|
| To me it would depend on whether the Holsteins being small are a result of genetics or a growth issue. Personally, I find gigantic Holsteins to be too brittle, especially the ones that lack strength. Pounds per day aren't everything to me, but lifetime production means a lot. I had 3 cows go over 300,000 lbs. lifetime in 2011 and none of them were what you'd consider large Holsteins. They were of short to medium stature with ample strength. Don't get me wrong, they didn't put together a bunch of 18,000 lb lactations to reach 300,000, it was a lot of lactations in that 30-35,000 range so it's not that being smaller hurt their daily production.
One of the reasons the Holstein is going the way of the dodo bird on my farm is that they were just too big without enough muscling on them to carry their extra frame. But to maybe help answer your question, I don't necessarily believe bigger=more production. Plenty of Holstein bulls out there that make giants that don't milk all that much and there are also plenty of genetics that can pump a lot of milk out of a small cow. | |
|
If our Holsteins are small.......
