News

The birth of a calf will always be special, but the period leading up to the birth can be tense. Will fertilisation be successful and will the calf be born alive? Fertility problems can also arise after calving that affect the cow’s next pregnancy. Fortunately, many of these problems are preventable. Judith Roelofs from HAS Green Academy explains how to recognise, treat and prevent these problems.

The young Irish breeding organization BullWise and the Dutch-Flemish cooperative CRV are proud to announce that they collaborate from January 1, 2023.

CRV’s progressive Fleckvieh breeding programme has proven its value in the December 2022 index run. The excellent breeding values of a high number of new InSire bulls highlight the rapid genetic progress more than ever before. The daughter performances of already popular InSire bulls prove that selection based on genomic breeding values really works in practice.

As Area Sales Managers for Latin America, we get a lot of questions about the famous grazing system in New Zealand. Of course we always do our best to answer these questions, but it’s difficult if you have not seen the system in practice. We recently got the opportunity to travel to New Zealand to learn more about the grazing system. Do you like to know what we learnt at the other side of the planet? Keep reading!

How efficiently a cow converts feed into milk has a huge influence on the profitability of a farm. Efficiency is partly achieved by cows that grow old in good health and with no problems, which contributes to a low replacement rate. Another aspect is the clear genetic differences in feed efficiency. Accordingly, there is a high focus on these traits within the scope of CRV’s breeding programme. The December 2022 index run confirms that this focus delivers the right results.

‘Ever since I was a child, my family helped out on the farm: my brother was on the tractor, my sisters helped with the cats, goats and rabbits, and I loved being among the cows. I’ve always enjoyed helping out with the cows. And I’d say that is still the case, even now that I co-own the farm with my parents and we work together every day. We know all of our cows individually. Even from a distance, we can see exactly which cow is on heat or which one has something wrong with her. We know the pedigree and milk yield of each cow off by heart. The bond we have with our cows is really special and that is what I believe makes the job so rewarding.’