Longevity

Longevity

CRV’s pathway to a healthy and efficient herd

  • Breeding for higher longevity
  • Extra revenues
  • More savings on replacement costs

Longevity

Older cows have higher production and a lower environmental impact. The first productive years of a cow are necessary to payback the cost involved in breeding her, and it is only in later lactations that a cow actually starts earning.

Older cows produce more milk, which means that average production is higher. They also reduce the need for replacement in the herd, which implies that fewer young cattle have to be raised. Healthy and productive cows form the foundation of a long life.

CRV has a long tradition of focussing on high lifetime production and longevity. Thanks to the high volume of data collected by Dutch and Flemish farmers, and the use of unique predictors, the breeding value for longevity is one of the most accurate and reliable breeding values in the world.

“With a whopping 208,000kg milk with 4.64% fat and 3.86% protein Big Boukje 192 smashed the barrier of 200,000kg”
Jos Knoef, dairy farmer in Geesteren, the Netherlands

CRV, leading in longevity

CRV is leading in longevity and we offer several solutions:

  • Top ranking sires of various breeds who pass on high longevity
  • The mating advice programme SireMatch to breed cows with a higher longevity
  • The genomic herd management solution HerdOptimizer Go that makes herd management easy and allows you to select animals with the highest genetic level for longevity

Longevity explained

Proven in practice

A study among more than 22,000 animals also examined the performance of culled cows. The results revealed remarkable differences between the 25% highest scoring and the 25% lowest scoring cows for CRV Efficiency.

The highest scoring cows were not only more productive, they also had longevity of 274 days more. This resulted in a difference in lifetime production of more than 13,000kg of milk and more than 1,000kg of fat and protein. The best cows also had a significantly higher genetic level for longevity and CRV Efficiency. Breeding for longevity really does pay off in practice!

Breeding for longevity does pay off in practice infographic
“With 177,521kg milk with 13,474kg fat and protein, this is the absolute number one for lifetime production in Belgium”
Dairy farmer Dries Lahouse from Elverdinge, Belgium with Vitesse (daughter of Etazon Celsius)

CRV longevity facts

  • Over the past 60 years, a total of 37,777 cows have achieved 100,000kg of milk production in the Netherlands
  • More than six CRV cows* per day reach the exceptional milestone of 100,000kg of milk production per day
  • At culling, Dutch herdbook cows* note a lifetime production that averages 31,553kg of milk, with 1,371kg of fat and 1,120kg of protein (2019)
  • The Dutch cow Big Boukje (Cash x Labelle x F16 x Tops) was the first cow in the Netherlands to smash the magical 200,000kg milk barrier
  • Longevity is part of the CRV Efficiency index, a unique index that helps to breed highly productive cows that convert feed efficiently into milk and achieve high lifetime production
Lifetime performanceLowest 25%Highest 25%Difference (absolute)Relative increase
Age at culling (years)5,56,30,815%
Lifetime production (kg milk)29,02342,12013,09745%
Lifetime production (combined fat and protein) (kg)2,2753,2801,00544%

More information

Interested in longevity or would you like more information? Find a distributor in your region or request more information via our contact form.

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Production

CRV has a long tradition of focussing on good milk production with a very high fat and protein content. Read all about our building block production.

Feed efficiency

We have a unique breeding value for feed efficiency based on real feed intake data. Breeding for feed efficiency can save up to 10% on feed costs.

Big Clara 123: fifth cow in the Netherlands to smash the barrier of 200,000 kg of milk.

Aged almost 16, win 395 daughter big clara 123 achieved production of over 200,139 kg of milk