Breed characteristics

The breed in general

Herd book breeding of Red & White cows in Germany can be traced back until 1887. Due to increasingly strong Red Holstein influence on the German Red & White population, a separated breeding and herd book management was established in 1992. This was the basis for the successful preservation breeding-wise and for work with dual purpose traits characteristic of the breed.

Color:

Red & White dual purpose cattle (DN) are red-white whereby the red should be predominant if possible. The extremities, belly and udder are generally white. The head is red whereby the forehead often shows a white mark.

Polled status:

The animals have horns by nature.

Body:

The medium-sized animals have very good feet & legs and udders of excellent quality guaranteeing high productivity and very good longevity.

Production traits:

This breed is especially characterized by robustness and outstanding fattening capability and adaptability in all kinds of housing. The animals are named Red & White dual purpose because they have better fattening ability than Holstein cattle. However, milk production is lower by approx. 1,000 kg compared to Holstein cattle. There are productions of 7,000 kg milk with ca. 4.0 % fat and 3.6 % protein based on farm-own feed. Differing milk production can be compensated by higher fattening yield as daily weight gains of 1,300 g can be realized. Carcase is good with best yield and outstanding meat quality.