Holstein

The Holstein is a large dairy breed best known for its bold black-and-white markings, though red-and-white animals turn up too. It developed in the Netherlands and northern Germany and has since become the most widely kept dairy breed in the world. Above all else, it is bred for milk volume: a good Holstein cow will out-produce almost any other dairy breed on a straightforward litres-per-day basis.

Holsteins are big animals. A mature cow typically weighs 580 to 680 kilograms (1,280 to 1,500 lb), with bulls running considerably heavier still. For an animal of that size, though, Holsteins are remarkably placid and straightforward to handle, which is one reason they suit large commercial units and smaller family holdings alike.

The breed's standing comes down to a combination of high yield, an easy-going temperament and adaptability to intensive, well-managed systems. Those same qualities also explain why a single Holstein cow, or a pair, often turns up on smallholdings where the aim is simply to keep a household in milk.

Who the Holstein suits

The Holstein suits dairy producers chasing volume and anyone who wants a cow that is genuinely easy to manage day to day. Given its size and appetite, it does best where there is decent grazing or a properly planned feeding regime behind it. Even first-time keepers often get on well with Holsteins, since the breed's placid nature forgives a certain amount of inexperience, provided the pasture and forage are there to back it up.

The breed's roots lie in the low-lying coastal districts of what is now the Netherlands, together with the German region of Schleswig-Holstein. For centuries, Dutch farmers in North Holland and Friesland kept black-and-white cattle, breeding for animals that turned modest grazing into large quantities of milk. That long process of selection on grassland is really the foundation of the modern dairy type.

By the 1700s and 1800s, the Dutch black-and-white cattle had built a strong reputation for yield, and stock began to be exported across Europe. The breed's name eventually came to reflect both strands of its origin, Holland and Holstein alike.

The first animals reached North America in the mid-1800s. American and Canadian breeders selected hard for production and set up milk-recording and registration schemes that pushed yields up steadily over successive generations. In time, the North American Holstein became so influential that it was exported back to Europe and on to the rest of the world.

Over the twentieth century the Holstein overtook every rival to become the dominant dairy breed on most continents, helped along by artificial insemination, performance recording and an increasingly international trade in genetics. It is now kept across a huge range of climates and farming systems.

The Holstein has the lean, angular build typical of a specialist dairy animal rather than the blocky, muscled frame of a beef breed. The body is deep and long, the rump broad, and in a cow in good production the udder is large and well attached. Everything about the frame is geared towards converting feed into milk rather than muscle.

Coat and colouring

The classic Holstein pattern is sharply defined black patches on a white background, with the size and placement varying enormously from one animal to the next. A recessive gene produces red-and-white animals carrying the same pattern in red rather than black. The coat itself is short and fine, which suits temperate, well-managed conditions but gives little protection against harsh cold or strong sun unless shelter is provided.

The Holstein has a quiet, good-natured reputation that generally holds up in practice. A cow used to regular handling settles into a milking routine without fuss and tolerates close contact with people reasonably well. It is this docility, as much as yield, that has made the breed the default choice on large commercial units where animals are moved and milked to a fixed timetable.

Around family and familiar handlers, Holsteins are usually placid and cooperative, and being herd animals they do far better in company than kept alone. They tend to take strangers in their stride too, so long as handling stays calm, though any animal of this size can react badly if startled or crowded.

A cow can turn protective around calving, and a mature bull of any dairy breed should always be treated as potentially dangerous and handled with proper equipment. For the ordinary milking cow, though, the breed's name for even temperament stands up well under day-to-day management.

Grooming

• Brush the coat now and then to keep it clean and to keep an eye on skin condition.
• Wash the udder before and after milking to cut the risk of mastitis.
• Trim hooves to a regular schedule, usually once or twice a year, to head off lameness.
• Check for external parasites and treat as needed.

Exercise

• Give daily access to pasture or a roomy yard so cows can move about freely.
• Avoid keeping high-yielding cows on hard standing for long spells.
• Leave enough space for the herd to move freely between feeding, water and resting areas.

Environment

Holsteins do best in temperate conditions with shelter from heat, cold and wet. Britain's mild, damp and changeable weather, with rain on the cards at any time of year, means windbreaks and dry bedding matter through the colder months, while shade and good ventilation count for just as much in a hot spell, since heat quickly knocks milk yield back. Clean, dry lying areas go a long way towards preventing mastitis and lameness.

The Holstein is a ruminant, so its diet is built around forage, pasture, hay and silage, that the rumen ferments down. A cow in full production also needs energy and protein from concentrate feed, cereal-based mixes, to sustain milk volume without dropping body condition. Minerals and salt should always be on offer, and clean water matters more than anything else on the list: a lactating cow can easily drink well over 100 litres a day.

Treats and supplements

Small amounts of root vegetables or fruit make an acceptable treat but should never stand in for forage. A free-choice mineral mix suited to the local area helps cover trace element needs, and a high-yielding cow may need extra calcium support around calving on veterinary advice. Sudden changes to the diet are best avoided, since they unsettle the rumen.

The Holstein is a sturdy breed, but its high milk output places real metabolic demands on the cow, particularly around calving and early lactation. Given good nutrition, clean housing and routine veterinary attention, a Holstein can live 15 to 20 years, though a commercial dairy cow's working life is often considerably shorter. Most of the problems that crop up are down to management rather than genetics.

Preventive care

• Keep a vaccination and parasite-control programme going with your vet.
• Maintain clean, dry bedding and good milking hygiene.
• Trim hooves to schedule and check feet regularly.
• Manage the transition, or calving-period, diet carefully to head off milk fever and ketosis.
• Keep records of yield and body condition so problems show up early.

Heifers are usually served, more often than not by AI, at around 13 to 15 months old, once they have reached sufficient size, so that they calve down at roughly two years of age. In commercial herds, breeding is overwhelmingly done by artificial insemination, which gives access to recorded genetics without the trouble of keeping a bull on the place. Cows cycle roughly every 21 days, and service is timed against the cow's heat.

Gestation runs to about nine months (roughly 279 to 283 days), after which the cow normally produces a single calf. Twins do happen occasionally, but they are not particularly welcome, since they carry higher health risks and can leave a female calf infertile if she was born twin to a bull calf.

A newborn calf needs colostrum within the first few hours of life to pick up immunity. On most dairy units calves are reared apart from the cow and fed milk or a milk replacer until they are weaned onto solid feed. To keep the milk coming, cows are generally rebred so as to calve roughly once a year, with a planned dry period worked in before the next calving.