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Madison Co. Virginia | I've got a similar viewpoint and a similar situation.
My dad started out with Holsteins, Jerseys, and Ayrshires. He was exclusively AI for years, and he maintained the purity of those strains. He also bred up to some relatively pure lines of Swiss, Shorthorn, and Guernsey. When I was growing up, I got experience with all six of those American dairy breeds. By the time I started AI breeding, he had been running herd bulls for years. Things were getting pretty mixed up, so I decided it would be simpler to pick a breed and stick with it. Jersey was an easy choice, because I prefer working with them. Their large genetic base is a definite bonus as well over the other minor breeds.
I've got an unbelievable Holstein/Jersey cross right now who was a cull from a robot dairy. She is simply built to milk, and she never seems to dwindle off. But I definitely recognize the hit-or-miss aspect of this, and am not tempted to go back into crossbreeding.
I would like to play around a little more with New Zealand Jersey outcrosses, but I haven't found a good source of sexed NZ Jersey genetics yet. | |
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