Effects of Crossbreeding of Holsteins Cows with Montbéliarde and Swedish Red in First and Second Generation on Cheese Yield Traits

Crossbreeding in dairy cattle may improve functional traits of crossbred cows, but few are known on its effect on cheese-making traits. This study investigated the effects of crossbreeding of Holstein (HO) cows with Montbéliarde (MO) and Swedish Red (SR) on milk composition, cheese yield (CY) and other cheese-making traits. Milk samples from 188 cows were collected on 3 dairy herds producing PDO cheeses. Herds are following a 3-way rotational breeding scheme, so that parts of the cows were purebred HO and the remaining were 1st (SR × HO; MO × HO) and 2nd generation [MO x (SR x HO); SR x (MO x HO)] crossbred cows. Milk samples were analyzed for assessing milk composition, CY, curd composition, and recovery of milk nutrients (REC) in curd. Cows yielded nearly 30.5 kg/d milk, with a fat and protein content of 4.5 and 3.8 %, respectively, without any difference between purebred HO and crossbred cows. Milk coagulation time was influenced by breed combination (P < 0.05), but purebred HO performed similarly to crossbred cows. Milk yielded nearly 16.3% of curd, but again CY and curd composition were not affected by the breed combination. In conclusion, the crossbreeding scheme considered did not exert any negative effect on cheese-making properties of milk, and can be chosen even in farms specialized in PDO cheese production. Further studies with larger sample size are needed for obtaining more robust estimates and for evaluating the performance of the different breed combinations.