VikingGoldenCross

Healthy, fertile cows for pasture-based production

How much does it cost when a cow doesn't get pregnant in your seasonal calving herd? What if you could increase your conception rate, boost your lifetime production and reduce the costs and amount of work per cow?

VikingGoldenCross is a 3-breed rotational crossbreeding programme combining VikingHolstein, VikingRed and VikingJersey.

The combination of the three VikingGenetics breeds gives you:

Healthy, fertile, ideally sized grazing cows that are easy to manage and equipped to walk long distances
A +9% higher relative conception rate compared to two-way crossbred cows in a pasture-based production
Higher fat and protein percentages and a higher lifetime production
A better dairy form and beef value by adding VikingRed as the third breed

VikingGoldenCross is used by progressive farmers in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Ireland and other countries. The concept is especially suitable for seasonal calving herds.

Based on decades of data collection and a focus on breeding for health and performance, VikingGoldenCross is your accurate and structured crossbreeding solution.

Why combine these three dairy breeds?

VikingHolstein, VikingRed and VikingJersey are amongst the top scores for health and production traits worldwide. They each have their own breed improvement programme with high-ranking bulls.

The VikingGoldenCross breeds complement each other well and compensate for their strong and weak points. They are unrelated, high-producing and well-suited for pasture-based production farms.

Because VikingGoldenCross cows are healthy at core with superior reproduction traits, they live longer in your herd and give you a higher lifetime profit per cow. You also get heterosis as an extra benefit on top of the parent average.

When you add VikingRed as the third breed to a two-way cross between Holstein and Jersey, your cows will have a less angular dairy form with better reproduction and beef value. The offspring only becomes 1.3 cm taller than the two-way cross.

The end result is a herd of ideally sized grazing cows with optimum health and a superior tolerance to weather extremes. VikingGoldenCross cows are equipped to walk long distances because of their economical frame size and strong feet with dark hooves.

	VikingHolstein	VikingRed	VikingJersey
Fat kg	***	**	***
Protein kg	***	**	*
Fertility	**	***	***
Calving ease	*	**	***
Hoof health	*	**	***
Udder health	**	***	**
General health	**	***	**
Udder conformation	***	**	**
Moderate size	*	***	**

three dairy cattle breeds, holstein, red and jersey

The free benefits of heterosis

One of the great advantages of breeding VikingGoldenCross is heterosis—the increase of favourable characteristics of a hybrid organism over the characteristics of its parents.

Heterosis is the opposite of inbreeding. It happens when you cross two unrelated breeds.

Research has found that heterosis especially improves traits like vitality, fertility, health, survival, lifetime production and longevity.

In crossbreeding, the first generation is called F1. Instead of backcrossing the F1 as you would in two-way crossbreeding, you introduce a third breed.

The heterosis stays at 100% for the first two generations. Then it drops when the first backcross happens (mated to the original breed) to give the F3. After a few generations, the heterosis levels at 86%.

By using the three-way cross in VikingGoldenCross, you can achieve a steady heterosis of 86% compared to 67% with a two-way cross. This means that you get a healthier and more fertile herd for seasonal calving.

See what VikingGoldenCross can offer for your herd?

VikingGoldenCross crossbreeding system can improve the fertility, health and production of your herd. It is especially suitable for grazing herds.

VikingGoldenCross is delighting pasture-based farmers around the world. Are you ready to start your systematic three-way crossing?

Scientifically proven results with three-way crossing

VikingGoldenCross is growing in popularity around the world. An increasing number of seasonal calving farmers are experiencing the benefits of three-way crossbreeding.

Study 1: Crossbred cows are more fertile

A study conducted by Dairy Australia compared different crossbreds to purebred herds on a pasture-based system. The researchers analysed data from more than 23 million lactation records from almost 900,000 cows on 18,207 farms collated over a 14 year period.

The study concluded that a crossbred cow is more fertile, she lives longer and depreciates less.

	Holstein	Crossbreds	Difference
Conception rate (1^st service)	39%	49%	+25%
Pregnant by week 6	46%	66%	+43%
% not pregnant by week 12	16%	8%	+50%
Milk kg	6,776	5,912	-864 kg
Protein, kg	221	209	-12 kg
Protein, %	3.27%	3.55%	+0.28%
Fat, kg	261	261	same level
Fat, %	3.89%	4.46%	+0.57%

Study 2: Fertility and milk solids - backed by research

Another study by Dairy Australia has compared the performance of two-breed and three-breed crossbred herds.

Using data from nearly 7,000 cows with over 25,000 lactations on pasture-based farms, they found that compared to the two-way cross, the Holstein/Jersey/Red cross showed significantly higher lifespan and better fertility:

+4 %-points in conception rate (1st service)
+8 %-points in six-week in-calf rate

The three-breed crossbreds showed no significant difference in volume of milk, but outperformed the two-breed cross for milk solids production.

Parameter	Two-way cross (Jersey/Holstein)	Three-way cross (Holstein/Jersey/Red)
Production
Milk (litres)	6,010	5,950
Fat %	4.24	4.37
Protein %	3.41	3.54
Fat (kg)	252	257
Protein (kg)	204	210
Total fat & protein (kg)	456	467
Fertility
Conception rate (1^st service)	47%	51%
Pregnant by week 6	63%	71%

Study 3: Crossbred cows have stronger health and better body condition

A UK study conducted by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland has compared the performance of pure Holstein and three-breed (VikingRed/Jersey/Holstein) crossbred cows in herds adopting spring-calving production systems.

The study concluded that, compared to pure Holsteins, the crossbred cows have:

significantly higher fat and protein percentages
lower milk yield with similar fat and protein output (kg)
lower dry matter intake
better health
less body weight with significantly higher body condition scores.

The experiment began at the point when cows calved and encompassed one full lactation. All crossbred cows were sired by VikingRed bulls.

Trait	Pure Holstein cows	VikingRed x Jersey/Holstein cows	Statistical difference
Milk yield, kg	7,310	6,378	Yes
Fat, %	4.15	4.63	Yes
Protein, %	3.34	3.54	Yes
Fat yield, kg	302	294	No
Protein yield, kg	244	226	No
DMI, cow/day, early lactation	18.9	17.6	Yes
Body weight, mean over full lactation, kg	560	530	Yes
Body condition score, mean over full lactation	2.16	2.42	Yes
Mastitis (% of cows with at least 1 treatment)	26	6	Yes
Ovarian dysfunction (% of cows with at least 1 treatment)	61	28	Yes

Study 4: Better health and reproduction with VikingGoldenCross

Researchers from SEGES in Denmark have found that three-way cross cows, when compared to Holstein cows, have:

Better general health and hoof health
Less reproductive disorders and metabolic disorders
Better fertility with results showing calving intervals 15 days shorter for three- way crossbreeding cows

	VikingGoldenCross – difference compared to pure Holstein
Fat, 1^st lactation	+28 kg
Fat, 2^nd lactation	+23 kg
Fat, 3^rd lactation	+12 kg
Calving interval	-15 days
Period from first to last insemination	-8 days
Reproductive disorders	-40%
Hoof disorders	-44%
Metabolic disorders	-35%

Changing course for health and sustainability

Efficient cows with VikingGoldenCross

Boost to crossbreeding

Breeding the invisible cow

A free lunch… scientifically speaking

“We are happy with the results. It's working well and proving successful for us"

We’re getting a lot more milk

Easy to manage VikingJersey herd in New Zealand