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The Bregman family has put all the basics in place to successfully combine robotic milking with grazing. Breeding also plays an important role.

Cows like Gastelsveer Jeltje 97, bred by the Van Merriënboer family from Oud Gastel (The Netherlands), demonstrate the strength of an open breeding program. The Ranger daughter was once the heifer with the highest NVI-score in the Netherlands, was purchased by CRV, and housed with Arjen Vernooij in Schalwijk (The Netherlands). There, the Jeltje family quickly developed into one of the largest cow families at Hedra Holsteins.

CRV bulls continue to deliver exceptional results for farmers, ensuring high returns under challenging economic conditions. Our breeding program focuses on health and efficiency, producing genetics that help farmers worldwide achieve high production efficiently and effortlessly. A key part of our approach is our FeedExcel breeding strategy, which focuses on breeding cows that produce more milk with the same amount of feed, enhancing both efficiency and sustainability. The latest figures from our bulls align with this strategy, showing significant improvements in feed efficiency and longevity, which are crucial for modern farming.

With effect from the December index run, CRV will use a new model for estimating the genomic breeding values, the “single-step method.” This new calculation method will result in an increase in the reliability of genomic breeding values for young bulls and female young animals by an average of 11 percent.

With the April proof run CRV introduces FeedExcel to make it easier for farmers to distinguish bulls with the highest feed efficiency scores. Bulls branded with this quality mark are guaranteed to sire highly productive daughters with extended longevity that efficiently convert feed into milk. Farmers that use FeedExcel bulls can expect to end up with a herd having better income/feed costs ratio and fewer emissions. The index run of April 2023 confirms the leading position in feed efficiency of bulls from CRV's breeding programs and all the bulls mentioned in this press release are FeedExcel.

- Source: Holstein International, magazine June 2023 - Cows that efficiently convert feed into lots of milk, that also have high longevity and strong scores for health: These are the cows that dairy farmers like to see on their farms. Feed costs are high, land is expensive, and material is costly.