Relative merits of various Bos taurus dairy breeds for cross-breeding with Bos indicus cattle

Abstract

Data extracted from reports on cross-breeding of Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle for milk production were used to compare the merits of various Bos taurus breeds for this purpose. The study was restricted to projects in which two or more taurus breeds had been used simultaneously, and to records on F 1 crosses. The only taurus breeds represented were Friesian, Brown Swiss and Jersey. Brown Swiss crosses were the oldest and Jersey crosses the youngest at first calving; both differed significantly from Friesian crosses. In milk yield Friesian crosses were the highest and Jersey crosses the lowest, and again all differences were significant. Jersey crosses had significantly shorter calving intervals than the other crosses. The ranking of the crosses was very consistent across projects. The difference in milk yield between Friesian and Jersey crosses increased proportionately with level of production.