Eric & Diane Werder

Mating heifers to Lowline bulls delivers dual benefits – easy births and calves that can be raised for beef, says a Hawera dairy farmer.

Eric and Diane Werder who have 310 pedigree Friesian cows on their 173ha dairy farm have been mating their 60 or so heifers to Lowline bulls since 2005.

Like other dairy farmers with Friesian herds, they found that mating heifers to Friesian bulls was fraught with difficulty. The calves were so large the heifers could die giving birth or become paralysed.

In 2005 they decided to mate their Friesian heifers to Lowline bulls.

Eric Werder said mating his Friesian heifers to the little Lowlines produced little calves that “popped out like peanuts.”

In the seven years since he started using pedigree Lowline bulls, he hasn’t had to assist his heifers at calving.

“I’ve never had to calve any – not one. They’re just 20 to 24kg. They’re sucking on their mothers and running around really quickly and they double their birth weight in two weeks.”

Sometimes the newborn crossbred calves can be hard to find because they are so small that if the paddock has long grass, they’re hidden.