Simmentaler Fleckvieh - Schweizer Braunvieh

Started by Alpkäserei, April 29, 2014, 05:32:00 PM

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Alpkäserei

When looking to build my herd, my focus goes to 2 strong breeds from the Swiss Alps, the Fleckvieh and the Braunvieh, transleted these would be the spotted cow and the brown cow.
The Schweizer Braunvieh traditionally is the cow of Eastern Switzerland, it is the ancestor of the modern breeds Brown Swiss, and Braunvieh (an American beef breed) But in Switzerland it is an all-purpose animal. Today it is found in its traditional form, but also in breeds that are being optimized for more milk production.

The Simmentaler Fleckvieh (more often just Fleckvieh) is traditionally the cow of Western Switzerland, except in the French part where Abondance is common (which is atually bred from the Fleckvieh)
The Fleckvieh has the second most broadly distributed bloodline on earth, the most common in the West, being the ancestor to many modern breeds. The simmentaler beef breed is taken from this stock.

The Braunvieh is a moderate size cow.
The Fleckvieh is enormous, bred to handle the most rugged alpine environments.

I hope to build a stock of Fleckvieh by crossing Swiss genetics into an American dairy herd consisting of various mixed-breed cows. After a few generations, I hope to have a few animals of strong Fleckvieh stock.
There is basically no established Fleckvieh in this country, only stock that has been bred for other purposes. So I pretty much have to build my own herd.
One advantage of these animals is that the unwanted calves can be raised for beef, and yield good quality meet.

elkato

That is fantastic Alp we have very similar taste in types of cattle!
I have been crossing my American Brown Swiss with  Original Braunvieh (Original Swiss dual purpose with strong emphasis on milk) bulls from Switzerland  by the company     http://www.selectstar.ch
and several of my Holsteins are pregnant with German Fleckvieh (Original milking Fleckvieh, not to confuse with meat Simmental)  from the company Bayern GenetiK Gmbh  their North America representative is
http://www.bigbeargenetics.com
By the way I will be letting their horns grow on the halfblood like they do in the Alps! (not dehorning like everyone does in America) as the 2 breeds are very tame.
best regards
Luis

Alpkäserei

elkato,

if you grow the horns out keep in mind,
in the Alps they put them in a shaper, a special block tied to the horns to teach them to grow in an attractive shape.

The shape of the horns as you see is not natural.

In The Emmental, they commonly shape the horns so one point up and the other forward and maybe even slightly down

In the Berner Oberland, they like to give a slight double curve to the horns.

I wish you good success with your efforts, the Fleckvieh is a very hardy breed and will serve you well.

I will buy my stock from Swiss suppliers. since I am Swiss, it's not too hard for me.
Increasingly I am considered the possibility of becoming a supplier of certain Swiss dairy and cheese equipment...

elkato

Alp, thank you for the horn shaping advice ( I like the shape that curves front then up)

I have seen many videos from Switzerland where you can see the herds of either Simmentaler Fleckvieh or Braunvieh. I can imagine that the heated discussions between farmers who prefer one breed over the other, like a Ford vs Chevy thing

I have not found a photo of a crossbred Fleckvieh x Braunvieh have you ever seen one? Since I will be crossbreeding the two breeds with Holstein I wonder how they would come out if for the second generation I switch breeds? hybrid vigor?
best regards
Luis.