Green & Growing

Whether or not a plant is a weed, or a may have been applied to the lawn. Other plants with blue blooms are less welcome in an urban lawn. Creeping Charlie, and creeping bellflower have blue blooms which may be their only redeeming value. These two are native to Europe and were imported as desired plants. They are now so widespread they are often listed as wildflowers. Both creeping Charlie and creeping bellflower spread rapidly by underground rhizomes which makes them hard to eliminate from a lawn. Any small bit of root left in the soil will sprout and create new plants. desired part of your garden, is often an opinion in the mind of the plant owner. Many of these plants are native wildflowers — such as the common blue violet — often found growing in our lawns. There are 21 different types of violets in Minnesota. They are blooming now, many of them in shade of blue or purple. However, there is also a white variety. The attractive medium green leaves with toothed edges are heart-shaped and one to three inches wide by four to six inches in length. The blooms emerge from the middle of the leaf clump. Like many other plants, they spread by GREEN AND GROWING By Linda G. Tenneson underground rhizomes as well as by spreading their Creeping Charlie, also known as ground ivy, has seeds. Those same rhizomes make it difficult to small scalloped leaves and purple blooms. The eradicate the plant. During dry summers, this plant stems have four sides, and the plant has a mint may die without human intervention. smell when crushed. It prefers moist, shady growWhile wild violets may be a nuisance in our lawns, their pollen is a food source for pollinators. Birds like ing conditions; but can survive in full sun. Not all its blooms provide food for pollinators. the violet seeds. Wild violets are safe for humans to Creeping bellflower has larger leaves — may be eat, but not advisable because of herbicides which two by four inches in size with toothed edges and a

rough surface. The plant may reach two feet tall if allowed to grow and bloom. Once it has invaded a lawn, it will continue to grow even if mowed regularly. The forget-me-not also has an attractive light blue bloom with a yellow center which unfortunately becomes a seed that sticks to clothing and so moves around the garden. The blooms are found at the end of stems which may reach a foot tall and extend from a central root ball. This plant has a very shallow root system and is easily pulled up for disposal. If you are concerned about weeds in your lawn, check with the University of Minnesota Extension web site for integrated pest management solutions before applying herbicides. The slightest amount of air movement occurring at the time an aerosol product is used may cause it to drift onto neighboring plants and kill or damage them. If a product is used, read the directions carefully. Remember, the label is the law. Linda G. Tenneson is a University of Minnesota master gardener and tree care advisor. v If Holsteins were wild, they’d be in threat of extinction

LAND MINDS, from pg. 2 feeds, and sourcing fertilizer.”

Greenhouse gas emissions were unchanged in the current management (export dairy) scenario, with a decrease in nutrient supplies, as expected. Emissions declined 11.97 percent for the retired scenario and 7.2 percent for the depopulation scenario compared to current emissions.

At the same time, the report says all 39 nutrients considered in human diet quality were decreased for the retired scenario, and although 30 of 39 nutrients increased for the depopulation scenario, several essential nutrients declined. The results of the study suggest the removal of dairy cattle from U.S. agriculture would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.7 percent and lower the available supply of essential nutrients for the human population.

So good news if you’re a cow, but it’s not all shade and clover if you’re a Holstein. Jo Craven McGinty of The Wall Street Journal writes this:

“Holsteins give more milk than any other dairy cow in the country, with the average female producing around 23,000 pounds of milk over 305 days, according to the Holstein Association USA. The entire population provides 94 percent of the nation’s milk. But selective breeding — allowing farmers to mate only animals with the most desirable traits — has led to so much inbreeding that virtually all Holsteins in the United States and abroad descend from just two bulls. So, while there are roughly nine million Holsteins in the United States, the breed’s effective population (a measure of genetic diversity) is just 43, according to an estimate published last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Dairy Science … In the wild, animals with an effective population of less than 50 are considered at immediate risk of extinction because of the increased risk of miscarriages, stillbirths and genetic abnormalities.”

This is not exactly news. In June of 2019, Maureen O’Hagan wrote in Undark Magazine, “When researchers at the Pennsylvania State University looked closely at the male lines a few years ago, they discovered more than 99 percent of them can be traced back to one of two bulls, both born in the 1960s. That means among all the male Holsteins in the country, there are just two Y chromosomes.

“The females haven’t fared much better. There is so much genetic similarity among them, the effective population size is less than 50. If Holsteins were wild animals, that would put them in the category of critically endangered species. “It’s pretty much one big inbred family,” says Leslie B. Hansen, a Holstein expert and professor at the University of Minnesota.”

O’Hagan said researchers have begun breeding a small batch of new cows, cultivated in part from the preserved semen of long deceased bulls, to measure a host of characteristics — height, weight, milk production, overall health, fertility, and udder health, among other traits — and compare those to the modern Holsteins we’ve created. The hope is that they might one day be able to possibly reawaken traits which have been lost to relentless inbreeding.

“If we limit long term genetic diversity of the breed,” said says Chad Dechow, one of the researchers, “we limit how much genetic change can be made over time.”

In other words, we could reach a point where we’re stuck where we’re at. There will be no more improvement in milk production. Fertility won’t improve. And if a new disease comes along, huge swaths of the cow population could be susceptible, since so many of them have the same genes.

Dairy producers are finding success in crossbreeding Holsteins with other breeds. Hoard’s Dairyman recently cited that beef semen sales to dairy herds have nearly quadrupled in the past 15 years with the bulk of that growth — 59 percent of it — happening in the last year alone.

Purebred Holsteins were compared with cows from a three-breed rotation of Holstein with Viking Red and Montbéliarde in a 10-year study by the University of Minnesota involving 3,550 Holstein cows from Minnesota commercial dairies. The team found each combination of two- and three-breed crossbred cows demonstrated significant advantages over pure Holsteins for all fertility traits at each studied lactation.

The University’s Amy Hazel said crossbreeding does not seem to impact production. “Because of the global predominance of high-producing Holsteins, some dairy producers have been concerned that crossbred cows will have poorer milk production traits,” Hazel said. “But our study found little, if any, loss of fat and protein production for crossbred cows compared with their Holstein herdmates.”

Dairy Month is good time to remind each other a healthy supply of dairy animals keeps us all healthy; and a time to thank our dairy farmers and the veterinarians who keep them that way.

And a little extra ice cream for me this month.

Paul Malchow is the managing editor of The Land. He may be reached at editor@TheLandOnline.com. v