RIEDBOW DAIRY - Crossing Holsteins with Bavarian Fleckvieh A ...

4 Crossbreeding
RIEDBOW DAIRY -
Crossing Holsteins with Bavarian Fleckvieh
A vision for success in the Canadian Dairy Business
Dr. John Popp
Big Bear Genetics Ltd.
Al and Hilly Riedstra and their children
Tetsje, Jennie, Al, Henry, Alieda, Derrick
and Judith are Riedbow Dairy. The family,
originally from Holland, moved to Elm
Creek, Manitoba in Canada in 1987 with
a vision and dream to build a dairy. Starting
out with 30 cows with 370 liters of total
production the family developed an impressive
dairy operation. They are currently
milking 310 commercial Holstein
cows in a free stall system with plans to
go to 400 by next year. When you meet
the family you will see what determination
is – intricate and well thought out ties of
management of people, animals and feeding.
Everyone doing their job and doing
it well.
The herd production average is 10’500 liters,
3.75% fat and 3.43% protein. Somatic
cell count at 180’000. The cows
are fed a TMR consisting of 60% forage
and 40% concentrate on a dry matter basis.
Of the 60% forage, corn and alfalfa
silage represent 45% each with the remainder
being oat greenfeed – dry and
long fiber to add to rumen health. Hammered
corn grain is the concentrate source
with added supplement and soybean
meal to have the protein at 18%.
The cows weigh 1350 to 1500 lbs and are
eating 52 lbs of dry feed. ‘Using higher
levels of fiber (up from 50% to 60%),
keeps cows healthier and we have not
Feed mill with hutches in foreground.
Al Riedstra, milking help Henry and Tetsje.
lost production’ says Al Riedstra. ‘Transition
on freshening cows now is virtually
trouble free’, comments Al – ‘a lower percentage
of distended abomasums’. Knowing
the value of feed and how to manage
cows is the strength of the dairy. They
put up the feed, but have neighbors growing
a lot of it for them. Only the dry cows
go to pasture to graze; Al comments that
the nutritional value of grass is only right
for milking cows for 3 to 4 weeks, so why
come out of the barn.
Everyone has their tools of the trade for
rearing replacement calves. The Riedstra
family built a calf rearing barn, but are
now changing it for feeding space for older
heifers. ‘The ammonia levels in the
barn were too high and it was not good
Left – Manager cross; Right – Samurai cross. Good feet and legs and added
strength.

for calf health’ comments Al. Calves are
in hutches by themselves for the first 2
months and then move to larger hutch
areas and are kept in groups of 3 to 4.
Once at 4 to 5 months they move on to
larger animal groups in pens again. ‘It’s
still the best way to keep them healthy!’.
The cows are milked twice daily in a 20
cow parallel parlor. Al gets up at three to
start the morning milking. ‘It gives me a
chance to see the animals and know how
things are working’ Al says. Milking takes
4 hours and is done twice a day. One of
the top cows in the dairy is sired by Rudolph.
On her first lactation of 287 days
she milked 11676 kg, peaking at 44 kg.
Her 2nd lactation was 14361 kg on 305
days with a peak of 54 kg. At the time of
the picture she is nearing the completion
of her 3rd lactation, at 204 days pregnant,
still milking at 40kg and a 305 day production
of 16480kg. She is in calf to a top
Fleckvieh bull, Manager. Another Rudolph
daughter, #301, pictured was dry
for only 4 days between her 3rd and 4th
lactation. At the time of the picture she
was 231 days pregnant, with a production
of 12590 kg. She is in calf to another top
Fleckvieh sire, Randy.
Another interesting part of the operation
is in the bedding area of the free stall
barn. The cow beds are foam with rubber
overlays. Finely chopped straw is placed
on the bed surfaces and the edges are
swept with a rotary brush and limed twice
daily. Chopping the straw very fine (1 to
2cm length) reduces the amount of bedding
required and keeps things dry and
clean. Lime application and bedding method
both help to preserve udder health
and reduce problems with mastitis and
cell count.
After seeing an impressive Holstein dairy
operation like this, one might ask – why
switch to crossbreeding with Bavarian
Fleckvieh? Al read an article written ab-
Hutch area: Left – Manager cross; right – Haxzeus cross
out a fellow dairyman, Albert Nyhof, about
an hours’ drive from his place. Albert
Nyhof described the concept of breeding
Fleckvieh to his purebred Holsteins with
enthusiasm and excitement. This was
enough to convince Al and Hilly to book a
plane and see Fleckvieh perform in Germany
and Holland. When asking Al now
why he switched to have his entire herd in
calf to Fleckvieh he will give you simple
reasons: ‘Health, Fertility and Longevity
– I saw dairies that do as well as we do
with Holsteins for production but their cows
last four lactations instead of two and
a half!’ says Al ‘I can capture the higher
production from the 3rd, 4th and subsequent
lactations! Flat lactation curves
and persistent milk production are also
both a plus for easier feeding management.
I like Fleckvieh cows – they are
strong and have good feet and legs!’. At
Crossbreeding 5
this time, the oldest crossbred heifers are
7 months. Son Al notes they grow a lot
better and are generally a lot healthier.
The first Holstein heifers they bred to calve
to Fleckvieh were 25 months old, because
they had concerns about calving
ease. They have since gone back to calving
at 22 to 23 months as they found this
not be an issue. When bred to Enrico,
they calve easily and son Al notes he
really likes Enrico cross calves for type.
Cows tend to carry 10 to 14 days longer
than when inseminated with Holstein. Al
notes this to be a good thing, because he
can keep cows milking longer.
This article was compiled and written by
Dr. John Popp, Big Bear Genetics Ltd.,
the North American Distribution, Breed
and Information Center for Bavarian
Fleckvieh Genetics based in Erickson,
Manitoba, Canada.
Cow 301 – 4th lacation 12590 kg bred to Fleckvieh sire, Randy. Cow 400 – 3 lactation total 42517 kg bred to Fleckvieh sire, Manager.