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As a strategic and technical farm consultant, almost every day Niels Achten speaks with dairy farmers in the Netherlands and Flanders about ways of optimising their farm management. Niels works at consultancy firm Liba and, along with his parents, operates a dairy with 280 cows. He can therefore directly link the numbers on paper to his own practical experience.

For Dutch dairy farmer Willem Alders, the feed balance (milk income minus feed costs) is an important economic index. The results of six years of measuring the feed intake of individual cows for CRV opened his eyes to the differences between cows. “The animals with the lowest scores make little or no contribution to the total feed balance, whilst the animals with the best scores produce even more than expected,” he concludes.

For years, the efficient conversion of feed into milk has been a main aim in farm management for livestock farmer Pierre Litjens. Since the introduction of the breeding value feed efficiency, he has also included this trait in breeding. “The genetic differences between cows are even greater than I expected,” he says.

Cows with genetics that produce more milk using less feed could help dairy farmers around the world combat rising feed costs, which show no sign of easing. Breeding towards better feed efficiency helps lower feed costs as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

Genomic analysis of female Holstein is used for Precision Breeding. Female genomic testing is the next step in breeding efficient and profitable herds. Genomic breeding values haver higher reliabilities then pedigree indexes. HerdOptimizer Go helps farmers to rank animals and to formulate the best possible breeding goal. With data of the genetic potential of the herd farmers are able to make educated decisions on their breeding strategy (sexed, conventional, beef or embryo) to ensure they only breed with the best existing genetics.

Dairy farmer Hans Janssen wants to maximise the potential of what he has to the full. His land, the milking robots and the forage he grows on his farm. ‘We need cows that convert feed efficiently into milk’ he explains. ‘That is where breeding can also help.’