The Rural Voice, 1989-06, Page 30Brown
Swiss
THE GENTLE
DAIRY BREED
by Peter Baltensperger
here wasea time when
there were no Brown
Swiss dairy cows on the
North American continent. Canadian
dairy farmers, almost exclusively,
were using Holsteins (still the domi-
nant breed in this country), with a
few Ayrshires and Jerseys and other
minority breeds here and there.
But no Brown Swiss.
Those were grazing peacefully on
the alpine slopes of Switzerland where
they had been dominating dairy pro-
duction since early medieval times,
producing a high -protein milk which
made Switzerland famous for its
cheeses many centuries ago.
Today, the Brown Swiss are the
second most numerous breed in the
world next to the Holsteins, number-
ing some 14 -million head world-wide,
and they are reputed to have the oldest
recorded genealogy of any breed.
About half of all Brown Swiss are still
concentrated in the alpine regions of
central Europe, but they are gradually
spreading all over the world.
It was a century ago, in 1888, that
the first Brown Swiss arrived in
Canada from the U.S., an offspring of
the original Swiss import to North
America. Today, there are more than
Eldon and Lorraine Cook operate Loreldo Farms with their son and daughter-in-law
Greg and April. Loreldo Kate Starr is one of their purebred Brown Swiss.
1,400 purebreds in Canada, 300 of
them beef and 1,100 of them dairy
cattle. Breeding the Brown Swiss
has become an important factor in the
Canadian animal husbandry scene, and
the breed is making a considerable
name for itself.
The Brown Swiss as a breed have
a number of significant advantages.
Their owners refer to them as "the
gentle breed," claiming that they are
easier to work with and easier to han-
dle and herd than other breeds because
of their docile and affectionate nature.
They are also known as a "func-
tional breed." They are larger than
all other breeds except the Holsteins.
Solid animals with good feet and legs,
they are known for their strength,
durability, and high salvage value.
They are also productive, character-
ized by a lower peak and a longer
plateau than others, resulting in better
milk production in the long run.
Most importantly, the Brown Swiss
are a high -protein breed, their milk
testing out at the highest protein -to -fat
ratio of all the breeds, and also at the
highest caesin-to-fat ratio. This is
becotning an increasingly important
factor in animal husbandry as nutri-
tional focus shifts from the fat content
of foods to protein content. At the
same time, the caesin content of milk
is getting more and more attention as
the demand for cheeses increases
steadily in this country.
As a result, more and more
Canadian dairy farmers are changing
their stock to Brown Swiss.
A case in point is Loreldo Farms
Ltd. in Belgrave, Huron County,
owned by Eldon and Lorraine Cook
and their son and daughter-in-law
Greg and April Cook. A dairy family
since 1955, the Cooks were milking a
mixed herd of Holsteins and some
other breeds when in 1972 they
bought a small herd of Brown Swiss
from a retiring Swiss -Canadian on a
nearby farm. A few years later, they
acquired a second small herd, and
today they are the proud owners of a
130 -head herd of exclusively Brown
Swiss.
The first purebred Brown Swiss
heifer to be registered by Loreldo
Farms was Loreldo Marlene, born in
1974. She produced high-quality milk
and gave birth to a whole line of
functional Brown Swiss for 15 years,
and was put to market only earlier this
year. He daughter Loreldo Leona, as
well as her grand -daughter Loreldo
28 THE RURAL VOICE