Nordic dairy cattle

NAV calculates breeding values jointly for dairy cows of the major dairy breeds in milk recording in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Nordic red breeds
Nordic countries have the biggest red dairy cow population in the world, about 162 000 cows including Finnish Ayrshire (70 000), Swedish Red (66 000) and Danish Red (26 000).

Holstein
Holstein is the most common dairy breed in the world and also in the Nordic countries. Denmark has 350 000, Sweden 114 000 and Finland 95 000 Holstein cows summing up to about 559 000 cows.

Jersey
There are almost 2 000 Jersey cows in Sweden and about 1 000 in Finland. Biggest population – about 67 000 cows – is in Denmark.

In addition to the main breeds included in NAV genetic evaluation the Nordic countries also have some minor dairy cattle breeds.