News

Genomics & Brown Swiss

For the last four years the single most discussed subject in the US Dairy Genetics industry has been the development and implementation of Genomics. As with all major changes there have been those who have lauded Genomics as the final, best and only tool needed to breed cows. The extreme believers have promoted the concept that all that will be needed to mate cows in the future are computers aligning the data on chips, you will not have to even look at the animals. On the other hand, there are those who view Genomics with great skepticism. For these people Genomics has been created to wrest the direction of the future from the hands of those who have raised the foundation upon which Genomics is built, the Purebred breeder.     [ Read the full article ]

Newly Idenfied Fertility Factor in Brown Swiss

One of the major areas of concentrated effort in the Brown Swiss breed worldwide is to improve fertility. Thanks to the continuing research with genomics, a possible factor that has been contributing to lower fertility in Brown Swiss has been identified. This Haplotype, or single copy of a DNA region, is relatively common in the Brown Swiss population. What interested researchers at AIPL is that no animals could be identified that had two copies of this Haplotype. The name given by the industry to this newly identified fertility factor is Brown Swiss Haplotype 1, or BH1.     [ Read the full article ]

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Brown Swiss Cattle Breeders Association is being held in the Pirongia Hall, 997 Franklin Street, Pirongia on Friday 20th May, 2011 at 11:30am.

Following the meeting we will be having lunch at a nearby cafe. Please let Barry Taylor know if you are attending by 15th May - greenridge@xtra.co.nz or phone 09 235 5725.

Hope to see you there!

World record holder passes away

According to a press release, the present world record holder for lifetime milk production has been put down on May 5, 2010.

Studach's Regal Morchel, a Rapture El Regal daughter born on February 9, 1987, produced in her lifetime 197′000 kg of milk in 6994 days and 14 lactations. Her milk components were 3.44%fat and 3.44% crude protein. This equals 434′310 pounds of milk, 14′930 pounds of fat and 14′921 pounds of protein, making her the world record holder for lifetime
production of the breed.

Morchel spent her lifetime on the farm of the Studach family in Moerschwil, at a 10 minutes drive from the city of St. Gallen.
She last calved on August 20, 2006, with a heifer calf by Bruget, and her last test on April 26, 2010 was 6.0 kg. Morchel goes back to Rapture El Regal, from a dam sired by Johann Proud Matthew (W) with a lifetime production of 74398kg or 164019 pounds, then a cow sired by Darwin, a Beautician (A) son, and after that original Braunvieh.

Hats off to the Studach family and a special thank you for proving the longevity, productivity and sturdiness of our breed!

New world record production

A new world record production in milk, fat and protein has been set by Lost Elm Prelude Pixy ET. Click here to view a PDF.