THIS AUTUMN: CUSTOMIZED BREEDING

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1 HIGHLIGHTS REPORT ENGLISH EDITION OCTOBER 2016 NEW WEBSITE CRV INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT This summer CRV IBD introduced her new website: This website contains all the information about CRV, our breeding programs and of course all the bulls we offer all over the world. You can also find your local CRV distributor at this page. Until now the website is available in English, Spanish and Chinese. Russian will follow very soon! Check our website or follow CRV IBD on Facebook. PREDICT THE FUTURE WITH A HAIR SAMPLE Which heifer calf should we keep? Which bull is the best match for this maiden heifer? Which cow should we use for breeding? Genomic tests can help to answer these questions. With the customized breeding program FOM, dairy farmers will easily and quickly gain insight into the genetics of each individual animal. With fewer and better young animals, I can improve the efficiency on my farm, says dairy farmer Hans Romkema from Oldeboorn, the Netherlands. A hair sample or ear biopsy is sufficient to show the genetic potential of each animal. The genomic test is not only a solution for selecting AI bulls, but dairy farmers may also use this technique to gain insight into the future performances of young calves once they are in milk. This allows you to select the right heifer calves that you want to keep. This saves you raising costs and results in an efficient, healthy herd giving you much job satisfaction. The best heifer calves About three years ago, dairy farmer Hans Romkema started to use genomic tests. Initially for the whole herd, and currently just for the heifer calves. I am past the growth phase of my farm; I wanted to work more efficiently with healthier cows and more protein. The genomic tests show me the best animals. The best cows supply the heifer calves for replacement within the farm and the dairy farmer also makes a selection of the heifer calves. By now he is calling his method systematic breeding. 80% of my cows are mated to a Belgian Blue beef bull, Hans explains. And 20% are made pregnant by sexed semen or an embryo from the Delta Satellite Program. test, as well as natural polling. But A2A2 shows up in the genomic test as well, which may offer opportunities for the future. The genomic test increases the reliability from 30% for the parent average to about 60%, equal to the reliability of the breeding value of a third-calf cow. Our heifers are clearly better, says Hans, adding that his best calves already score about 270 NVI. That is exactly what it is all about: improving overall herd quality. Hans Romkema THIS AUTUMN: CUSTOMIZED BREEDING From this autumn, CRV will offer the customized breeding program FOM, a clear program for optimal use of genomic tests on your farm. The program will be available in the Netherlands and Flanders, later on also in other countries. FOM is more than simply a genomic test: it is a total concept with genomic tests, a special HerdOptimizer application and support by your herd consultant. Genomic tests allow us to improve overall herd quality Better matings The genomic test also offers a tool for selecting better matings. The genomic breeding values are incorporated in the SAP mating program (the Dutch version of SireMatch), allowing a more reliable selection of a good bull, in Romkema s experience, who adds that any hereditary defects are also tested in the genomic 1 Take a hair sample or ear biopsy of a calf and send it. 2 The sample will be analyzed and you will receive the result within three weeks. 3 You can see the result in the special HerdOptimizer application, which also shows an overall picture of your herd. 4 Your herd consultant will discuss the next steps for your farm with you. CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER

2 The animals with the highest scores for the Better Life breeding indexes perform best Laura Winter, Winter s Farm Vriezenveen, Best Herd of the Netherlands 2016 winner RESEARCH CONFIRMS VALUE OF UNIQUE CRV BREEDING INDEXES BETTER LIFE HEALTH Cows that are easy to manage and get old without any problems The 25 percent best cows for Better Life Health achieved: 58,000 cells/milliliter lower somatic cell count 38 percent less subclinical mastitis 40 percent less digital dermatitis 45 percent less interdigital dermatitis 48 percent less ketosis 30 days shorter calving interval 62 percent less difficult births in heifers BETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY Cows that last long and easily produce much milk per kg of feed The 25 percent best cows for Better Life Efficiency achieved: 13,000kg of milk higher lifetime production 10 months more longevity 4.2kg of milk higher daily production points higher lactation value (lactation 1-3) (Source: study based on data of 61,000 cows by Eva Koole, Van Hall Larenstein, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) BREEDING BASED ON GENOMIC BREEDING VALUES WORKS IN PRACTICE Winning the title Best Herd of the Netherlands is no mean feat. Jan, Tiny, Laura and Frank Winter from Vriezenveen are milking a dairy herd to be proud of. Not only because of their conformation, but definitely also because of their economic performance. Bulls from the CRV breeding program are the genetic foundation for this. culling is lower than 10 percent and no fewer than 24 cows from the herd achieved the milestone of 100,000kg of milk. Most of these cows were sired by Dutch bulls, says Laura Winter. This proves to us that sustainability is guaranteed in the CRV breeding program. Highest breeding values, best performance According to the dairy farmer from Vriezenveen, good genetics are in addition to optimal nutrition and care an important precondition for high lifetime productions. We are breeding for kilograms of protein, legs, udder and health traits. We incorporate the Better Life Health and Better Life Efficiency breeding indexes as useful additional information, she explains. For the owners of the Best Herd of the Netherlands 2016, the mating program SAP is an indispensable tool for optimizing their breeding and selection goal. They work with the genomic breeding values of their herd of 230 dairy cows and 170 young animals, which are available to them thanks to their participation in BreedingDataPlus. We can see that it works in practice. The animals with the highest scores for the Better Life breeding indexes perform best, says Laura. Measure to manage An analysis of the figures of the Winter s Farm herd supports her claim. In the past years, fourteen culled cows scored an average of +4.9% Better Life Efficiency. On the other hand, there were 27 culled cows scoring -4.2%. The difference in lifetime production between the two groups was more than 6200kg of milk. In addition, the 73 cows with the highest scores for Better Life Health were also found to have the best health figures in practice: 48% less subclinical mastitis, 63% less ketosis and 33 days shorter calving interval. Achieving high lifetime productions is the most important goal in the herd management of the Winter family. For eight consecutive years, culled cows from the farm had produced more than 50,000kg of milk, the percentage of involuntary 2 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER 2016 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER

3 CRV BULLS CRV BULLS TOTAL INDEX BETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY INDEX BETTER LIFE HEALTH INDEX TOTAL INDEX BETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY INDEX BETTER LIFE HEALTH INDEX DELTA BODYGUARD (Bolt RF x Stellando RF) PEAK SOLAR (Monterey x Supersire) Bodyguard is a son of Molenkamp Bolt (Bookem x Spencer) and Delta Nadja. In the maternal line we find cow Apina Nadja. We know her as the dam of InSire Topbulls like Health, Hero and Norman (former #1 UK). The dam of Bodyguard is also the dam of the Red&White bull Delta Norbert. Delta Nadja is working on an solid lactation and is projected over 12,000kg milk in her first lactation in CRV s test farm of the Peeters family in Geel, Belgium. The Bodyguard daughters will excel in udders and udder health. They will be productive with good components, making him another fine example of CRV s philosophy: easy to manage and efficient. KG MILK 985 % FAT 0.10 % PROTEIN 0.07 UDDER 111 FEET & LEGS 107 LONGEVITY 667 CALVING EASE 99 Delta Bodyguard Solar is a son of Monterey (McCutchen x Robust) and Supersire daughter No-Fla Shine-ET. Participants of the CRV USA tour last year in October have had the possibility to see this fantastic brood cow at Budjon Farms. At this moment there are already 12 sons of No-Fla Shine tested over 2600 GTPI of which Solar is one of the most complete bulls. Solar is easy to use because he is besides all his qualities also suitable for maiden heifers. His daughters will be very productive and long lasting, but also very easy to manage as they are fertile, have very healthy udders and less ketosis. With Solar, CRV adds another fine example of what we represent: easy to manage and efficient! KG MILK 1332 % FAT 0.06 % PROTEIN 0.03 UDDER 1.85 FEET & LEGS 1.38 PL (MO) 5.9 SIRE CE 5.7 Peak Solar GIDEON VAN TEN POELE (Gerard x Ramos) WALK (Watt x Bfg Reumut) Gideon van ten Poele is a Gerard son out of a Ramos son. This Belgian cow family originates from Cooks-Valley Rotate Bluebill, the former #1 CTPI cow. With bulls like Gerard, Ramos, Shottle and Addison in the pedigree, it is no wonder that Gideon is a true production and longevity specialist. What makes Gideon really unique is that he combines these high efficiency traits with very good health traits. Gideon s daughters are improving for udder health, hoof health, ketosis and fertility. With 109 for calving ease, he is extremely easy calving. KG MILK 2130 % FAT 0.51 % PROTEIN 0.29 UDDER 105 FEET & LEGS 103 LONGEVITY 547 CALVING EASE 109 Falkena Bertha 209 (s. Gideon) The number one available Fleckvieh bull is Walk (Watt x Reumut, 147 ggzw). This InSire Top Bull from CRV is the absolute champion for production efficiency (+14%) and a real udder specialist (124). On top of this great package he has fantastic scores for fitness traits (FIT 124 and Better Life Health +9%) and longevity (135). Thanks to this combination, daughters of Walk will be capable of very high lifetime productions and will be a pleasure to work with. KG MILK 1173 % FAT 0.09 % PROTEIN 0.06 UDDER 124 FEET & LEGS 99 MUSCULARITY 107 Loreen, dam of Walk AMERICAN CARNIVAL (Jester RF x Try RF) RIVAAL (Rudolf x Matthijs) American Carnival is a son of the Red-factor bull Jester. Jester is a Stellando son out of the full sister of Delta Atlantic and combines two of the best daughter proven Black&White CRV bulls. The dam of Carnival is a daughter of the red-factor, former InSire Topbull: Try RF and the granddam was a daughter of another former InSire Topbull: Camion van de Peul. The Carnival daughters will be eye-catching with excellent udders and strong feet and legs. Besides his high type Carnival also transmits a good production with positive daughter fertility, less problems with udder health and less claw disorders. Making another fine example of CRV s unique Red&White breeding program. KG MILK 945 % FAT % PROTEIN 0.01 UDDER 111 FEET & LEGS 110 LONGEVITY 436 CALVING EASE 101 American Carnival With his high longevity (+411 days) Rivaal will appeal to every farmer, the pure MRIJ breeder as well as the farmer who wants to improve his cows with crossbreeding. Rivaal offers a very complete package: good production, excellent udder and claw health and also a good conformation. He scores high for udder (110) and feet and legs (104). At the last CRV Event in June, we have seen excellent MRIJ cows, and Rivaal was far the best! Moderate sized cows with good udders and good feet and legs. Farmers who are milking Rivaal daughters are very enthusiastic about the cows. They are nice and easy to manage cows. KG MILK 47 % FAT % PROTEIN UDDER 110 FEET & LEGS 102 MUSCULARITY 103 Woeste Polder Freddy 24 (s. Rivaal) 4 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER 2016 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER

4 CRV AROUND THE WORLD SIREMATCH NOW AVAILABLE FOR ALL GLOBAL BREEDS CRV AROUND THE WORLD CRV PRESENT DURING THE VUELTA IN SPAIN SireMatch is already well known by our Business Units and Distributors worldwide to provide advices for the Holstein breed on the Dutch as well as US base. As of the August index run SireMatch can now also be used to provide breeding advise for CRV s other global breeds. By implementing the same program also for the Fleckvieh, Grazing and Jersey breeds our sales representatives can use the same tool in a similar way for all global breeds. Customers using non-holstein breeds can now also receive a comprehensive breeding plan including a bull advice on individual cow level. For CRV and its Distributors it is now key to achieve the same advantages as we see for Holstein: a higher semen market share and higher customer loyalty with the farmers using SireMatch. CHINESE FARMERS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT CRV China is a country with great potential, especially in the field of dairy farming. Recently, some CRV colleagues visited this Asian country to provide trainings. Both parties are enthusiastic to work together. CRV is doing business in about 70 countries all over the world and China is one of the so called focus countries, which means that this country has much potential for CRV. Bart Dronkert (area manager) and Gert-Jan van den Bosch (herd management specialist) have recently visited some farms in China to give a training. We were on the JunYing Dairy farm of Mrs. Ouyan, a farm with about cows, says Bart. Mrs. Ouyan had already visited the Netherlands to see some cows. During her visit she said: I also want that kind of cows. Therefore her farm was one of the farms Gert-Jan and Bart visited during their stay in China. In China, the focus shifts gradually from a high milk production to other points, like efficiency, fat and protein levels and durability, Bart explains. Milk prices are generally good, but the cost price is also high, especially of roughage, which is imported from Australia or the United States. Trouble-free farming Health is also a focus point, according to the area manager of CRV. Ketosis, mastitis and Young stock at New Hope Running Farm visit Yili Hohhot claw problems are mentioned very often. Therefore, we focused really on efficiency and health during the training. We explained that breeding is underestimated very often, but in particular it is a very good tool to take your herd to a higher level. During the training Better Life Health and Better Life Efficiency were explained to the public. These breeding values work very well in Chinese circumstances. When the size of the farms grow, like in China, the need for easy-to-manage cows is also increasing. Better Life Health and Better Life Efficiency are a very appropriate response to this need. The trainings were well appreciated by the Chinese farmers. They appreciated being informed about the excellent opportunities to reach their individual breeding goal. Bart is looking back on a successful trip: That s the strength of our company s philosophy. Wherever we come in the world, almost every farmer can recognize himself in it. Gert-Jan van den Bosch CRV IN CANADA Jan Lok and Pieter Schuurmans at a farm In September, two members of the IBD team visited CRV Canada to join CRV agent Pieter Schuurmans on the Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock. In the days before the event some farms of CRV customers were visited and there was great offspring of many bulls from both the Dutch and North American breeding program to be seen. Daughters of Kodak, Fidelity and Atlantic were seen in production and many offspring of Grand, Rocky, Chevrolet and Regan looked promising as they are about to calf in this winter. The demand for CRV product in Canada is increasing and the August proof run showed good results for CRV as well. With Hotline (Hotrod x Mogul) being at the #2 glpi position and bulls like Bojangles, Carrera and Marlow in the line-up we see an increasing demand for our bulls which are suited to breed cows that are profitable and easy to manage. A trend that does not go unnoticed in Quebec either, where the CRV distributor for that province was visited in the same week. Together with Mario Grimard of Holdstar Genetics great offspring from Hunter were seen in many barns in this French speaking province. Moreover, the enthusiasm of many breeders having great results with Hotline so far shows CRV is increasing its influence in the True North. OVALERT ALSO AVAILABLE IN BRAZIL Brazilian farmers now also can make use of the heat detection system Ovalert. Have you ever seen Girolando cows with pedometers and neck tags? It gives special pictures. At this farm the first Ovalert system of Brazil was installed and therefore CRV s Brazilian team visited the farm. CRV s Brazilian team 6 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER 2016 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER

5 BREEDING BASED ON ROBOT BREEDING VALUES Do you decide to build another parlor or do you decide to milk using an automatic milking system (AMS or robot)? Increasing numbers of dairy farmers are opting for the latter. Efficiency is key here: cows must visit the AMS of their own accord and heifers must quickly adapt to the robot. AMS efficiency breeding values are an effective tool in achieving your breeding goals. Robot breeding values have been available since April They utilize data made available via milking robots. There are three breeding values: robot efficiency: how efficient is a cow for robotic milking? milking interval: what is the interval between two visits to the AMS? heifer habituation: how quickly does the heifer adapt to the AMS? Milking interval If I use an AMS, I want my cows to visit the robot of their own accord. The milking interval trait can help you to breed cows that have a higher robot visiting frequency. Bulls with a high breeding value for milking interval produce daughters with on average a shorter time between two successive visits to the AMS. These cows have a higher visiting frequency to the robot. This greatly reduces your labor input, as you do not have to fetch the cows for milking. Heifer habituation Will my heifers quickly adapt to using the robot? It s important to know, as it can save me a lot of time. Utilizing bulls with a high breeding value for heifer habituation can help. This produces heifers that visits the AMS to be milked of their own accord shortly after calving. These daughters reach the final milking interval much sooner. The graph shows the differences per breeding value and the percentage of cows that ultimately reach the final milking interval. breeding value 108 breeding value 100 breeding value 92 breeding value 104 breeding value 96 ROBOT EFFICIENCY Amount of milk produced in kg per total robot time in minutes MILKING INTERVAL Time between two milking sessions HABITUATION Speed of heifer adoption to robot. What are the benefits of robot traits? Let us zoom into the three breeding values and see the benefits they offer dairy farmers. Robot efficiency If I use an AMS, I want to know how efficiently my cows use it. Breeding based on robot efficiency makes a difference. The table shows just how significant this difference can be. In the example, we have assumed a farm with an average robot efficiency. The total available robot time is 20 hours a day. All the other factors in this example are the same. If you use bulls that rank 108 for robot efficiency, their daughters will produce 0.18kg of extra milk per minute. That is 216kg of additional milk per day, and almost 79,000kg of additional milk per robot per year. With an average production of 30kg of milk per cow per day, you can even milk seven extra cows with your current AMS. % heifers at final milking interval With a breeding value of above 100, more than 50% of the descendants have reached the final milking interval in week 3 after calving. For bulls with a breeding value of 92 that figure is just 30%, while bulls with a breeding value of 108 show more than 60%. Conclusion These differences are considerable and show that using the AMS efficiency breeding values allows you to breed a herd that is well-suited to automatic milking systems. Breeding value Average daughter performance (kg milk/min) Extra kg milk/minute Extra kg milk per robot/day Extra kg milk per robot/year 78,889 39, ,445 78,889 Extra cows per robot (at 30 kg milk/day) Highlights is a publication of CRV BV. CRV is a Dutch-Flemish farmers co-operative with six business units (International Business Development, Central Europe, Oceania, North America, South America and Western Europe). Highlights is published three times a year. Editor: CRV International Business Development. For information about CRV, please go to our website: global.crv4all.com or contact: CRV, P.O. Box 5073, 6802 EB Arnhem, the Netherlands. Phone: , Fax: , sales@crv4all.com Material appearing in Highlights is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission of CRV. FUTURE EVENTS EuroTier November, Hannover, Germany 8 CRV HIGHLIGHTS REPORT OCTOBER 2016