So if a ‘traditional Illawarra’ is not going to have the performance to help, then we need to create some alternative bloodlines that can help the fertility without costing us performance.

You could make use of the significant advances made by some of the European red breeds to create bulls to suit your cause. It’s a case of finding the right balance of bloodlines to get you to the breed’s goals. Looking through the red breeds you will see significant genetic linkages tying them together, and a couple of bloodlines stand out as excelling across all these breeds. The Swedish bull T Bruno may not produce many that could stand out there at your show, but he is a dominant bloodline that you could work with.

Of his Swedish sons I think B Jurist may suit you better than Peterslund, with better udder attachments and more body capacity. But an option with better type could well be the T Bruno son from the Canadian Ayrshire breed, Duo-Star Normandin, an all-red bull backed by the great type bull BB Kellogg and then a Heligo from one of the best production families of the breed.

Or you could look to the Danish Red breed, which again would give more of the type you seek, and would give you more strength and substance of bone. The top Danish Red bull, Bangkok, is a constructor bull that would give you lots of width and capacity with strong bone and great udders, though pins can be high. He is sired by T Fjembe, a son of the red Holstein Momentum, with the dam being a T Bruno out of a daughter of the Danish bull Mabru.

The number 2 and 3 bulls in Denmark are both sired by Fyn Aks, another Momentum son. R David is also from a T Bruno out of a Mabru, while R Degn is the breeds top milk bull and is out of a Ladby with the next dam being a T Bruno. So there are a number of ways to access the T Bruno bloodline, and in many cases much of the work of improving the type to make it into the kind you want to work with has already been done.

The other bloodline that stands out is Backgard. He left more compact cattle but with better udders and good functional traits. His best son is the Swedish bull Orraryd, who appeals to me as his dam is sired by the Danish bull Mabru and so brings in that better type and stronger bone. Another son of the same cow, Brolin, is at the top of the Swedish list but does not leave the impressive udders. I judged the dam of these bulls at the Swedish National show back in ’99. Orraryd is a 2nd crop bull and the most consistent udder bull in their breed, and also scores very well for temperament, something to watch with these breeds. To me breeding sons of Orraryd, or the Danish bulls, or the Ayrshire Normandin, would give you genetic options.

I can see that using your x, y and z genetic introduction program to try to prevent the breed from becoming a red Holstein breed has merit, but I see no reason to put barriers in the way of these other red breeds. They are all becoming interlinked and are making significant genetic gains that you can make use of.

If you want to differentiate your breed from a Holstein than these can help you do it. Once you have a good Illawarra cow sired by a red Holstein, you need to have the option to use whatever other source of red you can over her to maintain a balance, and so applying the x, y and z for these other breeds only gets in the way of good breeding sense. I would strongly urge reciprocal rights for these other red breeds. Here I should emphasise that genetic introduction from other breeds is not just about a quick fix for an in-breeding problem. You need to have permanent access to breeding programs of a size that samples at least 100 bulls per year in order to have genetic gains that will be competitive with the major breeds. Most of the other red dairy breeds are now quite interlinked, and you will need to continue to pick their best sires of sons to use on an ongoing basis.