Mike Osmundson
Managing Director

Cindi Campbell
Treasurer

Ami Campbell
Advertising Manager

Ryan Campbell
Semen Packaging

Greg Osmundson
A.I. Technician

HOLSTEIN INTERNATIONAL ARTICLE

October 2004
By Jan Bierma

Mike Osmundson: “Sire selection is also crucial in crossbreeding.”

In California, the crossbreeding trial of other dairy breeds with Holsteins is being followed with growing interest. Mike Osmundson of Creative Genetics in California initiated the project with seven “trial farms” that had already been connected to his insemination service for twenty years. Last year, Mike made an arrangement with European semen exporters, this year he worked out a contract with Select Sires for the distribution of alternative dairy breeds in the U.S. Since then, things have only become busier for Mike, his team and the seven dairies in California.

All of a sudden the world has entirely changed for Creative Genetics. “Some days the office is completely a crazy house, new customers are calling all day and Cindi can hardly find time to speak with them,” Explains Mike Osmundson, the man behind Creative Genetics has been an insemination service in California and day after day Mike was on the road breeding cows. But for the past year, his daily schedule has changed drastically. Since the results of the crossbreeding trail in California were published and since Creative Genetics became distributor of the European red & white dairy breeds in the U.S, it has become very busy. According to their own statistics, in just 12 months Creative Genetics was able to grow 3% of the (enormous) American semen industry. This very rapid growth has everything to do with the interest of American dairy farmers in crossbreeding. Interest that is especially the result of the decreased fertility of dairy cows, as Osmundson knows from personal experience. On a daily basis he experienced how difficult it had become to get the high-producing Californian dairy cow pregnant again. When one of his clients had a group of Jersey- Holstein crossbreeds to breed and almost all of them became pregnant all at once, a light went on in Osmundson’s head. As a result, at seven large Californian dairy farms – customers of Creative Genetics since its beginning in 1983- they started breeding with alternative dairy breeds. We started with all of the breeds that we thought would have a reasonable chance. We had no idea what the results of the mating would be. Thus we started out with Normande, Montbeliarde, SRB (Sweden), NRF (Norway), Aryshires, Jerseys, Milking Shorthorns, and Brown Swiss. At this point in time we are continuing with the breeds that showed the best results: Scandinavian red & whites (SRB, NRF and the Danish RDM) and Montbeliardes. According to Osmundson.

Technician

Not everyone is happy about the crossbreeding of other breeds with pure Holsteins. That could also be true of Osmundson himself, who has been a fan of the Holstein breed since he was young. With this he emphasizes: “Of course we have nothing against the Holstein breed. She is by far the world’s most successful cow for milk production and in our business they remain a very important breed. But over the course of time, problems have emerged that can be solved with the use of other breeds, as is evident from both the fields as well ad the trials. And that is important to the farmers-our customers.” Osmundson’s connection with the Holstein cow started in 1955m when he was six years old. “My parents had a farm with pigs and beef cattle in West Union, Iowa. Milking appealed to me and when I was 6 years old, my dad bought three Holstein cows, with the intent of providing enough milk for our family. Ever since then I have milked cows. Later on, at my request, my dad purchased a pure-bred Holstein since I was fascinated with the breeding. In this way, the number of cows grew slowly. Together with my wife Nancy, I started farming in Iowa and the prefix of our Holsteins was “Rolling Acres”. For years it had been my dream to move from Iowa to California however. At first Nancy was not to keen on the idea, but in 1982 she was ready for it and was willing to try the adventure. We sold our farm in Iowa, I had bred our own cows for 10 years, and in California I turned this into my profession. In 1983 I started a one-man operation named Creative Genetics. Since that time I have been a full- time technician and especially the first years were hectic: “I often started a half past two in the morning and stopped in the evening somewhere between 6 and 10 o’clock.” Explains Osmundson, who remembers the year 1995 as the most intensive breeding year. “Back then I bred 117 cows per day,” recalls the American, who this year reached the millstone of one million services. Today Creative Genetics- now located in Oakdale- has 3 technicians and 4 sales representatives while Cindi Campbell does the administration and office work.

Growing Herd

Also in California, Osmundson started a dairy farm again after some time but sold it to both of his sons at the beginning of this year. It slowly became too busy for me but both of our sons it was an opportunity for the future, explains Osmundson who also participated successfully in Jersey breeding for a number of years in California. The seven dairies that started crossbreeding with red dairy breeds have in the meantime become known as “the seven dairies” of the crossbreeding trail, which is now coordinated by a number of universities. More and more results from the first crosses (F1) are being published, and in the meantime animals from the second cross (F2) are being milked and already been bred. “Currently we are especially working on a 4 way cross: the Holstein cow is being bred to with a Scandinavian (SRB or NRF), the product of this is crossed with a Montbeliarde which is followed by the red Dane (RDM) or Brown Swiss for a larger sized cow. After this we would like to use Holsteins again,” says Osmundson. He finds the growth of the herds as a result of crossbreeding remarkable, “It goes very fast. With crossbreeding we not only have significantly more live calves on average, but in addition, the percentage of involuntary culling of the dairy cows has decreased from 40% to 16% over the past number of years . In other words: longevity has significantly increased,” indicates Osmundson. Almost daily he follows the business with his own eyes because one of the seven crossbreeding farms, Crane-Villa Dairy, is owned by his son Gary. After many years the herd is growing again to such an extent that he has decided- together with on of the number of others from the seven dairies- to organize a sale of the cross-bred animals for next year.

Sire Selection

As mentioned earlier, the succession of generations and crossbreeding products goes quickly. Unfortunately the cross-bred animals cannot be registered in a herd book as individuals, since American herd books are not open to crossbred animals. Even if the starting cow is a registered Holstein, offspring that don’t have a registered Holstein sire cannot be registered a fact that saddens Osmundson greatly. Especially since among the cross-bred individuals there are a number of animals with sound achievements. “Of course we are able to register the production records with the milk recording organization, but such cows cannot be herd book registered, and thus cannot be classified either. That is very unfortunate,” finds Osmundson, who among others points to a cow called “The Queen” because of her tremendous milk production ( almost 14,000 kg as a two-year-old) and beautiful conformation (see picture up on the header of the website) The Queen (Hoekstra #4546) is cross of the Swedish Red and Holstein: Her sire is the top Swedish transmitter and sire of sons Backgard, her dam is a daughter of the American sire Macy-L Mascot Jeff ( Mascot-Cleitus).

As a result of the achievements of the Queen, Osmundson points to the importance of proper sire selection also when choosing sires from other breeds. “Crossbreeding is certainly not haphazard. Of course heterosis can have an additional effect on the crossbreeding product, but simply remains that the best animals provide the best results. Also with crossbreeding you need the top animals to attain the best results.”