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‘They're basically just really good, ideal dairy cows, who look after themselves, have no problems and produce plenty of milk.’ This is how dairy farmer Jan Priems describes his Peeldijker Liesjes. Accounting for some 80% of the herd, this cow family is certainly the most important name at the dairy farm in De Mortel, where 130 cows tally up a rolling annual average of 11,850 kg of milk with 4.45% fat and 3.54% protein.

CRV has everything it takes to help farmers improve the fertility of their herds. In a series of short interviews, employees who deal with fertility on a daily basis explain what this means in practice. Nowadays Eline Willems. She trained as a veterinarian and provides fertility counselling for dairy farms in Flanders. She also works as a permanent replacement for several fellow AI veterinarians.

The Semen Processing Center and the International Logistics Center in Deventer, the Netherlands play a crucial role in the production process of CRV. Every year, 4 million straws are filled, inspected, registered, frozen and dispatched to dairy and beef farmers worldwide. After processing all straws are stored here for a quarantine period of at least 30 days.

Last year CRV introduced the breeding concept HerdOptimizer Go internationally. The tool gives farmers easy insight in the genetic potential of their herd by means of female genotyping. After a successful pilot period the concept is now used in 10 countries.

The opportunity to breed more climate-friendly cows is one step closer for New Zealand dairy farmers after a Waikato trial finds a possible link between a bulls’ genetics and the amount of methane they produce.

Doubling genetic progress, halving the number of bulls used for breeding and a huge upscaling. The idea of genomic selection, which came to fruition 20 years ago in the brain of a brilliant scientist, has revolutionised breeding.