Management
Preventing Problems with Milk Fever Anionic salts during dry period offer benefits
Clinical and subclinical milk fever are very costly. They incur not only direct economic losses, but also open the “door” to other illnesses. Health and fertility problems increase and longevity...
Selecting for Feed Efficiency: Economic Savings and Reduced Green-House Gas Emissions
The industry is on the cusp of a new revolution in dairy cattle breeding – the selection for feed conversion efficiency. While this trait has been prominent in poultry and...
Mike Lohuis: The 10-Year Genomic Report Card
At the Genetics Conference 2019, Dr. Mike Lohuis, Vice President of Research and Innovation at Semex, based in Guelph, Canada, presented a 10-Year report card on genomics. Lohuis started his...
Longevity: What is the Basis behind Expected Lifetime Predictions?
Progressively, more and more breeders are paying attention to management traits. The reason is the impact they have on farm profitability. Chief among these traits is longevity: If an animal...
Intelligent Barns: What Does the Future Look Like?
The topic of “intelligent barns” flags up many questions. With milk price struggling, is the investment worth it? How will automated technology affect my workforce? Where is the “intelligent” market...
Daughter Proven Red Holstein Bulls: Using the Sparse Elite to the Maximum
In the article “The Background and Future of the Most Significant Red Holstein Populations” in HI’s Red Review issue 08/2018, the decreasing number of Red Holstein inseminations in the Netherlands...
Longer rather than shorter calving interval - How breeding goal is becoming a topic of conversation
For generations the breed has been working to reduce calving interval length. The quicker a cow becomes pregnant again, the better the economics. There is a global consensus on this...
Natural: Independent and Multifaceted Source of Elite Czech Genetics
Since the recent April release, Natural is the proud owner of the two highest Czech Holstein bulls: Zetor and Zologram-P, while their colleague Attila also shines in the top-5. On...
Worldwide breeding index 2019: Focus on fat, new traits and additional indexes
Several years have passed since the last calculation of the worldwide breeding index (2013), which Holstein International did regularly since 1996. Enough time, which national breeding associations and other organizations...
Electronic Cow-Management: Trust the Data and Breed the Cow as the System Recommends. It Works!
As herds get larger and livestock handling systems become more mechanized, time spent on heat detection for each individual cow continues to dwindle. However, next to top nutrition and elite...
Roger Turner: The Busiest Man in the Genetics Industry?
With a unique selection criteria, that includes the requirement of all bulls to be A2A2 and have no haplotypes, a look into Jetstream Genetics’ ethos makes interesting reading. Still a...
Hoof Health: Improvements Possible Via Breeding
Problems with hoof health (lameness in cows) is among the biggest irritations of dairy farmers – the costs of lost milk production, additional labour, veterinarian visits, involuntary culling, and lower...