HOME AND ABROAD 5
HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION AUGUST 2012
Fokko Tolsma goes to… Brazil!
Kian celebrated his 15th birthday
The Netherlands Most of us know CRV’s Dutch dairy management consultant Fokko
The Netherlands CRV’s bull Kian celebrated his fifteenth birthday on June 11, 2012, in
Tolsma, but for those who don’t: Fokko travels around the world visiting cattle farms to improve their farm profits by enriching farmers and herd managers with insights and advice. He also gives presentations and training on various farm management aspects. But, after two years of being the inspiration to many producers all over the world, Fokko is about to embark on a new adventure, and that is moving to Brazil! On September 1, 2012, Fokko is moving, together with his wife Wiepie, to a town near Ribreiao Preto where they found a lovely cottage with three palm trees in the garden. The reason they’re going is that Fokko has been appointed as the area business manager South America. Regular contact with Chile and Uruguay and herds comprising between 10,000 and 50,000 dairy cows will be part of Fokko’s new job. CRV Lagoa is very blessed with the expertise and knowledge Fokko brings with him. “I see this adventure as a great challenge and it has made me re-focus. It is difficult for me to say what it is that I’m most looking forward to, but it is probably when CRV is doing really well in South America. My wife Wiepie is also looking forward to our move to Brazil. It is also a new challenge. It is not the first time we’ve moved abroad. In the 1980s, we lived for a few years in Tunisia where I worked as a bilateral development expert. This adventure was a positive experience for us and that contributes to our confidence in this next project.” Fokko has already visited Brazil many times and he just loves the country. In 2011 he went three times to give practical courses to vets, producers and managers. “The people from Brazil are very studious and appreciate this way of passing on and sharing knowledge”, explains Fokko. One of the biggest challenges he will face is the language. He already understands a lot of words, but besides Portuguese, he also has to learn Spanish as the surrounding countries speak this language. “I think it will be a mixture of both languages ‘Portanish’.” During his stay in Brazil, Fokko must temporarily take leave of his passion: playing music with the cycling band Crescendo from Opende (Groningen). The other members of the band have already asked whether it is possible for them to play in Brazil. “I can’t promise anything, but it is not impossible as we played already several times in Japan and Malaysia with this special band. So why not in Brazil?” Despite the huge change that moving to Brazil will bring, Fokko remains very down-toearth. This becomes clear as he answers to the question what he will miss the most the following: “I expect to miss the real clay potato from Groningen the most.” Fokko and his wife Wiepie in Ribreiro Pretor
the best of health. From young age he went on internationally to become the most popular red-and-white bull of all time. His unique qualities led to him being used extensively on both red-and-white and black-and-white cows. Even at this age, he is still used for breeding at least once a week. Kian (Andries x Sunny Boy) caused a stir back in 2008 when he became the world’s first red-and-white bull to produce more than a million doses of semen. That total now stands at 1.4 million doses. Many of his daughters can be found in the Netherlands and Belgium, and also in countries such as Germany, South Africa, Brazil, the US, the Czech Republic and New Zealand. Kian’s record performance is down to the fact that, since his breakthrough as a breeding bull in 2002, he was always in the top five most used bulls, even leading this ranking for four years in a row. Producers have used Kian so much for all those years on account of his trademark traits of protein (+0.27%), feet & legs (110), and claw health (108). Kian’s daughters are sturdy cows with excellent legs and high lifetime production. During his long career, Kian has achieved many successes in the male line as well. His sons Delta Fidelity, Apina Curtis and Van de Peul Kylian are widely praised for the strong leg and claw traits they pass on. And grandsons such as Delta Maicon are attracting enormous attention and look set to take over the baton from Kian in due course. At fifteen, he may be the oldest bull in the shed, but the end of the Kian era is still a long way off.
Various information for several different farmers South Africa In July, dairy management consultant Fokko Tolsma visited CRV Xseed in South Africa. Together with the brand-new sales representative Jeremy Canton, who worked for the breeding organisation Taurus in Southern Natal for many years, and Tineke Dekker, the deputy manager of CRV Xseed, Fokko visited various large dairy herds with between 300 and 1,000 cows. The farm managers received advice concerning bull use and technical information to improve fertility results. An information day has also been organised in conjunction with the producers’ organisation MPO (Milk Producers Organisation) and De Heus (concentrates) in the province of Natal. During this day the visitors discussed how to cope with the higher concentrate prices and Fokko gave a presentation about the importance of a good diet (lots of long-chop forage) during the dry period and a good healthy start of the high yielding dairy cows in early lactation. He also explained the breeding values of the Dutch NVI system, the Dutch conformation traits (linear and composites) and the Dutch proofs for management with the health traits like longevity, udder health and fertility. It became clear that many producers in Natal differ in their breeding goal. One group likes sires that give a lot milk. Another group likes medium-size cows with good udders and a high fertility and there was a group that only likes small sires for the grassland system. CRV X-Seed offers all these sires in a wide portfolio of breeds.
Presentation given by dairy management consultant Fokko Tolsma during the information day in Natal
Vanstein, the first Fleckvieh millionaire Germany Within the Holstein breed every now and then a bull manages to produce
more than one million doses of semen. Within the Fleckvieh breed, no bull had reached this milestone. Until the summer of 2012, that is, when CRV’s Fleckvieh bull Vanstein (Randy x Malf) achieved this magnificent goal. CRV and AI-company BVN bought the bull in co-ownership in November 2001. Vanstein’s dam Ursel is a famous Malf daughter with conformation scores 9-8-8-8. In the German region Bavaria alone, there are currently more than 40,000 Vanstein daughters producing and around 150,000 animals with Vanstein blood in their pedigree. Worldwide estimations are that more than 500,000 animals carry genes from Vanstein. Vlado is one of the best Vanstein sons. During the World Simmental Fleckvieh congress on September 21, 2012, in Mühldorf Germany, CRV will present a daughter group of this young InSire bull. Many friends of Fleckvieh from all around the globe will join this congress, which will have a very interesting programme with a progeny show, a breeders evening and the Bavarian Agriculture Festival in Munich among others. If you would like to get more information about the congress, please visit our website: www.crv4all.de or www.wsffcongress2012.de.
Vlado, one of the best sons of Vanstein