Cross breeding Jersey with Angus for dual purpose production in smallholder systems.

Smallholder farmers in the southern Cape sometimes buy pure and crossbred calves and rear them on culled dairy nurse cows. The calves are weaned on low-quality forage but the practice is questionable, because of mortalities and poor growth after weaning. In response, several commercial dairy farmers initiated a breeding system where they inseminated the bottom half of the herd with small to medium size beef cattle semen. The advantage for them is that it reduces the number of dairy heifers on their farm, which lowers the need for forage. By selling the crossbred calves with beef potential they obtain extra income, whereas the buying smallholder farmer rears a calf also with improved beef potential. Researchers at Outeniqua investigated the system to establish to what extent it can be optimised for the smallholder farmer in the area.

A small farm of 24 ha was simulated and divided into 24 camps. The pasture consisted of a mixture of non-irrigated grasses and legumes to which low levels of nitrogen were strategically applied to minimize input costs. Four F1 Jersey-Angus and four Jersey cows were compared by rearing multiple F1 cross calves in a nine-month lactation period. Each cow reared two calves by restricted suckling every three months. Suckling calves were kept in a nursing pen and had access to calf growth pellets. The cows grazed during this period and received 2kg dairy concentrate twice per day. At three months the calves were weaned onto pasture with restricted access to a production supplement containing 15% crude protein, until nine months of age. Thereafter the calves were finished on pasture with a lick as supplement and slaughtered at 18 months of age. A total of 48 calves were reared during the study with no mortalities.

Notable results were: (1) Crossbred cows lost less weight than the Jersey cows and even increased in BCS during the lactation period, which implies that less input will be required to regain target BCS after lactation. (2) Calf weight and ADG decreased due to the normal decrease in milk production over the lactation cycle, but calves compensated by increasing pellet intake. Calf pellets are expensive, implying that an extended lactation cycle to rear more calves is unlikely to be economically viable. (3) Calf weight and ADG after weaning did not differ between calves nursed by the Jersey cows and calves nursed by the crossbred cows. (4) The input costs of the crossbred cows were slightly higher than the Jersey cows because of higher pasture intake. (5) The total input costs to end weight were not markedly different between calves reared by the Jersey cows and calves reared by crossbred cows. (6) At the time of the study, a margin over feed costs for calves of R3400 was achieved.

It was concluded that F1 Jersey beef cross cows can be considered in such a beef production system as they can accommodate multiple sucklings and still maintain their condition. The calf-rearing system has potential but the challenge is to reduce costs without compromising growth, which largely will depend on what is used in the supplements.

Reference:

J. van Wyngaard, 2016. A working intensified calf-rearing system using Angus/Jersey crossbred cows. Red Meat Vol. 7, No. 3, p70-75.