Conservation of a native dairy cattle breed through terminal crossbreeding with commercial dairy breeds

TY - JOUR

T1 - Conservation of a native dairy cattle breed through terminal crossbreeding with commercial dairy breeds

AU - Clasen, J. B.

AU - Kargo, M.

AU - Fikse, W. F.

AU - Strandberg, E.

AU - Wallenbeck, A.

AU - Østergaard, S.

AU - Rydhmer, L.

N1 - Funding Information: This study was run within the project ORGANICDAIRYHEALTH, funded by ERA-Net CORE Organic Plus Funding Bodies partners of the European Union's FP7 research and innovation program under grant number 618107, and the project ReDiverse, funded by the European Union's ERA-Net Cofund SusAn (grant number 696231). Both projects are supported by funds from The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS). This project also received funding from the Green Development and Demonstration Program (GUDP) under the Danish Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agriculture, grant number 34009-18-1365 (DairyCross project). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Farmers play a key role in conserving native livestock breeds, but without economic support, farms with native breeds may not be viable. We hypothesized that terminal crossbreeding can improve herd economy and decrease the economic support needed from society. Three scenarios were simulated using SimHerd Crossbred: a herd of purebred Swedish Polled Cattle, a herd of purebred Swedish Red, and a herd of 75% Swedish Polled Cattle and 25% F1 crossbreds. The results showed annual contribution margin per cow in the herd can be increased by €181 by crossbreeding compared with pure-breeding with the native breed, giving a 13.6% growth in contribution margin. However, the needed cost in subsidies paid by the government will remain unchanged if the population size of the native breed is to be maintained. Combining a crossbreeding strategy with the marketing of niche products may facilitate the conservation of native cattle.

AB - Farmers play a key role in conserving native livestock breeds, but without economic support, farms with native breeds may not be viable. We hypothesized that terminal crossbreeding can improve herd economy and decrease the economic support needed from society. Three scenarios were simulated using SimHerd Crossbred: a herd of purebred Swedish Polled Cattle, a herd of purebred Swedish Red, and a herd of 75% Swedish Polled Cattle and 25% F1 crossbreds. The results showed annual contribution margin per cow in the herd can be increased by €181 by crossbreeding compared with pure-breeding with the native breed, giving a 13.6% growth in contribution margin. However, the needed cost in subsidies paid by the government will remain unchanged if the population size of the native breed is to be maintained. Combining a crossbreeding strategy with the marketing of niche products may facilitate the conservation of native cattle.

KW - conservation

KW - Crossbreeding

KW - dairy cattle

KW - native breeds

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099469575&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/09064702.2020.1867632

DO - 10.1080/09064702.2020.1867632

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85099469575

SN - 0906-4702

VL - 70

JO - Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Science

JF - Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Science

IS - 1

ER -