The KiwiCross Dairy Cow

In the world of dairy, a crossbred cow is the progeny of mixing any two cattle breeds together, but the term most commonly refers to the crossing of Friesian-Holsteins with Jerseys.

Crossbreeding produces offspring with an increase in desired traits from both breeds, who tend to perform better than the average of their parents and this is known as hybrid vigour.

In the late 20th century Holstein-Friesians were bred with Jerseys as farmers wanted a medium-sized, fertile, easy calving cow, with less foot and leg problems. By combining these two breeds, farmers then got the benefits of both cattle, producing an animal with efficient feed conversion and higher productivity, better fertility, and greater longevity due to improved health traits. The KiwiCross is known to have a good nature which is also an important trait.

Their colouring can be black, dark brown through to a caramel tan and sometimes with a mixture of white.

The KiwiCross was not officially established as a separate breed in New Zealand until 2005.

From the 1999 season to the 2019 season, the percentage of crossbreed cows increased from 21% to 49%. At the same time, the percentage of purebred Jerseys dropped from 15% to 8% and Holstein-Friesians from 56% to 33%. Due to this popularity and increase, crossbred sires have been available for artificial insemination (AI) since 2006.

The majority of dairy farms in New Zealand use a predominantly pasture-based system and this favours moderate size cows with good fertility, and this has been the driving force in the increase of crossbred cows.

New Zealand has the largest crossbred population in the world, with the KiwiCross becoming the most popular dairy breed representing 59.2% of all dairy cows at the end of 2022. This increased to 60% across the 5.91 million cows in the 2023 season.