Danish Red Dairy Breed
Many years’ consistent use of efficient breeding programmes has developed today’s RDM-cow which combines the following traits:
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High protein and fat yields – high components
Positive trend for health traits
Good fertility
Easy calvings
The best legs and udders
Black hoofs
Superior temperament and milking speed |
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History
There have always been red cows in Denmark. Originally, they were found on the Danish islands - the so-called “Island Cattle” and in Schleswig the Angler and the Ballum cattle. Different breeding initiatives were organised very early, and in the middle of the 19th century the exchange of genetics started between these populations.
In 1878, a group of farmers in the town of Svendborg on the island of Funen decided to unite the red cattle and call it Red Danish Cattle. This name was later changed to the present name “The Danish Red Dairy Breed” (RDM), i.e. only Danish cattle form the basis of the oldest national breed in Denmark.
The following survey describes very briefly the most important events in the history of the RDM breed:
1878 Official approval of “The Danish Red Dairy Breed” (RDM)
1881 The RDM herdbook was set up
1885 The first RDM herdbook was published.
1953 The National Association of RDM was founded
1972 Trials with imported genes of Finnish Ayrshire (FA), Swedish Red & White Cattle (SRB) and Dutch Red & White Cattle (MRIj)
1975 Semen imports from Brown Swiss (USA) and Red Holstein (Canada)
1978 Agreement to use American Brown Swiss as genetic donor
1986 Protein yield was included in the calculation of breeding values
1987 Import of limited quantities of semen from SRB, Brown Swiss from Switzerland and Angler
1992 Cooperation agreements with the red breeds in the Baltic States and the Angler breed. Experiments with the French Montbeliarde breed. Only linear assessment of daughter groups
1993 The Association of “European Red Dairy Breed” (ERDB) is founded by the following breeds: Angler, Estonian Red, Latvian Red, Lithuanian Red and RDM. Imports of Angler and Red Holstein
1994 Import of semen from proven Swedish sires
1995 Swedish Red and White cattle joins the ERDB organisation 2 R Ascona
1996 Future Genetics replaces the Fy-Bi-project. Import of red and white cattle from Germany and Holland. Polish Red, Finnish Ayrshire and Norwegian Red join the ERDB
1997 Joint nationwide young bull testing scheme
1999 A nationwide RDM breeding committee is in charge of purchasing bull calves on the basis of screening plans and selecting young bulls for joint testing
2000 New name RDM-Denmark
2003 A.I. Dansire was founded because of a merge of all Danish A.I. organisations. RDMDenmark is a part of A.I. Dansire
2004 RDM decided to be part of the Swedish nucleus herd VIKEN and the Swedes are part of the Danish QTL project.
2005 Across country breeding evaluation for conformation, fertility temperament and milking speed in Denmark, Sweden and Finland - NAV
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Production results and genetic development
The following tables and figures show the many
production results and development of the RDM breed.
RDM is the leading breed as regards the number of liveborn calves and the calving statistics reveal amazing results - 60 percent of all calvings are unassisted. |
In the 1990s RDM has experienced a markedly genetic development in the S-index (total merit). Especially the Y-index (yield) has had an impact on the positive development but at the same time the breed has been able to maintain a positive genetic development for mastitis resistance. |
Table: 2004 Yield RDM cows
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Kg milk |
% fat |
Kg fat |
% protein |
Kg protein |
| Average (cows in Milk control) |
8,119 |
4.25 |
345 |
3.55 |
288 |
| Highest yielding cow |
14,184 |
5.97 |
847 |
4.07 |
577 |
| Highest yielding herd |
10,304 |
4.53 |
467 |
3.56 |
367 |
Fig. 1: Differences between the different breeds in terms of calving ease and percent of below average calves.
Breeding objective with focus on health traits
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The breeding objective of the RDM breed is: A modern, high-producing, strong, dairy cow which is continuously capable of living up to the requirements of the dairy farmers for a healthy economy and superior production traits and which is also capable of producing healthy and tasty products in demand among the consumers.
Weighting of Y-index:
Milk : fat : protein: -1:1:4 . This weight gives focus on high components and weight protein approximately six times more than fat. |
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Total Merit Index – S-index RDM has a balanced breeding objective that includes all financial aspects. The S-index weights the various traits in such a way that the cattle farmer will make the maximum profit. The current weighting is shown in table 1. This weighting implies that we may expect progress in yield without hampering the other traits. We expect that the other traits, including in particular the trait of health and fertility, will gain even more importance in the future. The cattle herds grow larger and fewer hours are applied to inspection, so the breeding objective, a problem-free cow with few sick days, is more important than ever.
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Breeding programme
Gene pool
2004: 44,461 milk-recorded cows (annual average)
Selection programme
Selection of high-index cattle (HI)
Nationwide screening lists are made out 7 times a year including animals meeting the following requirements (figure 12):
Cows: S- and Y-index > 120
Heifers: Y-index > 120
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 | On an annual basis 500 cows and 750 heifers are selected and mated to bull sires. Bull dam selection is very important but the most different stage in the breeding programme. A way to optimize bull dam selection is by using nucleus herds. Danish Red is part of the Swedish Nucleus herd VIKEN.
Young bulls
Number of young bulls tested in 2004: 60
All the young bulls accepted by the breeding committee are tested all over Denmark. Their semen is distributed to the individual breeding areas according to their number of first inseminations. This ensures rapid and efficient testing.
As soon as 750 inseminations per young bull have been recorded, the inseminations stop. This ensures the highest possible repeatability’s.
- 115-125 milking daughters correspond to repeatabilities of 89-92 % on the Y-index
- 20-80 daughters are classified. The better the assessment of a given bull, the more daughters are assessed to obtain a high repeatability (70-90 %)
1,500 semen doses from each young bull are stored. Then they are considered waiting bulls and live until their breeding values have been calculated and a final assessment has been made.
Proven bulls – export is increasing
The best bulls are selected as proven bulls and they are available to all cattle farmers. A total of 7-9 bulls are normally on the proven bulls list. Export of proven RDM bulls have been increasing the last years. The first 4 months in 2005 28.000 doses of Danish Red proven semen were exported to many different countries. Most semen are exported to Sweden and the Baltic countries but an increasing part are exported to USA, Canada and Germany to cross breeding on Holstein cows
Import bulls
RDM imports bulls that live up to the breeding objective, mainly bulls of the Swedish SRB breed but also bulls of other breeds are used if they match the breeding objective. In order to promote breeding cooperation in the Scandinavian region at least one bull from each of the Nordic countries will be available.
Sires of sons
The board of the RDM-Denmark selects the best proven bulls and import bulls to become bull fathers and they are used on high-indexed cows and heifers. To coordinate the number of young bulls per sires of sons the individual sires of sons are recommended only until a sufficient number of bull calves has been born. We are very aware of inbreeding and use the computer programme EVA to optimize genetic gain and minimize inbreeding.
RDM prepared for the future
The RDM cow is the model for the modern dairy cow that can stay home alone. It is a cow with strong feet and legs – traits that are necessary in large free stall barns. The cow gives birth to the calf on its own with few problems – this minimizes the expenses to veterinarians and reduces the risk of diseases in the weeks after calving. The Danish Red breeding programme is a well-oiled “machine” using QTL information, information from all treatments carried out by veterinarians and A.I technicians, somatic cell count from yield control and maximizes the genetic progress while taking inbreeding into account. In the near future sexed semen will also be available to further increase of the genetic progress. The combination of the above means that RDM is a dairy breed for the future.
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