Cows 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 gives you higher revenues. In addition, efficient utilisation of feed also has a positive impact on the environment as it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the use of scarce resources.

Feed costs represent about 60 percent of all variable costs involved in milk production. Breeding with CRV Feed Efficiency can help you produce 2 to 4 percent more milk from the same amount of feed (based on a cow’s lifetime production).

Efficient and sustainable cows benefit both dairy farmers and the environment. Cows bred with CRV Feed Efficiency will convert any type of feed more efficiently into milk.

Cows who use feed more efficiently also positively impact the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and using less scarce resources.

Daughters of CRV bulls that currently score best on Feed Efficiency will produce more milk with the same amount of feed. The daughters of a bull with a breeding value of 108 will produce 4% more milk with the same amount of feed. You can optimise your revenues even more by selecting the most feed efficient calves with the genomic testing program HerdOptimizer GO.

As feed costs continue to rise, you can protect the profitability of your business by breeding a herd that converts feed more efficiently into milk.

Dairy farmer Willem Alders has been conducting feed trials for CRV for several years. He has seen huge differences in the feed efficiency, even between similar cows. Read Willem Alders’ story here.