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The 2020-2021 financial year presented a new cow who produced 100,000 kg of milk in Flanders in record time. It took Loli van het Zomerbloemhof just 1,933 days to smash the magic barrier of 100,000 kg of milk. This Goli daughter owned by Dries Lahousse and Veerle Lagache from Elverdinge started lactating in 2015. ‘She immediately progressed to 48 litres a day, and was the first heifer we have ever had to dry off with more than 40 litres of milk,’ says Dries Lahousse. ‘So, not only is she a super milk cow, she is also extremely persistent.’

The bulls in CRV's Fleckvieh programme have claimed leading positions in the December 2021 index run. The genomic breeding values of many of these bulls are backed up by the performance of their first lactating daughters. Popular genomic bulls have held on to their ranking in the index with a number of promising, young bulls close at their heels. This serves to confirm CRV's strong position as the leader in health and efficiency in Fleckvieh breeding.

A herd that converts feed efficiently into milk, fat and protein. All over the world, this is an essential condition to ensure the profitability of dairy farming, especially in times of high prices for milk and feed. CRV bulls enable you to breed cows that achieve high lifetime production efficiently and effortlessly, under all circumstances. The December index 2021 demonstrates this once again.

Conformation plays a very important role in breeding. A cow's appearance and build are also indicators of its potential to achieve high lifetime production. Animals that score well for conformation traits often have a longer healthy and productive life. And, we all like animals that are pleasing to the eye! CRV herdbook classifiers assess and score heifers based on linear traits and linear composite indexes. The linear traits describe the individual traits, the linear composite index describes the general characteristics or combined traits.

After lengthy preparations, last week the first 'methane sniffer' was installed in the milk robot at a Dutch farm. This sniffer establishes the methane concentration in the air exhaled by each cow at each milking session.

For Manfred Lenz (56), farming is not just a job, it is a passion, and he is proud to carry on the family business. Frühlingshof Farm has been in his family since 1791. Full-time employee Lars Germer and trainee Tanja Kribs support Manfred Lenz in his work. His family help as often as they can, especially his 26-year-old daughter Elisabeth. After high school, she trained as a farmer and farm manager, and realised during this time just how much she enjoys working with cows.