zebu in Jersey Cattle

[coaklnic000]

hi im new to these fourms. i wanted to know if orignally the jersey Breed had any zebu traits. i beileve i read that jerseys can tolerate heat better thank other dairy breeds. i would be interested to hear y'alls thoughts thanks.

 

[gaurus]

hi im new to these fourms. i wanted to know if orignally the jersey Breed had any zebu traits. i beileve i read that jerseys can tolerate heat better thank other dairy breeds. i would be interested to hear y'alls thoughts thanks.

I've heard that too, they do tolerate and adapt to hot tropical weather, but I don't believe they have any Zebu type genetics on them, at least not recent(recent as in the last 1000 years), perhaps a primordial zebu type cattle, it seems like the white Italian breeds do have some form of zebu genetics that is ancient too.

You would need to understand that while today there are 100% Bos Taurus and 100% Bos Indicus(Zebu) type cattle in the USA, there are other breeds that blur the line, for example, the Watussi, The lines blur the closer you get to North Africa from Europe, for example it was found that the American Longhorn, a Spanish Criollo type of cattle have some Zebu genetics on them(from an African Zebu introgression that happened about 10,000 years ago), and While Iberian, Italian and in this case Jersy may have traces of Zebu genetics that have helped them to adapt to hot/tropical climates, this happened thousands of years ago and any cross to current zebu lines will produce the expected hybrid vigor one may expect from a Bos Taurus/Indicus cross.

 

[Ebenezer]

Jersey and Brown Swiss were historically hot weather dairy breeds. I do not know how the genetics of modern members of the breeds do. Seems that the Jersey breed now deals with more pneumonia risks. Back in the 40's to 50's corporate farms in the tropics was a big deal such as in Cuba, Costa Rica and such. My father was offered a manager's position on an R J Reynolds farm in Costa Rica with a Jersey herd and they were doing some research with Zebu X Jersey cattle at the same facility, too. Seems it was 2000+ cows.

 

[coaklnic000]

Thanks for the replies Y'all I was doing some more research and found this interesting page talking about the origin of Jersey Cattle. Fell free to take a look. http://jersey-dk.dk/origin.htm It seems like a long time ago they had some Zebu influence with the Heat tolerance. Hope y'all enjoy the article as much as i did.

 

[Bright Raven]

Thanks for the replies Y'all I was doing some more research and found this interesting page talking about the origin of Jersey Cattle. Fell free to take a look. http://jersey-dk.dk/origin.htm It seems like a long time ago they had some Zebu influence with the Heat tolerance. Hope y'all enjoy the article as much as i did.

Interesting. Thanks