The commercial potential of indigenous breeds needs to be scientifically researched and proven, the chair of the Irish Rare Breeds Society (IRBS) Matthew English-Hayden has said.
Farmers need to be able to access data on indigenous breeds to assist them in making commercially sound and evidence-based decisions, the rare breed farmer said.
English-Hayden recently hosted a farm walk on his farm in Co. Carlow here he holds a herd of 100 Kerry and Droimeann-crossed dairy cows, which graze on mixed and multi-species swards.
Indigenous breeds, the rare breed farmer said, “seem to have extraordinary good health, very good fertility, no feed problems, and longevity which appears to be very good”.
“We found the cows are eating on average about three quarters the amount of grass that an average herd would and correspondingly produce three quarters the amount of milk solids.
“So, the correlation between the size and weight of the animal was a 1:1 between commercial cows,” English-Hayden told Agriland.
Earlier this year, the establishment of a genetic conservation centre for native breeds was recommended by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Fingal County Council.
Research coming from the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minnesota has found that cross breeding can lead to higher efficiency, he said.
Cross breeding
At the recent three-day IRBS 2023 conference in Co. Carlow, Dr. Les Hansen of the department spoke about the 10-year research programme into the north American Holstein dairy herd.
Dr. Hansen also discussed the benefits of three-breed rotational crossing (ProCross) to promote hybrid vigour in terms of cow fertility; birth mortality; health; and longevity.
“Hybrid vigour is most effective when using breeds that are least related, with native indigenous breeds typically fitting this scenario very well as the national dairy herd is predominately of European and North American Holstein breeding lines,” Dr. Hansen said.
The Holstein calves born in the US this year have an inbreeding co-efficiency of over 10% and this figure is “rising exponentially”, English-Hayden said.
The rare breed farmer added that there are examples of crossbreeding native Irish breeds and Holstein Friesian cows on a number of Irish farms.
The advances on multi low-emission swards and their capacity for increased animal performance, greater water filtration, and reduced nitrous oxide emissions were presented by the product manager of seed company DLF, Dr. Thomas Moloney.