WSFF continued

• Words taken from the Fleckvieh Changes magazine and authors own experience. Felicity Reeves

Besamungsstation

Our second AI centre was the Besamungsstation, Hohenzell. This facility is also owned by local farmers. Founded 25 years ago, Oö. Besamungsstation is a joint venture of the breeding associations RZO and FIH. As a market leader in the insemination of cattle, they produce high-quality semen for domestic and international breeding at their facility in Hohenzell, Upper Austria. Every year, they sell about 800,000 portions of semen from more than 1000 different bulls and 20 different breeds.

Again they paraded their bulls and even male progeny of those bulls also being collected. When selecting animals for insemination, they also pay special attention to future-oriented hereditary strengths and a high level of genetic diversity. A look at the international ranking of top Fleckvieh sires provides conclusive proof of this fact. EUROgenetik, the world’s largest Fleckvieh insemination association, owns more than 40% of the top 100 daughter-tested bulls. Besides equally well-known polled top stars such as HAMLET Pp* or MOMENTUM PP*, we also offer the semen of WIRBELWIND P*S, the world’s no. 1 polled Fleckvieh bull. In addition, Besamungsstation is home to numerous other young sires with excellent genetics that are currently making a name for themselves, such as SUPERBOY, SPIRITUS, MOAB, WILKO, MEDIAN or HERZPOWER.

Our final days of the WSFF Congress Tour was spent attending the National Fleckvieh Show at Freistadt. The biggest and most prestigious show held in facilities owned by Fleckvieh Austria and was up until recently, where their office was before moving into Vienna.

Over two days, an auction and show classes were held with the winning female going to the Lichtenegger family of Corinthia. They showed a few classes in sire groups and carry signs, not of the breed, but of the sire, so to win is very prestigious. We would visit this farm on the Post Congress Tour.

Weng im Innkreis

Our last farm tour of the main Congress Tour was to the Kreil family Fleckvieh beef farm, Weng im Innkreis, Upper Austria. The Kreil family is three generations of highly motivated breeders with their own on-farm butchery and shop. Until 1997, the farm practised dairy farming with Fleckvieh cattle and fattening of the male animals. In 1995, they started to sell pork, beef and poultry directly to customers with great success. For labour-related reasons, the farm switched from dairy cattle to suckler cows in 1997. In order to find the right beef breed, the family tried out several breeds through artificial insemination. After one Fleckvieh bull from an acquired group of bulls developed extremely well in 2009, the family decided to focus on beef breeding with polled Fleckvieh cattle. Since most of the animals are kept indoors all year round, and a small group of cows go out to pasture with their calves, all stables were converted to an animal-friendly deep litter system. Each cow area is equipped with a spacious calf pen. Feeding is delivered by means of a self-propelled silage cutter. The animals have access ad libitum to hay, and all of them are fed mineral feed in the form of paste. From calving to insemination, the cows receive an additional 1 kg of concentrated feed. From the age of 10 weeks until the weaning date, concentrated feed is offered in the calf pen. After weaning, the female animals are given only basic feed, while the male animals additionally receive up to 2 kg of concentrated feed per day. One group of cows with their calves is on pasture from April to October. The best genetically polled animals are sold as breeding stock throughout Austria and in neighbouring countries. Animals that do not meet the breeding requirements are fattened, slaughtered in the farm’s own slaughter and processing room and sold through farmgate marketing. Many of the available breeding animals are sold via word of mouth, www.landwirt.com and the FIH internet sales catalogue. Altitude: 365 Metres above sea level

Rainfall: 1,100 mm Farm size: 97 ha in total, of which 51 ha are arable land (20% maize, 15% sugar beets, 20% soybeans, 35% cereals and 10% clover-grass, with additional catch crops), 46 ha are permanent grassland cut five times a year, and 3.6 ha are woodland Livestock 79 herdbook cows, 70 young heifers, 37 young bulls.

WSFF POST CONGRESS AGROTOUR

By Felicity Reeves

Our party is now down to 50 from 200 as those who chose to stay on the Post Congress Tour. We are split into English and Spanish speaking to aide the interpreters, who did a stellar job of switching from German to Spanish and English.

We leave Linz and head to Upper Austria to tour the export facilities of the oldest Fleckvieh breeding association in the country (1894). The FIH or Fleckvieh Association Innviertel and Hausruckviertel) demonstrates the export process for breeding cattle. On this day there were about 60 PTIC heifers waiting to be loaded to Ireland.

The process of health checks is arduous with trucks sporting air conditioning units, water troughs and hay on the floor for the comfort of the stock. If the temperature rises above 30oC, then the cattle can’t be trucked. There’s a six day turnaround to travel to Ireland and return to Austria due to the rest periods that must be observed. Each truck is fitted with tracking and temperature reads along the way.

These heifers were going to be used in dairies in Ireland but would’ve been at home in any herd in Australia.

In the shed next to the export pens was a calf sale where each calf is lotted and sold one-by-one on a per kilo basis and making €500 to €600 per head.

After overnighting in Salzburg we then travelled over the Alps to Nock Mountain, just over 2000m above sea level where Fleckvieh Austria President, Sebastian Auernig, has leased 120 acres of national park for his pregnant heifers over the summer months. His 94yo father stays in a cabin for the duration until they bring the heifers back down for the winter. There aren’t any fences except around the road near the café that we stopped at so they can go up over the mountains if they wish to.

The next morning we visited the Lichtenegger family in Carinthia. They own the winning female of the Fleckvieh Show we attended earlier in the week.

Their farm is 1052m above sea level where they own 35 ha and lease another 90 further down the valley.

They have 30 cows, 100 heifers for rearing, 5 bulls for breeding and 10 cows for fattening. We saw a pen of export heifers ready for sale.

Their highest lactating cow is 13 years old and has just exceeded 100,000L for her life time, 50L per day.

Cull cows are sold for 4.70 euros per kg and add 35c per kg premium to go to McDonalds.

Our last farm trip of the day was owned by the Harrer family of Riegersburg, Styria, 389m above sea level.

They milk 70 cows in a herringbone parlour, twice a day. In 2021 they averaged 12790 litres.

Calves are fed whole milk to 8-10 weeks of age then weaned into spacious igloos to become accustomed to the feed.

Heifers are inseminated at 17-18 months old as they are better developed by then.

Our very last farm tour was to the Friedl family, Unterlamm,Styria with 180 females, 20-30 bulls for fattening. This farm is 312m above sea level.

They have 11 cows that have milked 100,000 litres in their lifetime. They use robots for milking.

They’ve also had 28 bulls accepted to the AI centre, a very successful operation giving them the Breeder of the Year Award in 2013.

Their fattening bulls sell at 16m at 420-450kg carcase/dressed weight. They sold 120kg calves at the market this week getting €800.

This farm is heavily into flushing cows and they made sales today on the quality of their cows.

There’s a photo here of the Red Holsteins next to the Fleckviehs and you can see why they’re the preferred choice - 85% of the Austrian cattle herd - with an obvious beef value for the same amount of feed intake.

There have also been sales on this trip with export heifers and semen, including Australia. With 30 countries represented, this has been a very worthwhile trip for all parties.

They’re looking for dual purpose and that’s Fleckvieh.