Cross breeding represents the future for Co Tyrone dairy farming business

Others include high levels of production, excellent milk solids, high health traits and low replacement rates.

“All of these factors merge together in a way that allows dairy farmers to manage their herds in a very sustainable way,” confirmed Philip Robinson, who milks 100 cross bred cows with his father David near Fintona in Co Tyrone.

He continued: “Enhanced fertility is, possibly, the most stand out feature of the ProCross cow. In our own

case we often see animals coming into heat within 21 days of calving. We have a 42 day voluntary waiting period before we use sexed semen.

“They will regularly hold in calf, with the result that our calving index value has reduced significantly over the past number of years.”

The Robinson herd is currently averaging 8,000L at 4.4% butterfat and 3.4% protein. This level of production is being achieved from a meal feeding rate of just 2.7t/cow. Significantly, the herd comprises 50% first calving heifers.

The Robinson family has traditionally milked cows on their home farm. However, the scale of the enterprise was scaled back over a number of years.

In his own case Philip had trained as an artificial insemination technician and then worked in both New Zealand and Canada for almost three years.

However, the call of home was strong and Philip returned to Co Tyrone in 2018 with the aim of re-establishing the family dairy farming enterprise.

“I wanted to go down the cross-breeding route from the outset,” he explained. “I wanted a cow that would suit my existing and farm layout.

“Two separate groups of cows were brought in from Denmark and Great Britain in order to get the new business up and running. It was then a case of building up the numbers without own replacements."

Philip continued: “And this is exactly what we have done. From the outset we committed to Ai Services’ cross breeding programme with a strong focus on sexed semen.

“I also wanted to place a strong emphasis on autumn calving. This meant tweaking the calving patterns of the breeding stock originally brought on to the farm.

“But given their high levels of inherent fertility, this did not prove to be a challenge.

“Using sexed semen means that we can maximise the use high quality beef semen on cows not required to produce replacement heifers.”

The breeding programme followed by Philip and David comprise the successive use of Viking Red bulls on two successive generations of heifers.

“We follow this up with a specifically selected Holstein sires to get the third generation cross,” Philip further explained.

“And the programme is working extremely well for us. We are extremely happy with the quality of the replacement heifers coming through.”

Ai Services’ Ivan Minford was a recent visitor to the Robinson farm. He commented: “Cross breeding has many advantages. It’s a case though of horses for courses. All milk production systems work well, provided the required level of management input is achieved.”

He added: “There is a growing demand for medium-sized cows that will deliver significant volumes of high quality milk over a long number of lactations.

“The cross breeding route is one way of achieving this requirement effectively.”

For further information, please contact Ai Services (Northern Ireland) Ltd on (028) 90 831232. Or visit the company website: www.ai-services.co.uk