VikingRed — healthy cows, stronger profits

Strong health and fertility, efficient feed use, and high milk solids are shaping the next generation of profitable dairy herds. With medium-sized, energy-efficient cows and proven genetic progress, VikingRed delivers a strong bottom line while supporting future climate and animal welfare goals.

As dairy production continues to evolve, farmers are increasingly looking for cows that combine performance with resilience and adaptability. For nearly half a century, the VikingRed breeding programme has maintained a clear and consistent breeding goal: developing a balanced red dairy cow. This long-term commitment has created functional cows that perform reliably under modern production environments.

Securing profitability while tackling rising costs, climate challenges, and increasing demands for animal welfare is changing the priorities of dairy producers. VikingRed meets these challenges and is proving its value as a red dairy breeding program built for the future.

The VikingRed breeding program brings together three strong dairy breeds: Swedish Red, Finnish Ayrshire, and Danish Red. This unique combination delivers high genetic gain across all economically important traits. The result of close breeding collaboration in the Nordic countries is a robust and efficient red cow. VikingRed cattle offer a distinctive mix of characteristics, making them exceptionally well-suited for future dairy production with high profitability, where low climate impact and high animal welfare are key priorities.

Backed by decades of large-scale data from commercial herds, VikingRed offers world-leading genetics for red dairy cattle. The breed is recognised for strong health and fertility, moderate size, excellent efficiency, and high solids production — traits that together support profitability and high animal welfare.

To explore the key strengths behind VikingRed and understand how the breed supports long-term performance in modern dairy systems, we interviewed two VikingRed breeding experts, Camilla Rosman, Product Manager for VikingRed, and Morten Kargo, Breeding Manager for VikingRed at VikingGenetics, to gain insights into the latest breeding results supported by reliable on-herd data from the Nordic countries.

Longevity is one of the most powerful profit drivers in dairy farming. Each additional productive lactation reduces replacement costs and spreads rearing expenses over more productive years. VikingRed cows are widely recognised for their disease resistance, a “willingness to live” and ability to recover quickly — traits that support long herd life and low veterinary costs.

Built on decades of systematic recording in Nordic production herds, VikingRed genetics prioritize functional traits such as udder health, hoof health, fertility, and calving ease. The result is resilient, alert cows that look after themselves, maintain strong performance, and require minimal attention.

“Strong health, fertility and resilience are key reasons why VikingRed cows stay productive,” explained Camilla. “These cows are built to cope with everyday challenges and keep going. They are easy to manage, also for not experienced employees.”

Lower cow mortality

VikingRed’s lower cow mortality and reduced disease incidence compared with other breeds highlight the breed’s robustness, supporting longer productive lifetimes, lower veterinary costs, and better overall animal welfare.  According to recent data from Denmark (RYK, 2025), VikingRed has 33% lower cow mortality and 20% lower disease incidence compared with other dairy breeds. With an average cow mortality of 3.4% and just 0.6 disease cases per cow per year across Danish herds, this resilience reduces veterinary costs, supporting higher lifetime productivity and stronger profitability for farmers.

Strong hoof health

VikingRed cows are known for strong feet and legs and excellent hoof health. Data recorded by professional hoof trimmers show that Red cows have a lower incidence of the two most common hoof disorders — digital dermatitis (43% less across Denmark, Sweden and Finland) and sole haemorrhage (19% less) — supporting better mobility, durability, and long-term performance.

Excellent fertility and calving ease

Reproductive efficiency plays a decisive role in overall herd performance. VikingRed offers naturally strong daughter fertility, supporting efficient reproduction with fewer inseminations, shorter calving intervals, and reduced labour requirements. With conception rates of 63% in heifers and 53% in cows, VikingRed genetics help maintain stable reproduction across lactations. Calf survival rates reach 96% in first lactation and 97% in second and later lactations, ensuring healthy calves and few losses.

Good fertility and calving ease reduce stress on both cows and farmers. Fewer problem calvings, stronger calves, and reliable conception; all contribute to lower veterinary and insemination costs and improved animal welfare. “Fertility is fundamental to profitable dairy production,” said Camilla. “When fertility works, everything else becomes easier — from labour planning to herd replacement.”

The unique blend of desirable traits makes VikingRed suitable for a wide range of environments — from intensive indoor systems to pasture-based production. They are also an excellent choice for organic production. Across systems, they deliver steady milk production and strong functional traits.

Feed is the single largest cost in milk production, and feed efficiency is increasingly critical for both profitability and climate impact. VikingRed cows grow and produce effectively on lower-concentrate diets, excelling on roughage and pasture while maintaining strong milk and solids output. 

This adaptability is supported by research from the Danish Cattle Research Center, which compared Holstein, VikingRed, and crossbred heifers under Danish conditions to assess weight, growth, feed intake, and efficiency. 

“Holstein heifers showed reduced growth on a low-energy feed compared with a standard feed. In contrast, VikingRed heifers maintained consistent growth regardless of feed energy, demonstrating greater adaptability to different rations,” highlighted Morten.

“The VikingRed’s capability to grow on less energy is very valuable in grazing systems where the amount of feed from the grass can vary between seasons. VikingRed and crosses are therefore very suitable for grazing production systems,” he added.

Furthermore, the study also showed that when the Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) animals that were fed low-energy feed as heifers started their second lactation, they produced significantly more milk compared to RDC heifers fed the standard feed recommendation.

“This study shows clearly that you can feed RDC heifers a cheaper feed with lower energy, and at the same time increase production. It’s a win-win,” Morten explains.

Large genetic variation within the VikingRed population allows for continuous genetic progress while maintaining robustness and adaptability. The breeding program delivers consistent genetic gains in production, health, fertility, and efficiency — proven under real production conditions rather than experimental settings.

“VikingRed brings world-leading genetics for red dairy cattle — backed by decades of data from production herds. This is what secures reliable progress in commercial farming,” said Camilla. “I truly believe we have the best red cows in the world. The red breed is heading toward an exciting future.”

VikingRed sires with superior genetic traits are contributing to notable improvements in herd performance. These advances lead to better milk production, enhanced health traits, and overall greater efficiency, all of which help boost profitability.

In recent years, there has been significant genetic progress within VikingRed, driven by the use of high-performance bulls like VR Vesty (4.4 SD above average) and VR Vimo (1.9 SD above breed average) – May 2026 proofs.