Since we have been registering for over 8 years,
International Dairy Cattle Registry, what are considered the "non-traditional" dairy breeds, Fleckvieh, Montbeliarde, ProCross (Holstein x Montbeliarde x Viking Red), North American Red ( breed developed in North America that is any of the Ayrshire breeds, Viking Red, Norwegian Red ) and the Viking Reds and Norwegian Reds.
To many dairyman their thought is if a cow is not a black and white Holstein then it is not a dairy cow. With these "non-traditional" breeds, they offer advantages. Health cost with the crossbreds are lower, they have better fertility and breed back sooner, and many of these crosses can milk with their Holstein herdmates. One member had looked at his own herd in a year that he had an equal number of Holstein heifers to crossbred heifers born, which was 50 head of each. At the time he looked at how they turned out there was only one Holstein cow still in the herd compared to nine of the crossbred animals.
With the ProCross being a continual rotational cross of Holstein x Montbeliarde x Viking Red, seems to be the most popular cross in the dairy industry. The University of Minnesota even was involved in a research study of the crosses vs Holstein. It shows the crosses to be more profitable, about 4% lower in feed consumption, better fertility, and fewer of the crossbreeds left the herd compared to the Holstein.
The popularity of the Fleckvieh is especially in the grazing communities. One breeder sells over 50 bulls a year that go to herds that graze. with the Fleckvieh they hold up production better along with all the other advantages.
We have a member in Iowa with a purebred herd of Montbeliarde that his production with his herd is right with or better that some of the Holstein herds.
Many traditional herds have had a cull rate above 40% and barely able to have enough replacements, when they started crossbreeding and those animals came into production their cull rate has dropped to less than 20% and they have a surplus of heifers.
We have registered ProCross cows that embryo's have been exported to other countries. We have had Montbeliarde bulls born in the US that semen has been exported to Europe and other foreign countries. Coopex in France has purchased a few of these bulls and we have transferred the registration papers to them.
We have a member in the UK that has exported semen on his Scandinavian Red (same as our North American Red) to the US, Australia and a few other countries.
We have Fleckvieh member that has had a bull in a bull stud and semen was exported on that bull to the Netherlands. He has now started his own bull stud here in the US with his own bulls.
AmeriFLECK Dairy Genetics
Creative Genetics of California was the birthplace of the ProCross over 20 years ago. The ProCross system is now used in many countries around the World.
Look at how long crossbreeding has been done in the beef herds. These days, dairy producers have discovered the benefits and advantages of crossbreeding.