Kelly and Christy Cunningham are satisfied with the milestone achieved in their herd after their decision to use ProCROSS three years ago. Milk Unlimited Dairy Farms in Iowa, USA has 3,100 cows, 60% of the herd are ProCROSS today.
In 2018 the family lost the fluid milk market. Kelly and Christy began looking for a cow that would have moderate size but produce high components. Their search led them to the ProCROSS program. They immediately began breeding heifers and cows to Montbeliarde, however, the length of time to convert the herd from pure Holstein to a 3-breed ProCROSS was overwhelming.
They contacted Mike Osmundson at Creative Genetics about purchasing ProCROSS cattle to get a jump-start. The family was able to purchase cattle from 3 long-time ProCROSS herds and began to freshen their first ProCROSS cattle in August, 2018.
Better health and fertility
They keep very detailed records on their ProCROSS and Holstein cows. Fresh-cow health events (ketosis, metritis, DA, milk fever, retained placenta) are half of what they experience with Holsteins. Mastitis and pneumonia are more than 50% less than Holsteins. Across all traits, their ProCROSS have –$.28/cow/day lower health cost than the Holsteins.
Reproduction has also been outstanding. ProCROSS cattle are open 22 days less and have pregnancy rates 4-5 points higher than Holsteins.
