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When planning to buy a cow for milk, every private owner wants to buy the best animal that will provide the family with maximum production at a minimum cost. Although it is not without reason that there is a saying that a cow has milk on its tongue, there is some truth in such reflections. Not all dairy cows produce the same amount of milk of equal quality at the same feed intake. Regardless of the breed, there are certain rules for choosing a dairy cow.
Choose a nurse
All dairy breeds of cows have common features:
- graceful physique;
- small neat head;
- long pelvis;
- perfectly flat line of the back without protruding withers or sacrum;
- thin skin;
- well-developed milk veins;
- cup-shaped elastic udder with well-developed teats;
- medium length legs.
In general, the description of the best dairy breeds of cows differs only in color and size. But even a cow belonging to the world’s best dairy breed of cattle does not guarantee high milk yields. Deviations from the standard occur in every population. Much depends on the shape of the udder and teats.
Which udder is better
In the dairy type of cow, a cup-shaped udder is preferred: wide at the base, far reaching forward to the chest and protruding behind. The base of such an udder is attached high. In front, the line of the udder merges smoothly with the abdominal wall. The bottom of the udder is located almost horizontally. The bottom line is at the level of the hock. The nipples are rather long, slightly conical or cylindrical in shape, widely spaced. The length of the nipples is 6-8 cm. They are located on evenly developed lobes.
The nipples should not be too thick or thin, short or poorly developed. Thick, short, or underdeveloped teats are uncomfortable for milking, and if there are thin teats, the cow will lose milk as she walks.
Cows with non-standard nipples are milked by hand and this only makes sense if this individual gives milk of better quality than her companions. Otherwise, the cow is culled from the dairy herd.
The rounded udder is not considered vicious, but for the breed of dairy cows it is a disadvantage. It is typical for beef cattle, which need milk only to feed the calf. A rounded udder has a smaller base than a cupped udder. The anterior wall converges with the belly at almost a right angle. The udder lobes are also not always evenly developed. With age, the rounded udder sags, begins to be damaged on the hard stems of plants, and gets dirty.
“Goat” udder for dairy cattle is considered vicious and such an individual is subject to culling. The “goat” udder has underdeveloped anterior lobes and looks triangular from the side. The nipples on such an udder are thick, close-set, long. In addition to the simple inconvenience of milking, cattle with such an udder have low productivity.
Udder defects are more likely to be inherited.
How a representative of the dairy cow breed should look in the photo below.
In addition, attention should be paid to the age of the cow. Age is determined by the teeth or rings on the horns. The latter is possible only if the animal is not polled. When determining the age of a dairy cow by horns, two years are added to the number of existing rings. When buying cattle for milk, age is also very important. A good dairy cow produces up to a maximum of 8 years. Then the yields are reduced. Without the birth of a calf, there will be no milk. And the rings show how many times the cow has calved. A heifer often happens at the age of one, at two – she brings the first calf.
The age of the teeth is determined by the level of erasure. But there may be errors, since the erasure of teeth depends on the food that the animal received and the strength of the tooth enamel.
Before you finally choose a dairy cow, the looked after candidates need to be milked on their own. Sellers should be asked not to milk the animal before the buyer arrives, then it will be possible to estimate how much milk this particular individual can give.
Which breed to choose
When choosing a cow, you want to take the best, but here the buyer steps on thin ice. What breeds of cows are the most dairy? Obviously, the best dairy breed of cows is Holstein black and white. But in fact, not everything is so simple.
Holstein
How this Dutch breed of cattle was “appropriated” by the German region of Holstein is not clear. Nevertheless, the name is German, and the Netherlands is considered the birthplace of the breed. The description of this dairy cow indicates that it can produce up to 60-65 liters of milk per day. This breed is kept on dairy farms around the world. The record for milk yield was set in Israel, where during the lactation period, 10 thousand liters of milk were milked from one cow. In Our Country, the milk yield of this cattle is lower: up to 7,5 thousand liters.
It would seem that there is nothing more to wish for. But not everything is so simple. To get a lot of milk from this breed, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for it and provide it with high-quality feed. At the same time, the fat content of milk in this breed is only 3%. But what about butter and sour cream?
In second place in the ranking of dairy breeds in the world is the Ayrshire cow.
Ayrshire
It is easy to confuse the Ayrshire breed with the red-and-white variant of the Holstein, but Holsteins are larger. The milk yield of Ayrshire for the lactation period is on average 4,5 tons, and the fat content of milk is already higher than that of Holstein: 4%. But the cattle of this breed is also quite demanding in terms of feed and maintenance, is there any point in suffering if you can find a cow with almost the same milk yield and a much higher fat content of milk?
Dzherseyskaya
In terms of feed / return ratio, this is the best dairy breed of cows. The yield of the Jersey is only slightly lower than that of the Ayrshire breed: 3,5-4 thousand liters. With some diligence, even 5 thousand liters of milk are milked from these cows. And the set record is 9 thousand. At the same time, their milk fat content is about 5%. And for the production of 1 liter of milk, only 0,8 feed is needed. units Jersey cows need significantly less space than their “competitors”, as these cows are very small in size. Females have an accommodating character, although bulls should be feared.
Jersey could be the best dairy cow for a private trader, if it were not for the inherent shortcomings that arose due to the conditions of breeding. The island where the Jersey cattle were bred is very small. It is impossible to keep a large livestock on it. This means the inevitability of inbreeding. The fragile appearance and large languid eyes of the Jerseys are also a consequence of inbreeding, but not fatal. It is much worse that these cute animals have weak immunity and are more susceptible to diseases than other breeds of cows.
Also, the body of the Jersey cow is adapted to the assimilation of feed grown on soil oversaturated with microelements and in areas far from the sea, Jersey cows need special feeding.
The main disadvantage of the breed is the price. Even in Europe these Jerseys are rare and expensive. In Our Country, they often keep crossbreeds and rarely fork out for a purebred animal. Therefore, despite the high productive characteristics of cows of the Jersey dairy breed, they are not widely used in Our Country.
If foreign breeds are finicky, and some are painful, maybe you should take a closer look at domestic ones and choose the most dairy breed of cows in Our Country?
dairy cattle
There are as many breeds of dairy cows in Our Country as there are climatic zones in it. Historically, in Our Country, they wanted to get not meat, but milk from cattle. Meat was usually provided by other livestock and wild game.
The original breeds were well adapted to the climate of the area where they were bred by folk selection. Local cattle were undemanding to feed and able to survive on rotten thatch from the roofs. But they could not be called the most dairy breeds of cows then, and they cannot be called now.
Asking the question “which domestic breed of cows is the most dairy in Our Country”, we will have to return to Holstein again. More precisely, to her descendants.
black-and-white
This is the most popular breed of dairy cattle in Central Our Country. Descendants of Holstein bulls and local queens, black-and-white cattle can produce from 5,5 to 5,8 tons of milk per year. At the same time, fat content is inversely proportional to milk yield and amounts to 3,4-4,15%.
Black-and-white cattle is much better adapted to the climate than Holstein cattle and allows more “liberties” when kept in a private courtyard. These cows are not so demanding on feed and barn temperature. But for the more northern regions, the most dairy breed of cows will be different.
Kholmogorskaya
Kholmogory cattle was bred in the Arkhangelsk region and is perfectly adapted to the northern cold. Kholmogorok is bred not only in the north of the European part of Our Country, but also in Siberia. Milk yield ranges from 3,5 to 8 tons of milk per year. Fat content is 3,6-4%. With proper selection of feed, the fat content of milk from Kholmogory cattle can reach 5%.
The disadvantage of Kholmogorok is the rounded udder that often occurs in the population.
Yaroslavl
A very popular breed among private traders, which gives high-fat milk: 4-4,5%. But milk yields, quite expectedly, are low: an average of 2250 kg per lactation period. The maximum milk yield is 5 tons.
Yaroslavskaya is very recognizable from the photo and description among other dairy breeds of cows: she has a black body and a white head. There are also white marks on the belly, passing to the udder.
Yaroslavl is not large. In size, they are similar to Jersey, but do not require such attention and care. Yaroslavl cattle have a good ability to adapt to various conditions, but for the southern regions it is better to purchase dairy cattle breeds bred in the steppes of Ukraine.
Red Steppe
Able to survive in the relatively arid Taurian steppes of Ukraine, Krasnaya Stepnaya has good milk yields: 3,5-4 tons of milk per lactation. But the fat content of milk for such milk yields is not high: 3,2-3,4%. However, where does fat come from, if red steppe cattle get juicy grass only in spring and early autumn. In summer, the grass burns out and the cows are forced to eat the malnourished dried stems. Red steppe cattle tolerate drought and heat well, but are more sensitive to cold than northern breeds.
gray steppe
The breed cannot be called dairy, but it deserves a mention for its uniqueness. Today it is an almost extinct breed, part of which was preserved by the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Moreover, with God’s help, they managed to milk cows of this breed up to 20 liters of milk per day, which is quite a lot even for recognized “dairy” representatives of cattle. At the same time, Gray Steppe has a slight advantage over her “sister” Krasnaya: a greater lethal yield of meat from the carcass.
Do not refuse Gray Steppe and endurance. Back in the XNUMXth century, this breed was used as draft cattle. Which meant yoke work during the day and recuperation on meager grazing at night. Such exploitation has developed in Gray Steppe the ability to manage with a minimum of not very high-quality feed.
Conclusion
When choosing a cow, you should pay attention not only to advertising and the prestige of the breed, but also to the climatic conditions in which this animal will have to live and produce. In the event of increased heat or severe cold, milk yield will inevitably decrease. Demanding for feed can play a cruel joke on the owner of cattle, if hay or feed suddenly turn out to be of poor quality.
Today in Our Country, animal husbandry has begun to revive. Selection work is being carried out again, aimed at increasing the productivity of dairy cattle of local breeds. Exhibitions are held where the best dairy cows in Our Country are presented. The video below is one of those shows.
