The Bull Show
Ücker, Saurlach and Alpine Farm
An Independent look at Fleckvieh in the UK
Rob Wills of Molecare Genetics having a discussion with Bob Palmer and Dr Grupp
Research Farm Classification
The First farm we went to was in Eberl, Sauerlach. Their farm was fantastic Zero-Grazing system with an average 10,000kg plus of milk.
As with most Fleckvieh breeders, this farm would never select based on milk production but on Fitness. This selection policy was clearly paying off as it was almost the case of spot the cow that hadn't produced 100 tonnes of milk!
Another point that was Made clear was that if in the heifer lactation they were producing too much milk (usually around 8,000kg) they would sell them at market. The reason for this is that they will get a great price for them by farmers wanting a quick return but also because he believed that a heifer producing too much milk will "burn out" and wont have the lifetime production that he was after.
This Part of the trip we had a tour around the Bavarian cattle research farm. Whilst we were there they were doing a wide variety of research based on housing conditions- namely the comparison between straw and rubber bedding, feed efficiency and comparing robots with traditional milking systems.
Bavaria trip 2015!
Eberl, Sauerlach
The Final part of the trip was to head over to the Munich Oktoberfest. it was a very enjoyable evening and many Steins were enjoyed!
Research Farm Classification
Later that day Bayern put on a show and brought out all the bulls for all of us to see and went into great detail about all the Bayern bulls that were available to see.
Finally at the research farm we did a classification session with Dr Grupp and he explained with the real cows what they are looking for within the breed and he gave us all a great lesson in Fleckvieh classification
Research Farm
On the next day we had a seminar with Dr Thomas Grupp where he explained what Bayern Genetiks breeding goals and what it is they are looking to achieve in their breeding and what it is their farmers want.
Later that day we went through classification of fleckvieh and we thought that it was important that the information should be translated into an English system that we all can relate to Click here to view the classification translations.
Molecare Genetics organised a trip out to Bavaria with Bayern Genetik, on the trip we visited several of Bayern's farms throughout the whole of Bavaria including a fantastic variation of systems.
Classification Seminar
Oktoberfest Munich 2015!
The Second farm that we went to reared their Heifers way up in the mountains and they were brought down to the farm when the winter begins and also when they are ready to milk. Once they have Succeeded in the mountains they will be a hardy strong cow ready for milking!
This farm is well known as in this farm they have produced some of the best bulls available and growing up in these conditions you can see why!