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Around the world, the same rule applies wherever dairy farmers are active: cows that efficiently achieve high lifetime production without problems are the bedrock of profitable dairy farming. CRV helps farmers build a herd with consistently high yields, as the August 2022 index run has once again shown. With their high all-round breeding values for efficiency, health and longevity, bulls from the CRV breeding programme maintain or conquer top positions. Thanks to a feed efficiency breeding value based on measured feed intake in practice, CRV also offers farmers a unique tool to further increase the efficiency of milk production.

The percentage problem births among heifers has halved over the last ten years. Breeding and selection play a key role in this regard. The various breeding values for sire calving ease and daughter calving ease require some explanation.

Key to successful AI is ensuring semen and oocyte ‘meet’ at the right time. With a little knowledge about the fertility cycle of cows and the properties of semen, it’s possible to improve conception rates.

M3 P has very quickly become one of the most popular Fleckvieh bulls at CRV. And with good reason. 'Like his father, this early Mercedes P son has an excellent all-round profile,' says Johannes Wolf from CRV Germany. The Fleckvieh product manager mentions the high components inheritance and excellent longevity traits of M3 P, with which he scores very well on both CRV Health and CRV Efficiency.

In the April 2022 index run, the ranking of black-and-white bulls in the Netherlands has a polled leader for the first time ever. In CRV’s red-and-white breeding programme, the polled gene is now so widely spread that several polled homozygotes have reached the top.

New Zealand’s producers have a wealth of experience when it comes to maximising grazing utilisation and turning grass into milk. Is there anything UK producers can learn from their Kiwi counterparts?