Traditional North Eastern Dairy Breeds

Traditional North Eastern Dairy Breeds

Saturday, March 19, 2011. Torrington, Connecticut

I participated in an interesting meeting of breeders of dairy cattle that have traditionally been raised in North Eastern states. They included Dutch Belts, Kerrys, Milking Shorthorns, and Milking Devons. Milking Devons were well represented by John (president of AMDCA) and Bonnie Hall, Ray Clark, Bruce Balch and myself. The presidents of the Kerry Cattle Association and the Dutch Belt Association were present.

The major focus of the meeting was research that might be of benefit to these traditional breeds. People wanted to explore how collaboration on research might be mutually beneficial, for example, in lowering costs. People shared their work thus far. The Kerry Association has done DNA testing to try and determine a genetic profile for the breed. Ray and John presented the results of preliminary, exploratory tests to determine CLA and Omega 3 levels of Milking Devon milk . People agreed that the results were interesting and promisingly high. Possibilities and plans for further testing, interpretation and publication of the results were discussed at length. CLAs and Omega 3 levels in milk are believed to be linked to health benefits. Other characteristics of milk, e.g. the nature of the fat, the proteins present, are believed to be linked to milk products' flavors and yields. Therefore, various studies of milk were envisioned.

In addition to the discussions of research, we heard reports of people's experiences with the various breeds, and work being done or problems experienced by the breed associations. Thus, this meeting may lead to future discussions of other forms of collaboration that may be mutually beneficial.

Thanks to Ray Clark for proposing the meeting, to Shannon Nichols for organizing the meeting and providing resources, and to Richard Meinert, for hosting it at the University of Connecticut Extension offices.

The AMDCA milk testing initiative came from the annual meeting last year. The membership urged the directors to organize testing and voted funds for the preliminary research. The annual meeting recognized, at the time, that Milking Devons are a triple-purpose breed. Although beginning with research on milk, it was recognized that there is a need to document characteristics of the breed that are important to meat and traction. It is generally recognized that it will be helpful to have a genetic profile of Milking Devons that identify individuals as such. So if the funds and the expertise can be found, I think that we are entering an exciting period of learning a lot more about our animals.