During the 30th Regional Exhibition of Breeding Animals in Szepietów, animals from Andrzej Dzięgielewski's farm stood out.
The Dzięgielewskis received:
- championship in the category of heifers 10-11 months old PHF HO variety
- reserve champion in the category of heifers 10-11 months old PHF variety HO
- superchampion in the junior heifer category
- championship in the category of heifers 18-19 months PHF
- championship in the Brown Swiss cow category
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Why the Brown Swiss breed?
The Brown Swiss cow category was new at this year's exhibition, but these animals appeared on the Dzięgielewski farm about 8 years ago.
– At the beginning it was a very small number of animals of this breed, we started with one animal. However, it turned out that it works well on our farm. Her functioning with the other cows, Holstein-Friesian cattle, is problem-free, so the idea of purchasing more Brown Swiss females arose. We imported them from Austria together with Paweł Burzyński [winner of the reserve champion title in this category – note. ed] and that's where our history with this breed began – recalled Emil Dzięgielewski.
What are the characteristics of the Brown Swiss breed?
– These cows are characterized by a higher content of protein in milk and dry matter in general, they are also characterized by a high frequency of A2A2 casein genes, making the milk suitable for consumers who cannot drink conventional milk – A2A2 milk does not cause them problems – explained Dzięgielewski.
Sharp selection is essential
Our interlocutor noted that over time, the population of Brown Swiss cows in the Dzięgielewski herd may increase, but they want to focus primarily on intensive selection.
– We do not want it to be a large population, above all we want it to be well selected – said Dzięgielewski. – When selecting, we focus heavily on conformation. For me, this is one of the most important features, because milk can be obtained thanks to good feed, its high quality and proper preparation, and the conformation results in a long-lived cow, and by spending more time on the farm it produces more milk in total – he added.
When asked about advice for breeders who would like to achieve similar success, Dzięgielewski emphasized that one should constantly raise the bar and successively strive for the goal. As he emphasized, cooperation with PFHBiPM is very helpful – in the case of the Dzięgielewski farm, genome analysis and elemental evaluation turned out to be very helpful.
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Meet the Super Champions from Bratoszewice
Tools helpful in breeding work
The tools mentioned above, which in the opinion of the breeder are helpful in breeding work, include the DoKo program, genomeing, evaluation of the structure of the elements and embryotransfer.
– With the help of DoKo, we select bulls individually for each animal, and we also carry out genomic selection – all animals in our herd are genomed, and the structure of the animals is assessed. This year we also started dealing with embryotransfer. I think that we will strive to develop in this area, because it enables even faster breeding progress, said Dzięgielewski.
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Bogusia by Armada and Golda by Morris, PHF females from Opolagra
