CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT | JUNE 2017 1

HIGHLIGHTS REPORT ENGLISH EDITION JUNE 2017

CRV WELCOMES TWO NEW TEST FARMS

On the CRV test farms the Delta heifers show CRV’s breeding programme in practice. Due to the new phosphate regulations in the Netherlands it was more difficult for CRV to place 130 test heifers per year at the current test farms. “Therefore we searched for new test farms”, says Pieter van Goor, breeding specialist of CRV. He is also involved in the selection of new test farms.

Good management“For the regional spread of all test farms, we have been looking for farms in Groningen and Friesland (in the North of the Netherlands),” explains Pieter. “In this way all our members have the possibility to visit a test farm and see test heifers. Both new test farms are well managed farms, and on such farms you can see our top-level genetics even better.”Elagaaster breeding farm of the family van Berkum in Elahuizen is well known for CRV.

name Better Life Health Better Life Efficiency NVI conf. E

Colorado +6% +3% 232 113Danno +8% +9% 384 115G-Force +4% +13% 274 107Hunter +4% +5% 138 106Stellando rf +5% +11% 240 108Vitesse +5% +7% 220 108

CRV daughter groups at NRM 2017

“Last year we have bought here a very good heifer calf of Riverboy with red factor and 340 NVI”, says Pieter. On the moment they are milking 260 cows in a rotary milking system. The cows are fed by an automatic feeding system.Also Arjan and Saskia van Erp are very active with breeding. Last year they reached the final of the contest ‘Best herd of the Netherlands’. Their breeded bull Midwolder Goldmar has long been on the sire card of CRV. They are milking 170 cows with 3 milking robots and the cows can also go outside for grazing.

Contribution of top genetics“Annually, there are going 10 to 20 test heifers to every test farm,” says Pieter. “Although, test heifers is not a very good name for it. These heifers are already genomically tested when they were a calf. But we want to show our members what it

The embryo donors are Delta donors as well as farmer-owned donors. All cows rank among the highest scorers of their year based on their genomic breeding values. The Delta donors have all been used as maiden heifers in the Delta Satellite programme. Delta Jessi 477, dam of the very popular Delta Jupiler, is an example of the 12 donors selected until now. A final selection of six animals will be on show at the NRM.

Six daughter groups in the ring In its breeding programmes, CRV pays close attention to the important contribution made by bulls to breeding healthy, efficiently producing cows. This attention to detail is reflected in the daughter groups.Delta Bookem Danno, Delta Colorado and AH Vitesse will be appearing with a group of first-calf animals. This will be the first time that one of their daughter groups

is presented in the Netherlands. Danno is the highest scoring CRV bull currently available. This much absolute top bull excels in conformation and produces very efficient, ultra-healthy cows. Colorado is the highest available red-and-white bull. His progeny have very good udders (113) and legs (109) and he passes on outstanding udder and claw health.

means to have good genetics in your herd. Therefore these heifers go to test farms.” Pieter therefore gives an example of another test farm. “The familiy Peeters in Belgium always said that good management was the most important to have a high production. But now they are a test farm for CRV, they experienced that genetics have also a high contribution to a good milk production. More than they could think about before.”

CRV SHOWS DAUGHTER GROUPSAND EMBRYO DONORS AT NRM 2017

End of March 2017, two new farms has become a CRV test farm. It are the farms of Arjan and Saskia van Erp (Midwolda) and family van Berkum (Elahuizen). CRV has now 9 test farms in total.

With the theme of ‘Better Cows l Better Life’ CRV will be showing a group of six embryo donors for the first time at the NRM 2017. These animals all have a high genetic ranking and have been used in the CRV breeding programme. CRV will also be showing six daughter groups who boost herd health and efficiency.

Vitesse’s very efficient daughters produce milk with high fat and protein contents.

Second and third-calf cattle CRV will be bringing groups of second and third-calf cattle sired by former InSire bulls Delta G-Force, Batenburg G. Stellando and Cookiecutter Mom Hunter to the NRM. G-Force and red-factor bull Stellando are recognised as specialists in efficiency. Hunter can count on widespread interest as an international bull sire.

Siemen and Jan Siemen van Berkum

Arjan and Saskia van Erp

“THE TRIGGER FOR EFFICIENCY IS THE CULLING R ATE OF HEIFERS”2017 looks set to be the year when the efforts of dairy farmers will be directed towards improving efficiency levels on their farms. Breeding goals will be supported by the Better Life Efficiency breeding value, while the focus in operational management will be generating a high turnover per cow and the quality of young stock, according to Lubbert van Dellen, Director Food and Agri at Accon AVM (auditors and accountants). “What farmers are looking for is a cow that delivers high lifetime production combined with good production per lactation.”

Are feed costs a result indicator on a dairy farm? “The feed costs per cow may be identical on three different farms. So there is no difference in the input – it’s all about the output. Are farmers getting more, or not enough, from their herd?” This is an example

given by Lubbert van Dellen. “It’s that difference in efficiency that determines the financial revenues at the end of the day.”

Balance per headThe end of the milk quota era has prompted farmers to make different choices in operational management, says van Dellen. “When the quota was still in force, farmers tried to keep the cost price per litre of milk as low as possible. The volume in litres was the restrictive factor. Now it’s the cows themselves, and how many heads in the herd. The aim now is optimal profit per cow.”Dairy farmers are also concentrating on other aspects of operational management, such as higher milk production per animal and rearing young stock. Herds that complete a higher than average number of lactations deliver a high cash flow per

“The best breeding results all start with good genes”

– Lubbert van Dellen, Director Food and Agri at Accon AVM

PLAN OF ACTION

“Know your figures and define a clear vision.” This is the advice Lubbert van Dellen shares with dairy farmers who aim for high efficiency on their farms. “Make a list of the things you are satisfied with and the things you want to improve. And that are your wishes – not what your advisor wants”, he stresses, before adding that you can also call on your advisor to help plan the route towards achieving your specific goals. “Include the whole support team. Success is hard to achieve alone, so get your employees and advisors on board, and don’t forget your family. The last stage in the plan of action is not to rest before you’ve reached your goal.”

cow and therefore per farm, analyses the accountant. “Turnover is top of the operational list. The higher the turnover, the easier it is to cover fixed and variable overheads.”

Quality of young stockAccording to van Dellen, after milk production, breeding young stock is one of the key elements of efficiency. The message is breed as few as possible young replacement stock. But what you do breed must be of the highest quality. Every heifer calf you produce should have the potential to develop into a strong, long-lived, high-production animal. “The trigger for efficiency is the culling percentage of heifers. Analyse why you have to say goodbye to certain animals on the farm, and identify how things can – and must – be improved.”The best breeding results all start with good genes. “The crux of

efficiency is embedded in CRV’s Better Life breeding values combined with longevity and production. All crucial factors that can contribute to boosting efficiency. They perfectly complement the ambition to realise higher turnover.”Van Dellen has huge confidence in the results of the Better Life breeding values. “These values are generated using data collected from an extremely large population, and offer reliable figures.” Milk production, replacement and culling, fertility, nutrition, mastitis, claws, labour and organisation: all items that play a role in driving efficiency gains (almost in order of importance) sums up van Dellen. “It’s all about smooth management, easy milkers. The cows will have a good feed intake, the cost price is low and fertility is good. High turnover, little work and a happy farmer and his family.”

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2544

CRV BULLS CRV BULLS

325 15

6

13

7 4

2

9

5KINGFARM HOLSTEINS ANRELI-RED (Riverboy RC x G-Force)

DELTA VALENTINO (Arroyo x Kylian) (Rivaal x Baltimore)

PEAK SOLAR (Monterey x Supersire)

AH VITESSE(Gravity x Jardin)

MILK (KG) 1452

% FAT 0.13

% PROTEIN 0.08

UDDER 110

FEET & LEGS 105

LONGEVITY 724

CALVING EASE 106

KG MILK 329

% FAT 0.00

% PROTEIN 0.13

UDDER 108

FEET & LEGS 110

LONGEVITY 253

CALVING EASE 95

KG MILK 321

% FAT 0.33

% PROTEIN -0.02

UDDER 108

FEET & LEGS 102

MUSCULARITY 100

MILK (LBS) 1167

% FAT 0.05

% PROTEIN 0.03

U COMP 1.83

F&L COMP 1.35

PL (MO) 6.4

SIRE CE 6.7

KG MILK 457

% FAT 0.27

% PROTEIN 0.11

UDDER 106

FEET & LEGS 109

LONGEVITY 350

CALVING EASE 101

Anreli is a son of Riverboy (Aikman x Planet) and G-Force daughter Alida 507. The cow family behind Anreli is for red and white a very outcross family and test runs with SireMatch have shown that this bull will fit on more than 90% of the Dutch red-and-white cow population. This makes Anreli a nice example of the fact that it is possible to have a high genetic level and a very low percentage of inbreeding. Anreli is a phenomal production bull with

Delta Valentino (Arroyo x Kylian, 203 NVI) gives daugh-ters blessed with fabulous legs (110) and udders (108). He also boosts efficiency (+5%) and the protein component (+0.13%) of the herd and his daughters produce from healthy udders (104).

De Vinkenhof River is the son of Rivaal, who stands for lon-gevity and good conformation. His mother is Danielle 95, who is the MRI cow of the year 2016. Therefore, we may expect a lot of River! His daughters will have a long, productive and healthy life and will produce efficiently. Also conformation looks very well! His mother, Danielle 95, who is housed on the farm of the family Vink in Groot Ammers, combines a high production with good confor-

Solar is a son of Monterey (McCutchen x Robust) and Supersire daughter No-Fla Shine-ET. Solar is easy to use because he is besides all his qualities also suitable for maiden heifers. His daughters will be very productive and long lasting, but also very easy to man-age as they are fertile, have very healthy udders and less ketosis.With 9% for Better Life Health and 13% for Better Life Efficiency Solar is also a fine example of

The daughters of popular InSire top bull AH Vitesse (Gravity x Jardin, 220 NVI) are coming into milk production and their performances are testimony to his qualities. With 988 daughters enter-ing his production breeding values at once, Vitesse ranks very high for efficiency (+7%), high components (+0.27% fat and +0.11% protein) and notes remarkable scores for legs (109), claw health (109) and ketosis (105).Vitesse produces healthy cows

over 1400kg milk in combination with positive fat and protein percentages. The breeding value for longevity shows that Anreli transmits long lasting cows and leads to a top ranking for Better Life Efficiency.

mation good health character-istics.She just started her fifth lactation, in where she produced already 40 kg of milk per day.

what we represent: easy to manage and efficient!

(+5%) that mature late, with low feed consumption per kg milk.

Kingfarm Holsteins Anreli-Red

Trees 386 (s. Valentino) De Vinkenhof Danielle 95, dam of River

Peak Solar

Lucille 12 (s. Vitesse)

136 6 8(Regency x Zuma x Impuls)

KG MILK 624

% FAT 0.00

% PROTEIN 0.08

PL (MO) 5.3

FEET & LEGS -0.09

PTAT 1.10

From Eric and Roy Peterson Farm in Tillamook County, Oregon, CRV introduced Peterson Regency Leon. Leon is from the same Jersey farm as Peterson Impulsive Roy, the sire of a.o. Royalty. It is easy to see and say that the cow family behind Leon is highly reliable for longevity with high fat and protein production. With the Regency in his pedigree, he should make some amazing production daughters. Leon’s daughters

will be productive, long lasting and healthy animals. He combines a positive DPR with a low SCS score and a high productive life. His daughters will be moderate sized with well attached, very shallow udders.

Peterson Regency Leon

LEON

DE VINKENHOF RIVER

220

149

BETTER LIFE HEALTH INDEXBETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY INDEXTOTAL INDEX BETTER LIFE HEALTH INDEXBETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY INDEXTOTAL INDEX

203 5 3

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MEETINGS IN SPAIN

SCOTTISH STUDENTS VISIT CRV FARMOPENING OF BELA VISTA

SIRYX SEXED SEMEN SUCCESS

IBD MEETS CRV GERMANY

End of February CRV Spain organized three meetings in the Euskadi and Navarra region in Spain. With the help of Gosse Veninga, the farmers and technicians talked about the importance of health traits and breeding values for the selection of bulls and they also discussed the added value of genomics.

Beginning of June about 50 Scottisch students from the Agricultural University have visited the Netherlands. During their trip they also visited a farm of a CRV client. Area Manager Miranda van Zessen has told the students more about breeding and what the CRV breeding programme is about. After that, the students also had a look on the farm.

One Shropshire-based herd has been having phenomenal success with sexed semen – with more than 65% of cows holding to first service. Julian Evans, who farms near Shrewsbury, UK, began using CRV’s SiryX sexed semen on his 160-cow herd in 2015. “I first thought about sexed semen as a solution to ensuring that I had enough replacement heifers, in 2013. We had a terrible year, calving 110 cows to dairy sires and only producing 36 heifers. The rest were bulls. We were unlucky that year.” He started to ‘dabble’ in sexed semen in 2015 – using 50% sexed and 50% conventional semen on the autumn-block-calving herd. Considerable success saw him up the ratio to 75:25 in 2016. And this year he plans to further increase his use of sexed semen to between 80% and 90%. “The success we’ve had with conception rates and the fact that

At the end of May the area managers and support employees of International Business Development have visited Tobias Lerner, Product Manager Fleckvieh, in Wasserburg, Germany. During the two-day trip Tobias showed them all about Fleckvieh and some Fleckvieh bulls like Remmel, Wobbler and Haribo. At the first day there was a trip to a well-organized fattening farm for Fleckvieh and other beef bulls. At the second day they brought a visit to a Fleckvieh dairy farm. And of course, when you are in Germany, there’s also some time for a beer ...

The new premises of Central Bela Vista opened this week in Brazil. Central Bela Vista is the semen collection station owned by CRV since 2011. Central Bela Vista produces high quality semen from CRV bulls (from CRV Lagoa) and from third-party owned bulls of dairy and beef breeds. The new Central Bela Vista has been built at an altitude of around 1000 metres. This offers the major advantage of being able to house the bulls in a relatively cool climate, which is beneficial to semen quality. Aspects such as welfare and veterinary safety were also given high priority during the construction of this extremely modern site. In 2016, Central Bela Vista produced 1.6 million straws of semen. This level of production is planned to increase in the future. For an impression of the new site, use the following link: youtu.be/sZBPqzbKLCs. The link shows aerial images taken during construction of the new premises.

AMBREED SIRES SUITSPRING-CALVING SYSTEM

CRV AROUND THE WORLDCRV AROUND THE WORLD

Robust and fertile grazers, offering plenty of milk solids – that’s the type of cow that share farmers Dylan Harries and Hannah Grieves want for their 450-cow spring calving herd.Based in north Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom, 260 metres above sea level, they’ve been using CRV Ambreed sires on the New Zealand Friesian and Jersey herd for the past three years. And Dylan says he’s extremely happy with the results. “The genetics definitely suit our system and what we’re trying to achieve. I’m after milk solids – not milk yield. We know that these sires will produce the daughters that we need.”He adds that some Friesian and Jersey breeders have been chasing litres – and it was starting to show. “The sires we were using were diluting milk solids and daughters were becoming a bit leggy – not the direction we wanted to take.” He’s just calved his first crop of Ambreed-sires heifers and they’re producing – and grazing – really well in the system. “These are ‘compact’ cows – not too heavy. Their fertility is good and they churning out plenty of solids.”Cows are turned out in early February, as they calve during a tight 10-week block, and grazing is extended until around December 20. “So size and the ability to graze really matters to us,” says Dylan, adding that he selects the highest fat-and-protein

sires. “That’s in kilogrammes, not percentage. And I look at fertility too, although Jerseys are pretty fertile anyway.”He’s used Manzello extensively on the herd and is particularly pleased with his daughters. And Ambreed sires in the flask at the moment include Phonic, Deluca, Kingpin and Diesel.

Part of the herd of Dylan Harries

we’re guaranteed heifers easily offsets the slightly higher price of sexed semen,” says Julian, who plans to use it right across the herd for a three-week insemination period. “That should mean that between 60% and 70% of the herd will produce replacement heifer calves. The remainder of the herd will be served with beef semen.” Achieving such a high conception rate to first service with sexed semen does require extra care at AI, according to Julian. “But it’s not difficult. I just stick to the known protocols for thawing and handling the semen. When using conventional semen you can get away with being less precise.Sexed semen just requires you to do things properly – without cutting corners. “But it’s not complicated and the rewards – more heifer calves – are well worth the extra care and effort.”

Farmers listening to the story of Gosse Veninga (all photos)

Students listening to the story of the farmer

Young calves at the fattening farm Visit at the Fleckvieh farm

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FUTURE EVENTS

All-Holland Dairy ShowJune 30th & July 1st

Highlights is a publication of CRV BV. CRV is a Dutch-Flemish farmers co-operative with six business units (International Business Development, Central Europe, Oceania, North America, South America and Western Europe). Highlights is published three times a year. Editor: CRV International Business Development.For information about CRV, please go to our website: www.crv4all-international.com or contact: CRV, P.O. Box 5073, 6802 EB Arnhem, the Netherlands. Phone: + 31 26 3898 500, Fax: + 31 26 3898 555, E-mail: sales@crv4all.comMaterial appearing in Highlights is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission of CRV.

NRM PROGRAMME

CRV’S NEW DAIRY BREEDING CENTER

On the 30th of June the daughter groups of the AI companies will be shown on the NRM. As said before in this magazine, CRV will present seven daughter groups: Colorado, Danno, G-Force, Hunter, Stellando, Vitesse and a group of embryo donors.

During the last year, CRV was building the Dairy Breeding Center in Wirdum, the Netherlands. This new farm will be used for embryo production and also the Delta Nucleus will be housed over there. This new barn is the replacement of the farm in Terwispel. The Delta Nucleus is the heart of the Delta breeding programme of CRV and consists of the best female animals that CRV selects in Europe. These cows are also used as sire dams for the new generation top bulls of CRV. At the end of September the new barn will be officially opened. Until that time every

Curious how the cows are performing? Visit the NRM and have a look in the ring between 10.30h and 12.00h and between 14.00h and 15.30h. During the break you can visit us in the CRV stand. You can find the CRV stand at the entrance of the show ring.

Atlantic daughter group, NRM 2014

now and then new parts of the barn will be put into service. Last month the first calves arrived in the quarantine barn. These calves are raised until they are old enough to become an embryo donor. End of June all animals will be moved from Terwispel to the Dairy Breeding Center. The Dairy Breeding Center combines also a lab for IVP with a modern, comfortable barn for the embryo donors and a quarantine barn for calves that come from conventional farms. Visitors can see these calves through a window.

Probably one of the first calves at the DBC; a Nova Star x Delta Garnet with 384 NVI