Red Danish dairy cattle
The Red Danish Dairy Cattle (RDM) is a breed of cattle from Denmark.
The breed emerged in the 19th century from crossing the original Danish land races with angler cattle , ballum cattle and northern Schleswig cattle. This resulted in a monochrome red cattle.
After the Second World War , the breed was crossed into the Angler cattle, but also into yellow cattle , Glan cattle , Harz red cattle and other breeds.
At that time the cows had a height at the withers of about 132 cm, a chest circumference of about 202 cm and a weight of about 650 kg. The milk production in 1955/56 with 474,460 cows was 3961 kg milk with 4.15% fat. Bulls weighed around 1000 kg. The fattening performance was comparable to that of the Holstein cattle .
To improve the milk production of this breed (1970: 151,000 cows with a production of 4877 kg milk and 4.15% fat), other breeds, in particular Red Holstein and Brown-Swiss , but also Ayrshire and Swedish Red Cattle, have been crossed since around 1970 .
Through the crossbreeding, the milk yield of the cows of this breed could be increased significantly. However, the original breed is threatened today because of these crossings.
Production today (2005): 42,599 cows (modern type) with 8380 kg milk with 4.25% fat and 3.53% protein.
