Management
Cow Comfort - Important Key to Success on Modern Dairy Farms
Cow comfort. In addition to various aspects around breeding, this is a frequently occurring theme in HI’s breeder’s reports. The more comfortable cows are in their environment, the better the...
Beef-on-Dairy Programs: Aberekin & Genex
The surge in use of beef bulls on lower genetic merit dairy cows continues to grow, and part of the evolution in this market is the use of male sexed...
Feed Efficiency – The most important project for Holstein breeding in the coming years
In April 2015, Australia was the first country in the world that published a breeding value for feed efficiency. The Netherlands followed in December 2020, and since April the USA...
Beef-on-Dairy Programs at: Semex & Superblu
The surge in use of beef bulls on lower genetic merit dairy cows continues to grow, and part of the evolution in this market is the use of male sexed...
Get Acquainted with Herdbooks Worldwide: South Africa Holstein
South Africa has among the largest average herd size of any country worldwide. Of all animals registered by South Africa Holstein, 97% are the result of imported semen, producing a...
Arcowin: Three Cooperatives Navigate Towards Becoming a Breeding Giant
Earlier already, we reported about Arcowin, the cooperative agreement between three large European AI cooperatives: Evolution (France), Masterrind (Germany) and VikingGenetics (Scandinavia). Initially, it involved working together for breeding purposes,...
Bullseye-Genetics: A new Holstein-breeding program with lots of expertise
In an era where mergers and cooperatives generate headlines within the breeding industry, the founding of new breeding companies is a rarity. Despite this, the industry has recently seen the...
World Wide Sires: Assisting Farmers to Get the Most out of their Genetic Investment
This year, World Wide Sires celebrates its 50th anniversary. Established by the Californian Holstein breeder and entrepreneur Bill Clark in 1971, WWS has been the international representative for all American...
Outcross - Fad or Value?
This month our regular guest-writer – An American Dairyman – is wondering how to make outcross work: And how to get value from outcross. Levels of inbreeding percentage are increasing...
Linebreeding at an Elite Level: ‘If You Have Something Really Good, Intensify That.’
What follows is a special story: About a special breeder: One who is not concerned in the least with the aspect of “inbreeding”. Armed with a tremendous treasure of pedigree...
aAa Animal Analysis: Systematic Breeding Guide to Help Make Better Breeding Decisions
There is a wealth of information available to help select the right bulls to use in your herd: Total merit rankings, genomics, linear traits, pedigree and cow family information… the...
Heat Stress: A Major Issue for the Modern Dairy Cow
It may well seem like your cows are becoming less able to deal with the stress of a hot summer’s day – feed intake drops, respiration rates go up, and...