Page 69 - Shorthorn Magazine

a speaker from Edinburgh university on perils and benefits of import or introduction of outside genetics in small cattle breeding programs they were using study and findings from dairy breeds in Czech Republic
Followed by chief technology and innovation manger from Geno Norway talking about their breeding program with an impressive 200,000 cows genotyped in the reference population to allow 1500 bull calves to being screened annually with genomic testing then them taking the top 10 through for their breeding program.
Then chairman of Viking Red
who farms in Finland gave a talk
and update on what tools and opportunities can be used to secure future for red cows. Which led to
Jan Lassen who manages the project from Viking, he’s based in Denmark, to talk on the use of 3D cameras
in barns and a study on saved feed index, he was able to elaborate on findings so far. Which Red cows were able to produce more meat and milk off low energy feed compared to Jersey and Holstein and also
how dairy cows in calf to beef lose more weight than when having dairy calves, they also require more feed to maintain maintenance and condition during pregnancy.
IRDBF AGM was held where president Christina Paulsen-Schluter (Germany) and Tanel Bulitko (Estonia) retiring
on rotation and Harvard Melbo Tajet (Norway) and Lorenz Engelbrecht (Germany) being voted to the board and Morton Hansen (Denmark) becoming Vice and Graeme Hamilton (Australia) becoming President and proposed for next conference to be held in new Zealand in March 2026 to be organized by Russell Tocker (me) with the idea to set aside two youth scholarship to help two young breeder or farmers under 35
assistance with travel costs attending future conferences.
Then we were off on the bus tour of the Baltic states. Firstly Estonia then Latvia and Lithuania were treated to visiting dairy farms with red cows and a few tourist sites such as castles and old stone building cities such as Riga and Vilnius enjoying a river cruise as well.
The countryside was flat absent
of any hills and mostly forested
with silver birch and pines. A few marshland with cleared pockets
of farm land in which was mostly
in grain or Lucerne and some old abandoned buildings along roadsides. There wasn’t many villages or towns in Estonia and as we moved south to Latvia and Lithuania there were less trees and just grain crops as far the eye could see. No fences just up to the road edge then were some rye grass paddocks around for silage and rape seed as well.
The soil in the North was quite shallow sandy and crops didn’t look to have the yields of the ones in
the South on more peaty and clay soils. All the milking cows we saw were housed all year round but
they looked very well cared for and healthy. There were a lot of good uddered cows with Red Holstein and Viking bulls and some Ayrshire used as well as local red bulls. A lot of the farmers were breeding for better hooves and udders saw one red cow in Latvia that done over 1000ms, there is a big market for export of
in calf heifers, farmers were getting 2000 euro per head.
The cow barns were all cubical
stalls for laying in and centre feed passage on all farms. The barns were old concrete structures built during soviet time and still in use today. The milking set ups were mostly double up herringbones all farms were managed by women as well.
The farm businesses were all 30 years old because that’s how long it had been since Soviets had left and private ownership allowed. After WW2 all land owners had land confiscated and sent to Siberia by Soviets, all farms had vast array of machinery ie combine harvesters foragers tractors slurry spreading and cultivation equipment really impressive fleets. One farm had 6000 ha of arable land another one had over 100 staff with 2 accountants!
Then last leg of my trip was to the
UK with a visit to the Kite family’s Cotonhall dairy shorthorn herd in Staffordshire. They milk 150 cows with young stock kept down road on different block calving all year round. There were two big strong concrete bull pens were up by cow shed where bulls are kept and then let out with herd when they up in yard for mating. Beautiful countryside with hedged paddocks, little lanes and gentle rolling hills, sad to hear that TB is an issue in the area.
The cows were out grazing when Rob showed me round the milking herd, he had some really impressive older cows with big bodies and well attached udders that really stood out. A few younger cows Rob pointed
out were immature, these cows by Illawarra bulls Rob says will mature well in time. A big part of the Kites farm business is selling surplus in- milk heifers to supplement their milk cheque and Rob puts a lot of effort in to showing his cows to promote his sales.
I like to thank all the hosts and organizers of the conference the hospitality we were shown was really first class.
Russell Tocker
Russell Tocker
Shorthorn 69