cow like they’re definitely a mediumsized cow
Which is what we’re happy with for our syst system um and also just like what Noah was touching on there you know in terms of cabin and things like that they do provide good confirmation um for Cavs and for selling Cals as well so because I know that’s a hot topic for everyone
At the moment so um yeah it’s a it’s a Hot Topic no matter what the breed I think um so that’s all the questions there answered very well and on behalf of everyone here tonight I’d like to thank the speakers for very detailed presentations um I think we all got a
Lot out of them I’d like to thank the the people that came and to watch the watch the webinar tonight um de I have the new catalog coming this weekend lots of new Norwegian Red Bulls in it so also available in sack Seaman so I’d like to
Wish you all success throughout the Cav season and thanks again for joining us here tonight this will be available online um recording in the coming days thanks very much everybody thank you thank you everybody thank you bye bye bye