Good genes help

Oldest dairy cow in service is a proud 21 years old

Long-serving employee at the Steiningers' dairy farm: "Waupi", a daughter of the legendary breeding bull "Rumba" with owners Sigrid and Erwin Steininger and breeding supervisor Johannes Penz (left)

(Bild: © Erwin Pramhofer)

After 20 calves and 105,000 liters of milk, "Waupi", a daughter of the legendary breeding bull "Rumba", is still hard at work. Although the quantity of milk decreases with age, the quality does not: the less milk, the more protein and fat it contains. 

It's always the inconspicuous ones that get so old," says Erwin Steininger, dairy farmer and insemination technician from Windhaag near Freistadt. "Not many cows give milk for more than ten years, but as you can see with 'Waupi', they can go much longer!"

"Prominent" father
Dairy cow "Waupi" is a proud 21 years old, has already produced around 105,000 liters of milk in her lifetime and given birth to 20 calves. Her mother was an Angler red cow from Schleswig-Holstein, her father the legendary breeding bull "Rumba", who is said to have sired over 100,000 calves.

Milk quality tends to increase with age
The special feature is not the quantity of milk, but "Waupi's" mature age. "Cows can also produce 100,000 liters in around eight years, but this naturally puts the animals under a certain amount of stress," Steininger points out. "At peak times, 'Waupi' produced 8,000 liters per year, now it's around 4,000." The quantity of milk decreases with age. However, the opposite is true for quality: "The less milk a cow produces, the more fat and protein it contains. The quality does not suffer as a result," says the expert.

A real family business
He cannot say exactly how long the Steininger family has been running the farm near Windhaag: "But I know that my great-grandparents were already farmers here," laughs the 52-year-old. "My wife Sigrid and I took over the farm from my parents. Our son is also fully involved, maybe he'll take over the farm one day!" The dairy farm has 105 cows, and the farmers know every single one by name.

Still fit
"Waupi" is not the only old cow: "We still have one aged 17, one aged 16 and three aged 14," says Steininger proudly. However, the animals are not sent to "retirement": "As long as she is still fit, can get pregnant and thus produce milk, 'Waupi' can continue to 'work' on the farm," says the farmer happily.