Making full use of the breeding toolbox for the best commercial cows

Together with his wife Vera Velstra, supported by their three young sons and a permanent employee, Jensma runs a dairy farm in Engwierum in the Netherlands, with 270 dairy and dry cows and 140 head of young stock on 185 hectares. Both milking and feeding are fully automated. The rolling annual average of the herd exceeds 11,000 kg of milk with approximately 4.60% fat and 3.60% protein. “We simply want to breed efficient, healthy commercial cows,” the dairy farmer formulates his breeding goal.

Healthy, efficiently producing commercial cows. That is how dairy farmer Menno Jensma describes his breeding objective. To achieve this, he uses every tool available in the breeding toolbox – from genomic research to sexed semen, and from the SireMatch program to Create. The result is a uniform herd with, every now and then, an absolute top performer.

Determining the breeding value of a young calf with the same reliability as that of a third-lactation cow? It is possible with CRV’s genomic testing, based on genetic material from a hair follicle or an ear biopsy. With a reliability of 75 to 80 percent, a genomic test provides insight into the genetic predisposition for more than 50 traits. The complete results of genomic research for all your animals can be clearly reviewed in CRV HerdOptimizer. For users of the SireMatch program, genomic breeding values are automatically included, making it easy to create the best possible matings. “Together with breeding specialist Oepke van der Beek, I select the bulls that fit our breeding goal. The rest is handled by the SireMatch program for us,” Jensma says.

Jensma’s breeding goal focuses on production, with an emphasis on components, and on health traits such as udder and claw health. “We also set a limit on stature”, he explains. “And we select for feed efficiency, which I think will become increasingly important.” Matings are made using SireMatch, in which InSire bulls such as Boyan, Enactor, Encourage, Eurostar and Statement are frequently recommended, along with daughter-proven bulls like Flagstone, Perfect and Woody.

Genomic research helps Jensma maintain focus in his breeding strategy. “Thanks to genomic research, I don’t have to wait until a calf has grown into a third-lactation cow to know its genetic potential. Sometimes that potential differs significantly from the average of the sire and dam,” he explains. “I use genomic breeding values to select when I have too much young stock, but above all they help me to make more targeted matings.” “Nine years of genomic research have resulted in a uniform herd,” Jensma concludes. “We hardly ever have to deal with disappointing milk production anymore.”

Jensma preferably inseminates heifers with sexed semen and uses a Belgian Blue bull for commercial crossbreeding on about 65 percent of the lactating cows. Which animals are excluded from breeding in this way is determined by SireMatch, based on the farmer’s own breeding goal. “But sometimes I do deviate from the advice,” he admits. “After all, I know my cows best.”

Although the Dutch dairy farmer does not label himself a breeder, a heifer born at his farm is currently being used in CRV’s breeding program at the Dairy Breeding Center in Wirdum. The animal comes from the farm’s own Ezon Dorako cow family and is sired by Delta Warren P RC. Her first offspring had already been born at several CRV Elite farms.

A new top animal with breeding values of 437 NVI points and €781 Inet is housed in the Jensma family’s calf barn. The sire of this calf is Delta Statement RC, another bull that Jensma was able to use early as a participant in the Create program.