December 2020

Dairy farmer: The name indicates exactly what this universal occupation means. Or calling? Either way, the Haahr family has all the necessary qualities in their genes. With an average production of 16,078 kg/35,445 lb, t...

This scarcely happens. That we publish in large format a picture that was taken 12 years ago already. But… it is now entirely warranted! First of all, the cow that you see is one of the most prominent foundation cows in...

Farnear-TBR Aria Adler, who recently scored EX-96, has been a superstar on the American show scene this year: Grand Champion titles at the Mid-West Fall National and the Southern National among her list of victories. Mea...

Francois Paiement was just 12 years old when his father sold the dairy herd. Even then, Francois dreamed of some day owning his own farm. After finishing school, he worked on a farm before becoming an AI technician for t...

Solid conformation cows with average production of 12,274 kg/27,060 lb. milk and 3.56% protein, and a lifetime total at culling of 55,000 kg/121,250 lb; at Oelhorst Holsteins in the Netherlands, nothing is left to chance...

Who were the most sold Holstein bulls during the past six months? HI posed this question to breeding companies world-wide. The answers resulted in the unique accompanying overview: 77 bestsellers from 32 AIs from 12 diff...

With a combination of a different sire lineup (Millington-Jacey-Sudan) and a balanced no-holes proof, Totem claimed the Outcross title for 2020. Not only does this popular seller for Select Sires rank at Nr.15 on the pro...

KNS Rendezvous has now more than proven herself as a brood cow. The well-known German Man-O-Man daughter from the offspring of the famous French Jocko daughter Radieuse EX-91 is the dam of Bookem son Boss, who at OHG sco...

‘From the outset I want to say – and I admit that I am biased – that we are tremendously enthusiastic about this bull. I told Semex that in the next two years we will be looking at numerous outstanding milking Cockpit da...

It is not always the breeding values that explain the popularity of certain sires. There are more characteristics that are important to dairy farmers when selecting bulls, like cow families, pedigrees, casein profile, po...

In April, he immediately debuted in the German progeny proven top-5, and in August, he climbed six points, making him the strong German Nr.2: Sinus. ‘His compact, average-statured, and robust daughters have a tremendous...

In the list of influential sires in the American population, we see a notable trend. Never before has a bull approached the legends Elevation and Chief as closely as today. His name is O-Bee Manfred Justice (O-Man) and h...

‘In her best days, Portefolio was the cow that every breeder dreams about. Her conformation, especially when it came to her exceptional udder, was nearly perfect. In addition, she was a phenomenal producer and, as a bonu...

‘She is the embodiment of what we want to breed! She has good fertility, strong production and has an impressive conformation. Indeed, Jabobina is a real “true type” cow!’ These are the words of Matt Templeton, the owner...

In 2008, a silky black senior calf entered the show ring at the BC Holstein Spring Show. On her way to a second place finish, she caught the eye of Dave Hamming of Hamming Holsteins. When that same heifer showed up at No...

She is the cow with the highest breeding value in Germany, the dam of the highest male calves as well as that of three other animals that are also the Nr.1 daughter of their sire on RZG basis. Indeed, no other German cow...

Close to Ruffiac, 77 km southwest of Rennes in the French region of Brittany, a cow family is quickly expanding. In the home herd, it already makes up more than 35% of the entire herd (360 head total), but… the young AI...

Canadian veterinarian Dr. Gordon Atkins is renowned internationally for his presentations on functional type in dairy cattle. He has been a practicing vet for more than 40 years, and since 2008 has been a member of the f...

In his 5th contribution to Holstein International, our guestwriter An American Dairyman is focusing on sire selection. As the headline says: changing your goals too often will result in too little progress. Stick with a...

Lively London to leisurely Lincolnshire: Why Matthew Winter left his big-league job in the city to return to the family farm… and what he wants to achieve in his role as a member of Holstein UK’s board.

A new IVF lab in Dumfries, Scotland, will enable Vytelle to make available its hormone-free IVF technology to dairy and beef cattle breeders in the UK and Ireland. In recent months Vytelle has also expanded its range of...

Most health problems with the dairy cow occur when giving birth or within the first 2 months of lactation, when her body is dealing with the stresses of calving or adapting to the demands of peak production yield. It is...

Since the August evaluations, Germany’s dairy farmers can look at the new economic index RZ€ in addition to the RZG. However, the RZ€ is not a revolution or a huge innovation but follows the trend that has been long seen...