This website no longer supports Internet Explorer 11. Please use a more up-to-date browser such as Firefox, Chrome for better viewing and usability.

Excellent health with little concentrate: New bulls for dairy breeding

A Swiss Fleckvieh bull, perfectly meets the new organic breeding criteria.

Caro, a Swiss Fleckvieh bull, perfectly meets the new organic breeding criteria. Also in the photo (from left to right): Project staff Janine Braun, project manager Anet Spengler and farmer Hans Braun, one of the project’s co-initiators. (Photo: Marion Nitsch)

Remaining fibers of feces after washing out

If the washed, rinsed and pressed dung contains as little fibre as can be seen in the photo, then the bull excels at roughage feed conversion. With inferior converters of roughage there can be two or three times as much fibre residue. (Photo: Marion Nitsch)

Healthy cows and as high a milk yield as possible: These are the main criteria in dairy breeding. However, the level of antibiotics used and the amount of concentrate feeds needed to achieve these goals have as yet rarely been taken into account. But from the spring of 2021 onwards, bulls will be available that were selected on the basis of new criteria suited to organic breeding – thanks to a project conducted by FiBL, Bio Suisse and Swissgenetics.

How does a cow get in calf? Ninety per cent of organic dairy cows become pregnant with the help of artificial insemination (AI). To this end, the inseminator brings sperm doses ("straws") to the farm in a nitrogen-cooled flask. From this flask, the farmer chooses from more than a hundred bulls of different breeds, the standard range offered by Swissgenetics. From 2021, this range will include the first straws from bulls selected on the basis of organic criteria.

It all began with dissatisfied farmers

The criteria normally used by Swissgenetics to select breeding bulls – that their female offspring will produce a lot of milk and perform well in terms of a number of conformation and health traits – are not optimally adapted to the needs of organic farming. Organic holdings need smaller, longer-living cows with low concentrate requirements. Thus, in 2016, sixteen farmers took the initiative to add to the supply of breeding bulls for AI for organic farms in cooperation with Swissgenetics. Three years later, the organic AI bulls project was launched.

Strict criteria for the bulls’ dams

Longevity and excellent health with adequate milk yield – these are the most important criteria that a future organic breeding bull’s dam must meet. The criteria were jointly defined by farmers and breeding organisations. But high husbandry standards must also be met: the bull’s dam must live on an organic farm, forage for at least half her feed out on pasture in the summer, must not be fed more than 300 kg of concentrate feed per year and should only have required antibiotics in an emergency, at most once in her life. "Given that the requirements are even more strict than the already strict Bio Suisse standards, many cows do not qualify as bulls’ dams," says Anet Spengler, project manager and FiBL cattle expert. "But it’s important that we are strict about it, that’s exactly the point. It’s the only way that allows us to establish breeding lines that reach top performance without high levels of concentrate feeding." Roughly 400 suitable dams were identified and some of their offspring, which also have to meet strict criteria, have already been raised as potential breeding bulls: five Swiss Fleckvieh, four Brown Swiss and two Simmental bull calves; only Original Swiss Browns are still missing.

Scientists seeking roughage specialists

In the project run by FiBL and Bio-Suisse, the young bulls are assessed on the basis of additional breeding criteria to which no attention has ever been paid before: When the bull is out on pasture, is he busy foraging or is he easily distracted? And most importantly, is he a good converter of roughage? To this end, once a month during the rearing phase the manure of each bull is washed and rinsed out. If there is little fibre left over, this is a sign that he is particularly good at converting grass. This criterion is essential for farms in Switzerland, as Bio Suisse will limit the proportion of concentrate feed for ruminants to five per cent from 2022. For comparison: up to fifty per cent concentrates are permitted under EU organic standards.

500 semen doses from each bull

So far, the two Swiss Fleckvieh bulls Kingboy and Caro as well as the Brown Swiss bull Jansrud* meet the strict criteria. All three have been taken on by Swissgenetics for semen production. If things progress
as planned, each bull there will "mount" about fifteen times within a few months. 200 to 300 semen doses can be obtained from one ejaculate; they are then deep-frozen. The goal for the coming years is to sell 500 semen doses from each bull each year to farmers. Breeders from neighbouring countries have already expressed interest. "We hope that farmers will take up the offer," says Anet Spengler. "This would boost the prospect that the project is extended and that the selection of organic animals can be widened and maintained." Anet Spengler is passionate about the project. While the organic standards recommend that natural service should be used as far as possible, there are risks and effort involved in keeping a bull – which is why ninety per cent of Swiss organic dairy farms prefer AI. The project is therefore of great significance to the organic movement.

* Numbers 120.1389.4893.6, 120.1486.0583.6 and 120.1528.3857.2 in the Tierverkehrsdatenbank livestock database

Further information

Contact

Anet Spengler Neff 

Links