By: Lawrence Mutegi
Worth Noting:
- It is healthy, hardy, and adaptable to different geographical and climatic conditions.
- It has easy calving, good fertility, and long productive life. Besides the high-performance potential for milk and beef, they are the basis for efficient production.
- They have an excellent conformation of udders, feet, and legs together with the medium body size of animals is ideal concerning longevity and feed efficiency
The first time I encountered this breed of cattle was in 2015 at a day secondary school in our locality. At that time, I was still fresh in the animal health sector. That was the time I was going through my field attachment. I was awed by the massive body size of the twin bulls tethered on the school field. The two young bulls were grazing comfortably. I got the urge to inquire from the vet who was taking me through the field attachment. He explained that it was the newest breed in Kenya, Fleckvieh. I admired the animal so much because of the enormous body conformation. The bulls had white heads and brown bodies. I encouraged some farmers at my home place to try the breed, and they will not regret it.
Three weeks ago, I visited a colleague in Ndunyu Njeru, and he had synchronized some cows he had to inseminate using artificial insemination. To my amazement, the farm had several crossbreds of the Fleckvieh and some calves. I did not expect that he would be using the Fleckvieh semen on all the cows. Later, he explained to me that the owner of the farmer had fallen in love with the breed. The reason was the high milk production, disease resistance, good body conformation, and thick skin, which was not easily penetrable by the pests like ticks.
The vets are sourcing the semen from Fleckvieh Genetics E.A Limited. The cows can attain a weight of 650 to 800kgs and are less prone to mastitis as their genetic makeup provides fewer somatic cells.
CRV FLECKVIEH
Dairy and fitness
The Fleckvieh breed is developed by CRV. CRV is a cooperative owned by the Dutch cooperative, CR Delta, and the Flemish cooperative VRV.
The Fleckvieh breed is one of Europe’s oldest breeds. It has a population of approximately 41 million, the second-largest breed in the world. It was developed to be highly productive on mostly grass-based diets. Furthermore, to produce higher amounts of fat and protein for cheese making.
Fleckvieh cows are being bred throughout the whole world today. The most crucial Fleckvieh cows are in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, and France. The CRV breeding population uses all these populations to ensure it sources the best available bulls.
Fleckvieh breed characteristics
- It is healthy, hardy, and adaptable to different geographical and climatic conditions.
- It has easy calving, good fertility, and long productive life. Besides the high-performance potential for milk and beef, they are the basis for efficient production.
- They have an excellent conformation of udders, feet, and legs together with the medium body size of animals is ideal concerning longevity and feed efficiency.
CRV breeding targets
The company targets to achieve the following goals as they continue improving their breeds:
- Milk butter fat content of 3.7% to 4.2%.
- Increase milk production from 1st to second to the third lactation.
- Lifetime milk production of 30,000kg.
- Daily gain of fattening bulls of 1300gms.
- Adult weight of cows to 650 to 850kgs.
- Possesses a stature of 140cm to 150cm.
- Possesses a strong udder with good texture and correct placement.
- Possesses solid feet and legs.
It is gaining popularity amongst the Kenyan farmers, with over 20,000 farmers using the semen. Fleckvieh is a breed with unexploited potential. I would encourage more farmers to adopt it and enjoy its genetics.
Compiled by: Lawrence Mutegi
Source: CRV Global Fleckvieh 2019/2020
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