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scmn | My preference order would be Milking Shorthorn, Montbéliarde, Holstein, Ayshire, Brown Swiss, Jersey.
Milking Shorthorn over Montbéliarde due to better muscling, shorter stature, will fill out more like a beef - Milking Shorthorn are closely related to Shorthorns and will exhibit more of those beef qualities that they are used to judging.
Montbéliarde over Holstein due to better muscling on the large frame animal - Montbéliarde are not as "dairy" looking as a Holstein will be
Holstein over Ayrshire due to heavier finished weight (1450 vs 1250) - size matters (personally I find that the Ayrshire will finish faster than the Holsteins and are easier to keep shorter stature)
Ayrshire over Brown Swiss due to finished weight - the Swiss will not be "finished" until closer to 1800 vs the 1250 Aysrhire or 1450 Holstein due to the longer development time of the Swiss (MN 4-H used to have a max weight of 1600# for dairy steers)
Brown Swiss over Jersey due to the fact that size matters - they will finish nice and soon, but it is hard for a judge to put a 1000# steer at the top of the class, size matters
Quick background: We raise dairy steers (primarily Holstein and Ayrshire) and dairy replacements (Ayrshire, Holstein, Milking Shorthorn) and have leased cattle to 4-H & FFA kids in both Dairy and Beef project areas (beef kids lease prospect calves)
Diary steers are almost always judged by beef judges (dairy steers fall in the "Beef" project area of 4-H, occasionally at smaller fairs you will get a judge that judges multiple species but they should still pick out the beef characteristics.) You will be judged on the quality of the animal for beef purposes, thus you will want the steer to be finished or close to finished at the fair. A typical hard fed Holstein (90% grain/10% roughage ration) will take about 16 months to finish, a silage fed Holstein will take about 18 months, and Brown Swiss will be closer to 20 months. Implant strategies can vary this some.
Thus for an August show this year, the ideal birth dates to be finished at the show would be:
Holstein (hard fed) - March 1, 21016
Holstein (silage fed) - January 1, 2016
Brown Swiss - October 1, 2015
Milking Shorthorn - April 1, 2016
Ayrshire - April 1, 2016
Jersey - February 1, 2016
In MN the 4-H requirement for 2017 is for steers to be born between January 1 – August 31, 2016 which means that a Swiss born on January 1, 2016 will most likely not be "finished" at the show. As far as temperament, it is hard to beat the docility of a Milking Shorthorn. Several of the top dairy steers at the MN State Fair will be a Holstein x Montbéliarde cross (this is a popular cross in commercial dairy herds making them easier to find) or Holstein x Milking Shorthorn cross. In order of easiest to find would be Holstein then Jersey then cross breds then Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Milking Short horn then purebred Montbéliarde, Norwegian Reds, etc.
Here is a pic of one of our dairy steers at the MN State Fair a couple years ago.
The second picture is a couple of our steers last winter.
Edited by MiradaAcres 7/27/2017 10:15
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Brown swiss
