More than 130 years of German Holstein Breeding - how everything started

In Germany, the first official breeding cooperative was established in Fischbek near Altmark in 1876. The objective was „to use pure-bred sires of the black-and-white Lowland Breed“ to develop this breed in pure-breeding. From then on, the number of regional breeding associations and breeding cooperatives increasingly grew to merge into bigger organizations in the years to come. To this day, Germany has numerous powerful cow families whose foundation cows can be traced back to the very first registrations in the herdbooks of North German breeding areas.

For a while, most of the breeding organizations kept on registering black-and-white as well as red-and-white animals in one herdbook, and the breeding goal for both breeds was identical. Later on, breeding organizations were formed that exclusively dealt with Black-and-Whites and Red-and-Whites respectively.

Due to the world wars, the breeding organizations’ business was severely impeded. However, thanks to the commitment of enthusiastic breeders, the herdbook organizations took up their activities over and over again. This fact ensured the survival of the German Holstein industry and its qualities in West Germany as well as in East Germany.

In the mid-sixties, herdbook associations and AI studs intensified their cooperation. This lead to a number of bigger breeding organizations that stamp the German Holstein industry to this day. Following the reunification, the dairy cattle industry in the East German states reorganized itself according to this model, too. In the meantime, the breeding goals for Black-and-Whites and Red-and-Whites more and more approached to each other with the result that, in 1996, a common breeding goal was laid down and the German Holstein Association (Deutscher Holstein Verband e. V. – DHV) was founded. The main tasks of DHV are:

• to harmonize the working methods of the breeding organizations within the German Holstein industry,

• to coordinate uniform breeding criteria, and

• to safeguard interest both nationally and internationally.

There are more than 22,800 herds with over 1.6 million registered Holstein cows. With that, Germany has the biggest Holstein herdbook population worldwide. About 2.2 million Holstein cows are officially milk recorded. Every year, around 1,000 Holstein and Red Holstein young bulls are being progeny tested. Strict criteria for the selection of bull dams and sires of sons and a random sampling of young bulls based on independent data collection guarantee a fast and reliable genetic progress.

For decades, German breeding programs are carried out according to the latest findings. They form the cornerstone for the high production potential and the functional conformation of the German Holstein cow. In addition, productive life, fertility and udder health are highly rated traits.

This combination of economically important traits makes German Holsteins profitable dairy cows, very much appreciated by both German dairy farmers and their colleagues all around the globe. Year after year, tens of thousands of heads of Holstein pedigree cattle are exported to over 35 countries. Semen of German top sires as well as embryos out of proven German cow families are in high demand all over the world.