Highlights April 2012

ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

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ALL HOLLAND DAIRY SHOW

prevent and control lameness

In Holland the days are getting longer, the temperature is rising and the countdown for this year’s All-Holland Dairy Show (NRM) has started!

Focus on management plays a key role in controlling claw health. Important factors are regular trimming, sensible nutrition and comfortable housing amongst others.

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DE BieSHEUVEL SUNRISE The complete package: De Biesheuvel Sunrise. CRV’s highest new black-and-white bull in the rankings.

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SMOOTH TRANSFER OF BULLS FROM GENOMIC TO DAUGHTER PROVEN LIST

SUNNY INDEX RUN FOR CRV The young genomic tested InSire bulls of today are the proven bulls of tomorrow.

The bulls Sunrise, Hollandia and Pilot, who have made a successful transfer in this index run from the lists of genomic tested bulls to the list of proven bulls, are the best examples of this.

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ll eyes are on him during this index run. De Biesheuvel Sunrise (+197 NVI, Jardin x O-Man). The bull from the highest index cow in the Netherlands. The bull that, as an InSire bull, was uniquely popular. And that bull is now fulfilling the great expectations placed on him. He is coming through as the highest new CRV proven bull and winning 12 points NVI compared to his previous genomic breeding value. Sunrise gives a high milk yield (+1384kg) with a great deal of protein (+0.14%, 61kg), resulting in an incredibly high Inet score (+332). He completes his ideal image with beautiful conformation (109 total conformation) and good management

Sunrise daughter Tjitske 356, the highest new CRV proven bull

traits (105 calving ease, 103 character). And Sunrise also proves his qualities in the male line.

His son Diepenhoek Rozello (+257 NVI, ms. Shottle) enters the list of bulls with a genomic breeding value in the top 20. He transfers an outstanding conformation (114 total conformation) and a great deal of milk (+1417kg).

Top quality sons from established fathers

As well as young bulls like Sunrise, established names are also delivering impressive new breeding bulls. Paramount, who has produced over 26,000 daughters in his breeding value, is the sire of

Newhouse Hollandia (+167 NVI, ms. Lucky Mike). This bull comes from the famous Sneeker Family. His most significant qualities are his strong conformation (112 total conformation with 113 udder) and fantastic production (+790kg milk).

Highly reliable Fortune is the sire of Peeldijker Phantasy (+159 NVI), who maintained his index in the second run.

Phantasy yields very strong features: high production (+1162kg, +0.04% protein), powerful conformation (108 frame, 107 dairy strength, 110 udder, 110 total conformation) and udder health (106).

Slotbooms Pilot (+186 NVI, ms. Jocko) is a son of Mascol. After Sunrise, he is the highest new proven bull from CRV. Pilot produces heifers with excellent udders (109) and good udder health (105). He is free of O-Man genes and therefore widely usable.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 >

TOP CRV SIRES ON NVI Following the release of the April 2012 proofs, CRV’s top available sires ranked on NVI are: HOLSTEINS – DAUGHTER PROVEN 1. Cricket 245 2. Persuader NEW 223 3. Goli 220 4. Impuls 209 5. Ormsby 205 6. Malaga 204 7. Sunrise NEW 197 8. Big Winner 195 9. Paramount 193 10. Pilot NEW 186 HOLSTEINS – INSIRE 1. G-Force 2. Sunset 3. Edison 4. Atlantic 5. Rozello

280 264 259 259 257

RED HOLSTEINS – DAUGHTER PROVEN (RED-AND-WHITE BASE)

1. Kodak 2. Arnold 3. Fidelity 4. Klimmer 5. Maniac

216 187 181 178 177

RED HOLSTEINS – INSIRE (RED-AND-WHITE BASE)

ALGER MEEKMA

1. Glorious 2. Camion 3. Maicon 4. Charlton 5. Design

Two year old G-Force is still the highest NVI bull available

242 230 225 205 200

2 PROOF NEWS

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

InSire for lifetime production

Another interesting bull on the list of bulls without daughters is Elagaaster Packman (+247 NVI, Bogart x Jordan), the bull for the modern dairy farmer. He will produce daughters who effortlessly reach old age thanks to fabulous breeding values for udder health (105), fertility (104) and an incredible longevity (+602 days). As well as this, he ensures good production (+765kg milk) with positive contents (+0.10% fat, +0.14% protein).

Delta Alonso (+269 NVI, ms. Shottle) is a newcomer to the list. Alonso is a son of Atlantic, who is still also an InSire bull. An ideal production inheritance (+739kg, 0.12% protein), good longevity (608 days), good fertility (103) and super conformation (111), Alonso has it all.

Red-and-white InSires deliver total package

ALEX ARKINK

When it comes to the red-and-white genomic bulls, CRV also has many bulls with this total package of features. Son of Jerudo, Delta Maicon (+225 NVI) transfers 476 days longevity, a high protein percentage (+0.15), and excellent conformation (111 total conformation). He is therefore the ideal foundation for many breeding goals.

The same applies to Ammervelde Design (+200 NVI). Design is a son of Destry (s. Goldwyn) from a daughter of Lightning. His inheritance pattern with absolute top conformation (111) and high lifetime production (427 days longevity, 745kg milk) speaks for itself.

Polled and top quality go hand in hand for Veneriete 396 Twist P (+192 NVI, Mitey P x Twister). He contributes to increasing lifetime production with high production (+987kg), high longevity (+498) and good health traits (103 udder health).

Gonda 88 (s. Newhouse Hollandia)

Canvas has delivered Delta Scarlet for this index (+161 NVI). Scarlet is, just like his sire, a top milk bull (+2551kg). He has a very high Inet (382 euro) and his daughters constantly achieve top production (103 dairy strength, 344 days longevity). In terms of health traits, he outpaces his sire (105 hoof health).

Aurora Ormsby (+205 NVI) has gone up the classification ranks and reached the top 15.

He is the highest placed son of Shottle in the Netherlands and one of the most highly available sons of Shottle worldwide. Ormsby is an all-rounder with +791kg milk, 585 days longevity, 111 total conformation and 102 fertility.

Outcross bulls from the Delta programme

Outcross blood combined with lifetime production is what bulls Delta Persuader and Delta Malaga have to offer. Delta Persuader (+223 NVI, ms. Dustin) comes from the Delta Chrissy family that forms a strong breeding group at the CRV test stations. Persuader stands out due to balanced production (+641kg milk, –0.25% fat, +0.04% protein), enormous dairy strength (108), really strong legs (111) and good udder health (108). Outcross blood (Jordan x Jocko), lots of milk (+1535 kg) and a high longevity (+685 days) are the features of Delta Malaga (+204 NVI) in a nutshell. This bull comes from the same family as Delta G-Force and is also perfectly suited for correcting too flat rump angles (114 rump angle).

Top sire Cricket

The breeding value calculations that include Inet and NVI have been amended in order to breed cows that will suit the future system without milk quota in Europe. Today’s choice of bull determines which heifers farmers will be milking in 2015. And masses of farmers are opting for Ralma O-Man cf Cricket (O-Man x Durham). The amended calculations have raised this health specialist (111 udder health, 106 fertility, 109 calving ease) to the position he deserves, at the top of the class. The breeding power of Cricket is clearly demonstrated in the genomics list. Both the number 1 and the number 3 on this list are sons of Cricket.

ALGER MEEKMA

Marietje 104, daughter of Kodak, the leader of the red-and-white ranking (daughter proven)

Kodak new number 1

Topspeed Kodak (+216 NVI) is scaling the ranks to the number 1 position. Son of Kevin, Kodak, is also the number 1 in terms of longevity (+750 days). He also has fantastic health traits (108 hoof health, 104 udder health), and passes on very decent production (+550kg milk, +0.03% protein) as well as being perfectly suited as a maiden heifer bull (111 calving ease). A remarkable new addition to the top 10 list is a son of Royalist, Maniac van de Peul (+177 NVI). His high classification is due to extremely good udder (110) and leg inheritance (114), high longevity (+437 days) and good udder health (106).

AI Kampen’s Talentino (+169 NVI) has had a good index run. With his high protein yield (+0.17%) and all-round strong conformation with 110 legs and 110 udder, he is also going up within his class.

A new name in the red-and-white breeding bull list is Lowlands Standard (+155 NVI, ms. Gogo). This son of Jasper produces daughters with a high milk urge (+2295kg) and strong conformation (108 total conformation).

MRY

Remco, a son of Matthijs (+194 NVI, Matthijs x Man 183) is CRV’s highest available MRY bull.

He immediately took second place during his first index. Remco has an ideal production inheritance with lots of milk (+913kg) and high protein (+0.10%, 40kg). His daughters are persistent residents on many farms (+372 days longevity) and are self-reliant (105 udder health, 104 milking speed). This complete inheritance pattern makes him suitable for both pure MRY breeding as well as being used for crossbreeding purposes.

FOR DETAILED PROOF INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.GLOBAL.CRV4ALL.COM

COLUMN THE BEST OF BOTH Breeders frequently ask me how to choose between daughter-proven bulls and InSires – genomically tested young bulls from CRV – in order to achieve their breeding goals. My answer is: look for the best of both!

Successful breeding is the result of the quality of breeding values and clever use of various sources of information. An example of that is the reference population from Eurogenomics in which CRV participates to calculate reliable genomic breeding values. With 22,000 animals it is the largest reference population in the world and the data is collected by countries, like the Netherlands and Belgium, where the reliability of the data is very high.

Analysis shows that the average breeding values of our bulls based on daughter proofs are very similar to the genomic breeding values they showed when they were still InSire bulls.

Between 70% and 90% of the bulls with daughter proofs perform on the same level, or even higher, than their genomic breeding value indicated. This means that there is a degree of deviation, but the risk of disappointment in our InSire bulls is small.

It is also important to realise that our InSire bulls keep their profile. For example: even with the possible deviation taken into account, an InSire that has the profile of a high production bull, will also turn out to be a high production bull once he has daughter proofs. The same goes for other traits.

Because the bulls keep their profile it is possible for you to recognise the usability and added value of our daughter-proven bulls as well as our InSires on your farm.

Both InSires and daughter-proven bulls can contribute to your breeding goal and in a way they are the same. Today’s top InSire bulls will be tomorrow’s daughter-proven top-ranking bulls. Our new daughter-proven sire De Biesheuvel Sunrise is a good example of that.

What’s extra interesting in this genomic era is the fact that we will also have the first Sunrise son available very soon. So Sunrise turns out to be a perfect name in an up and coming new way of breeding!

Theo Gieling, international breeding specialist at CRV

NRM 2012 3

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

The preparations for the ALL HOLLAND DAIRY SHOW 2012 are in full swing!

ALL HOLLAND DAIRY SHOW 2012 In Holland the days are getting longer, the temperature is rising and the countdown for this year’s All-Holland Dairy Show (NRM) on June 29 and 30 has started. The NRM team has had its first meetings and all team-members are full of energy and working hard to make this NRM a great success.

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or the first time the NRM will not take place in Utrecht but at a new location – the IJsselhallen in Zwolle. The setup of the event will be the same as last time. On Friday June 29 20 progeny groups of proven sires will be presented. The NRM is the only show in the world where such a large number of progeny groups are displayed at one show. On Saturday a total 73 red-andwhite and 145 black-and-white cows can be admired in the ring. One of them will be chosen as the overall champion of the All Holland Dairy Show 2012.

The exhibition will be held both days and CRV has its own tent with an international lounge for its international guests. In total, 10,000 Dutch dairy farmers and about 2,000 international guests are expected to visit the biennial event.

At the moment the NRM team is busy with all the necessary preparations for this year’s event, including the booth and tent setup, product presentations and the selection of progeny groups. Which sires will be chosen for progeny group demonstration is still a surprise, but it is certain that progeny from both first and second-crop bulls will be there. Keep a close eye on our website and Facebook for updates.

After the progeny group demonstrations on Friday, there will be an opportunity to purchase high level genetic material at the Holland Master Sale auction. The first day of the NRM will be concluded with an international party at the IJsselhallen.

However, not only is the NRM itself worth visiting. During the week preceding the show, CRV’s business unit Global Sales & Development is organising a full programme for its international guests.

Traditional barbecue

On Thursday evening the traditional barbecue is held where all international guests are invited. At the barbecue there will also be a big screen with a live broadcast of the semi-final of the European Football Championship. Other options, such as tourism programmes, dairy management training with Fokko Tolsma or type classification, can also be discussed.

If you would like to participate in the programme or you have questions about the NRM, please contact your distributor or sales representative.

We look forward to seeing you at the All Holland Dairy Show on June 29 & 30 in Zwolle!

More info on WWW.NRM.NL or GLOBAL.CRV4ALL.COM or FACEBOOK.COM/CRV4ALL

5 1 - Arnhem (CRV head office) 2 - Deventer (CRV international logistics centre) 3 - Amsterdam 4 - Zwolle (NRM) 5 - Swifterbant (barbecue) - Farm tours

Farm tours Farm tours are organised throughout the Netherlands, where different types of farms can be visited, varying from small family farms to large enterprises.

During these farm visits, the farmers themselves will guide you through the barn.

In the tours are for example large farms that house more than 400 cows, but also farms that deliver animals to the CRV breeding programme, as well as farms that use the most advanced technology available today. Thanks to the cooperation of these farmers and their families, CRV is able to give a good insight in the Dutch dairy sector.

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4 HOME AND ABROAD AgroNord show

Stand of BREEDnCARE at AgroNord Show in Aars promoting the ‘life time production’ concept

Denmark At the recent AgroNord Show in Aars, CRV’s Danish distributor BREEDnCARE had a strong presence. On its stand the ‘life time production’ concept was the key feature.

BREEDnCARE is delivering a total solution package of products to its clients. The products on offer can be divided into five groups: mastitis prevention, transition management, feeding, reproduction (heat detection) and genetics (CRV semen and SireMatch mating program). The objective of all these products is to gain a higher life time production.

The daughter group of Dudam Surprise, presented at the AgroNord Show, underlines this ‘life time’ concept perfectly. With exceptional breeding values for maturity, persistency, hoof health, calving ease, somatic cell count and fertility he sires long-lasting productive cows.

The seven Danish daughters of Surprise that were showed in the ring, all had very functional frames, well-attached and shallow udders with strong ligaments. Their strong feet and legs contributed to good locomotion.

Besides the daughter group of Surprise, some individual daughters of CRV bulls were also presented at the show. Two daughters of Paramount and one daughter of December showed off the breeding capabilities of their sires. The second-lactation daughter of the red-and-white bull Beukenhof 346 Ideal was placed second in her class at the show.

A fourth calver of CRV’s Kian completed the group of demonstration cows on the stand.

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

Phenomenon Bonsai Czech Republic Although the Czech Republic, with its Fleckvieh population of around 140,000 cows, does not have one of the largest herds in the world, it has quality which is recognized by dairy farmers worldwide. No wonder that bulls that are popular with Czech farmers are also very interesting for large commercial farms worldwide. A good example is Montbéliarde bull Bonsai, who has just recently received results from his second-crop daughters.

Bonsai’s dam, sired by Brac, produced 11,697kg of milk with 3.56% protein in her fourth lactation and reached a lactation value of 151. In her lifetime, she produced 57,465kg milk in six lactations. Due to her high breeding values, both for milk production and type (82-75-79-81), she was contracted as a bull dam and flushed intensively. Except of her own six heifers, she delivered another 13 heifer calves and 14 bull calves via ET. Five daughters were contracted as bull dams and two of them are full-sisters to Bonsai.

Bonsai scored well at the end of his rearing period at the station. He used to be the numberone bull in the Czech top list thanks to his milk production and he also was among the best bulls in the Interbull evaluation. He is one of those few bulls that have good fat and protein content despite producing a high volume of milk.

Calving is trouble-free so it is possible to use Bonsai on maiden heifers. From 7,442 heifers that have already calved, 81% were easy calvings. It’s a similar story with his daughters, of which 82% had easy calvings.

Referring to his 17 daughters that featured at a recent progeny show, CRV CZ Fleckvieh breeding manager Danuse Kolarova says: “They were uniform and had big frames, very good strength, chest width and body depth as well as good udder conformation.”

Bonsai’s daughters show dairy character with good frames and rump conformation, combined with strong feet and legs. Udders are long at the front, have good central ligaments and teat placement is excellent. Another advantage is kappa-casein BB in their milk.

Bonsai’s successor

Top-class parameters of Bonsai’s family are confirmed by another excellent descendant – bull Galileo, born out of Bonsai’s sister CZ 124771 301, sired by Osmium. Galileo’s outstanding results, which surpass even his sire’s BVs, mean that he will be a respectable successor of Bonsai.

Czech number-one bull Bonsai

Progeny group of Surprise underlines the ‘life time’ concept perfectly

With Fokko TOLSMA in…

Mazaria dairy farm

Morocco In January a delegation from CRV Global Sales & Development visited

Morocco. Morocco is a country in Northern Africa where there is a lot of development in the agricultural sector underway. Part of this visit was to meet with Loultiti My M’hamed and his son Ayyoub.

They own and manage the Mazaria dairy farm near the town of Larrache, in Northern Morocco. Although the climate is warm, thanks to an irrigation project they can almost grow crops year around. In the middle of this large area you can find the dairy with two large barns holding about 1,000 cows each. Besides the 2,000 cows, they also have 1,750 hectares of land to manage.

Loultiti My M’hamed and his son Ayyoub

Loultiti My M’hamed used to be a teacher and it is in light of his earlier career that they often hire Fokko Tolsma as an outside dairy consultant. Loultiti believes that education is an important factor in the success of the dairy. Courses have focused on teaching of the basics of dairy farming, as well as continuing education and specialised workshops looking at hoof trimming, feeding, young stock management and fertility. This is working very well for both parties.

Please contact your area manager if you are also interested in utilising the educational seminars given by Fokko Tolsma or if you’re interested in getting your hands on CRV’s Dairy Management Guide, which provides a wealth of useful and easy-to-read information to simplify and improve many dairy farm processes.

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

HOME AND ABROAD 5

Red-and-white Holstein Friesians popular Scotland Driving winding roads closer and closer to Crofthead Farm, in Crocketford located on the west coast of Scotland, the grass is getting greener and the land more fertile. These fields, sown with permanent ryegrass, are suitable for good grazing and Rotary milking parlour at Crofthead Farm

Training week 2012 The Netherlands In early February, four enthusiastic people from Denmark, Spain

and India came over to The Netherlands to join the training week. This training week is mainly meant to introduce new sales representatives to CRV. The week started at the head office with presentations about the organisation and its products, CRV’s breeding program, breeding value evaluation and NVI. After that the group visited the Gieling family’s farm, near Arnhem, for a chance to admire beautiful daughters from CRV bulls.

The next day they visited the International Logistic Centre (ILC) and the Sexing Technology laboratory in the morning and a classifying course was how they spent the afternoon. This course was given by René Buiter at the Los family’s farm in Willemsoord, which is home to 65 cows. During the next two days, the training week participants were individually paired to a salesman and/or a classifier to allow them to experience their job and meet a lot of Dutch farmers and find out more about their way of farming.

The training week ended with marketing and sales information and a presentation about CRV’s mating program, SireMatch, and, of course, a tasty Dutch lunch.

It was a very interesting and enjoyable week for the participants and CRV. We learned a lot from each other on many levels and we’re already looking forward to next year!

silage and help the herd to produce a high milk yield and the business to make a profit.

Arriving at the farm it becomes clear that there have been several expansions over the years and there’s more to come. The owner, Mark Callender, plans to increase cow numbers from 800 to 1,500 in the future. In addition, it also becomes clear that red-andwhite Holstein Friesians are popular at this unit. “These cows are more muscled compared to their black-and-white counterparts and I like that,” says Mark.

Cow housing is well maintained. The cows in the close-up group and the cows that calved recently have access to a straw yard. The remaining cows have access to cubicles with mattresses. The concrete passageways are grooved to help prevent the cows from slipping.

Three times a day, the cows are milked by a rotary milking parlour. The cows average 8,812kg of milk at 3.9% fat and 3.2% protein. Mark is aiming to increase peak production, which at the moment is 34kg per day, and to decrease the calving interval, which is currently 426 days. What is striking is that the somatic cell count is low at just 145,000 cells/ml.

When it comes to breeding, a lot of attention has been paid to bull selection. Each cow is matched individually to a bull. Mark is looking to breed a herd of uniform cows with particular attention paid to strong udders and legs and an average height. Good conformation is also important and the use of sires, including Classic, Fidelity and Curtis, contribute to achieving this breeding goal.

Dairy management and SireMatch training Bulgaria The year 2012 started with ‘CRV dairy management training’ for a group of 25 interested farmers and advisors from Veliko Tarnovo. The Bulgarian Pastoral Company organised a two-day seminar together with CRV’s dairy management consultant, Fokko Tolsma. The first day started with a lecture on calf rearing, body condition score and fertility.

The topic of the second day was hoof health, where a demonstration in hoof treatment was given at Mitko Tonchev’s farm. Fokko Tolsma shared his expertise and discussed many farm processes with the farm employees and the farm owner. “Fokko’s approach is much more hands-on than other seminars we visited,” said one of the visiting vets.

The programme was completed by a demonstration of CRV’s mating program, SireMatch.

It was well received and the Bulgarian Pastoral Company is eager to implement the mating program back home.

Fokko Tolsma explains the importance of youngstock housing

Classifying course at the Los farm in Willemsoord during the training

Visit of Chinese delegation The Netherlands and Germany Representatives from HJY and SHT (both distributors of CRV semen in China) and the Hong Qui Ling state farm (Heilongjiang) visited The Netherlands and Germany in February.

The delegation visited the bull stations in Beers and Wasserburg, the embryo collection centre in Terwispel and the barn for waiting bulls in Ambt Delden. In addition the also visited the laboratory for sexing of semen and the semen distribution centre of CRV in Deventer and several farms in The Netherlands and Germany.

The group was very interested and pleased with what it saw of the program. The delegates gained a good idea about semen collection, embryo collection and dairy farming in The Netherlands (Holstein Friesian) and Germany (Fleckvieh).

New distributor GREECE The company FSN is CRV’s new distributor in Greece. FSN is a subsidiary of the technical and commercial company SEKE Ltd, which has been active in the livestock sector for more than 15 years.

FSN wants to fulfill the growing demand for ‘total solutions’ and to expand its business with nutritional and genetic products.

Two sales representatives and one veterinarian will provide Greek farmers with the complete range of CRV products and additional services, like the SireMatch mating program.

6 COW MANAGEMENT

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

Hygiene, a key word in controlling infectious diseases

MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES TO PREVENT AND CONTROL LAMENESS Infectious diseases are bacterial infections. This article discusses the key areas where producers need to focus their attention to prevent infections and minimize the spread of disease.

CLAW HEALTH SERIES CRV pays attention to issues around claw health in a series of four articles.

1: Five steps of hoof trimming 2: Important bacterial diseases 3: Laminitis 4: Management issues around claw health (part 2 of 2)

H

ygiene is the key word in controlling infectious and contagious diseases.

But what’s the difference between infectious and contagious? Infectious means a bacterial or virus infection and contagious means that an infected animal will spread the disease among other animals in the herd or between herds. In most cases infectious and contagious go hand in hand. Interdigital and digital dermatitis are infectious and contagious diseases. Interdigital phlegmon, or foul in the foot, is infectious, but not contagious.

Cow comfort

Footbathing is the first thing producers think of to treat and prevent infectious claw diseases. But the first point of attention should be housing conditions. The more time cows spend in the cubicles or stalls, the drier the claws will be (including the

interdigital skin). So cubicle size, comfort and stocking rate are of the up most importance, as is the dryness and cleanliness of passageways.

Footbaths

When footbaths are used to control diseases the used product and concentration (solution) needs careful consideration.

In many countries formalin is used as a disinfectant and copper sulphate is also popular. Formalin is banned in some countries, but it is the best disinfectant under ‘dirty’ conditions. It is known as causing cancer in humans, so caution is required when preparing and positioning the bath.

Copper (a heavy metal) is an environmental burden and in some countries should be disposed of as a chemical waste. The concentration level of chemical use should be taken from the label. In most cases, certainly with formalin, overdosing causes severe damage (lameness) to cows’ feet.

Under dosing doesn’t really do anything.

Walk-through footbaths are mainly used after milking. Cows should take at least two steps in the bath, preferably three. When they step out of the bath, the surrounding floors have to be clean to give the solution a chance to do its work. After between 150 and 180 cows have walked through the bath it needs to be cleaned out. If more cows have to walk through refresh the bath.

If claws are dirty the results of footbathing will be minimal. In this case hygiene in the housing has to improve. Washing the feet before the use of the bath doesn’t work that well. It decreases the concentration of the footbath solution on the foot due to a water film on the foot. Housing cleanliness comes before the use of footbaths.

The footbath should not be used as a substitute for good hygiene standards in housing. In case of severe infections of digital dermatitis, cows should be treated individually first with an aerosol spray containing antibiotics or with a copperzinc sulphate gel. Footbaths will aggravate severe cases and have an undesirable effect. Use the footbath twice a week after milking (severe level of digital dermatitis) or 4 milkings per 2 weeks (hardly a problem with digital dermatitis). Over bathing doesn’t give better results. The chemical often causes irritation to the skin and it is the skin that should be disinfected.

Hygiene A footbath can help to decrease or prevent infectious and/or contagious diseases

Manure scrapers can be used to prevent infections

Manure scrapers, automatic or robot, can be used to prevent infections. Robot scrapers are ‘cleaner’ (no dead ends) and less of an obstacle than automatic scrapers. The obstacles (chain or rope and the wheels) of automatic scrapers can cause trauma to cows’ claws (laminitis symptoms), although the advantages are greater than the disadvantages. Floors, depending on how densely stocked the housing is, should be scraped at least six times a day, but more often is better. Ventilation is a point of attention too. Open sides will provide a drier (micro) climate at claw level. In dry summer conditions too much scraping can cause slippery surfaces. In this case

Grazing is curing interdigital dermatitis, but not digital dermatitis

scraping should be reduced, although the higher temperatures give a better growing condition for bacteria.

Grazing

Grazing will help to cure interdigital dermatitis, but not digital dermatitis. Being at grass is much cleaner and healthier for the cows in general, but certainly for the claws, than housing.

On the other hand the cows have to walk a lot for milking and the gate ways are hard to keep clean, so here is a danger for

contamination. Bigger herds often make it unpractical to graze. If cows are inside the whole year round, housing conditions are very important.

Closed herd

Buying in cows with diseases is one of the biggest sources of infection on farms.

Certainly digital dermatitis is spread mainly through lesions on cows in the herd. Within the herd also watch your own movements from cows to young stock, because young stock is easily infected.

Treatment of interdigital phlegmon Interdigital phlegmon, or foul in the foot, is a condition also caused by bacteria, but these bacteria are always around on the skin. Under certain conditions, such as weakening of the resistance of the interdigital skin, the bacteria enter the skin and inflame the underlying tissue. Because of the weakened skin it is a condition not in the one cow, but more cows will have this condition. Often one case is a signal of an outbreak of the disease. And not due to contagious conditions, but reduced resistance of the skin. Pay attention to these cows and in the case of a sudden swelling of the foot just above the interdigital skin, treat the cow with an antibiotic injection. Repeat the treatment every 8 to 12 hours for 2 or 3 times.

Also keep an eye on your young stock, because they are very susceptible, also during grazing. Footbaths have never been proven to have any effect on this disease.

SIRE SPECIAL 7

HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

H I GH L IGHTS ENGLISH EDI TI O N • J ANUARY 2011

CRV’s highest new black-and-white bull in the rankings

SUNRISE, THE COMPLETE PACKAGE Sunrise comes from one of the most interesting Dutch cow families around at the moment, the Javina family owned by Arjan Verploeg from Buurmalsen, The Netherlands. Members of this family display sky-high genomic results time after time. This cow family has already produced the leaders of the Dutch genomic lists of male and female animals respectively.

S

unrise’s history is not an everyday one. His breeder Arjan Verploeg would not call himself a breeder, and did not set out with any ambitions in that respect. He took part in CRV’s embryo programme in order to improve his herd quickly, not to play an important role in breeding. “Around the time I left college, we had an untidy herd with absolutely no breeding behind it. On my work placements I had seen cows that produced a lot more milk, and I wanted that too. To boost the level of our herd as quickly as possible, we started buying in embryos. At that time we were buying ten to fifteen embryos a year.”

In the first few years of the embryo programme CRV bought several animals back, but De Biesheuvel Delta Javina stayed on Verploeg’s farm. This Javina, sired

by Dustin, is Sunrise’s grand dam. She developed into a promising maiden heifer, so Verploeg decided to flush her himself. “O-Man had his first figures by then and showed signs of becoming a good bull, so we flushed her to him.”

When her O-Man daughters came into milk, CRV PEDIGREE OF DE BIESHEUVEL SUNRISE DELTA PEARL VG87 (s. Jabot) DELTA JABIKJE VG86 (s. Branco) DELTA LINFIELD (s. Addison)

DELTA HUGO (s. Novalis)

D B D JANIENKE VG85 (s. Delta Webster) D B D JAVINA VG88 (s. Noorder Dustin) D B JAVINA 5 VG85 (s. O-Man) DE BIESHEUVEL SUNRISE (s. Jardin)

showed an interest in these animals. CRV bought embryos from the O-Man sisters De Biesheuvel Javina 3 and De Biesheuvel Javina 5, Sunrise’s dam.

High genomic breeding values prove their worth

All of the Javinas score well in the marker test. With 323 NVI points, Javina 3 had the highest genomic breeding value of all milk-producing animals in The Netherlands. Her daughter De Biesheuvel Javina 50 (x Gofast) is the maiden heifer with the highest NVI index (December 2011), Sunrise himself has already reached the number one spot, and on it goes.

The high genomic breeding values that characterise the Javina family are also identifiable in practice according to Verploeg. “In terms of production, they stand out well above the herd average with more litres and, separately, high protein. For the Javinas, over 3.60% protein is entirely normal and they combine that with functional conformation traits.”

Sunrise’s qualities

The high protein that distinguishes the family is also one of Sunrise’s main qualities. The conformation traits he passes on are excellent. His daughters have good quality udders with close teat placement and a very strong udder cleft. The udders are shallow and high-attached, exactly the right type of udder that will enable a cow to produce for a long time. He also transmits good udder health, super production and high longevity. In a nutshell, Sunrise’s inheritance pattern provides the ideal basis for breeding cows that yield over 100,000kg.

Marcel Hellegers, a cow photographic talent scout for CRV, has already looked at many Sunrise daughters. He says: “Sunrise daughters are good heifers with good curvature in the ribs. They have good rumps and a lot of quality in their udders. The udders are well-shaped and have excellent fore teat placement. The animals’ leg strength is good. Farmers are enthusiastic about them. They are very good in production, with excellent dairy strength and great condition and can easily hold their own on the farm.”

Super production

Sunrise’s dam excels in production, with a second 305 days list of 11,801kg of milk with 4.51% fat and 3.83% protein, taking her lactation value to 137. Her full sister is a top producer as well. In her second list she produced 11,919kg of milk with 4.59% fat and 3.73% protein.

“I had always considered milk production like that within our herd to be unlikely”, says Arjan Verploeg.

“There is nothing special about either our herd or our feeding. How much could a cow like that produce with ideal conditions on the farm?” The foundation dam Javina, registered with 88 points, is still in the herd. She produced nearly 65,000kg of milk with 3.69% protein and lactation values ranging between 128 and 138.

A sister to Sunrise sired by Support has a lactation value of 122 and 86 points, a sister by Goldwyn has a lactation value of 131 and 87 points for conformation, and a second sister by Goldwyn has a lactation value of 138 and 86 points. De Biesheuvel Javina 5 is therefore certain to pass on her qualities to her progeny.

De Biesheuvel Sunrise

DE BIESHEUVEL SUNRISE (Jardin x O-Man x Dustin) PRODUCTION

REL. 84 %

DAUGHTERS 164

HERDS 123

KG MILK

% FAT

% PROTEIN

KG FAT

KG PROTEIN

INET

NVI

+1384

–0.30

+0.14

31

61

332

197

SCS

MILKING SPEED

TEMPERAMENT

PERSISTENCY

CLAW HEALTH

96

103

102

103

FUNCTIONAL TRAITS

LONGEVITY

CALVING EASE

312

105

102

Sunrise daughter De Biesheuvel Iris 8 CONFORMATION

REL. 84 %

DAUGHTERS 35

HERDS 27

FRAME DAIRY STRENGTH UDDER FEET & LEGS FINAL SCORE

107 106 108 103 109

STATURE CHEST WIDTH BODY DEPTH ANGULARITY CONDITION SCORE RUMP ANGLE RUMP WIDTH REAR LEGS REAR REAR LEGS SIDE FOOT ANGLE LOCOMOTION FORE UDDER ATTACHMENT FRONT TEAT PLACEMENT TEAT LENGTH UDDER DEPTH REAR UDDER HEIGHT CENTRAL LIGAMENT REAR TEAT PLACEMENT

109 103 105 107 98 99 103 102 100 99 102 102 110 99 103 104 107 111

92

96

100

104

108

Farmer Auke Bootsma on Sunrise “We used Sunrise as an InSire bull. We now have sixteen Sunrise daughters, six of which are in milk. Those six have an average of 83.5 points for conformation. We are not really conformation breeders, so 83.5 points is very high for us. On average the cows have a lactation value of 118, so that’s very high as well.”

“The daughters are quite a bit larger and stronger than their dams. Sometimes you’re surprised that’s possible; so much progress in a single generation.”

TH

Y

S

SE

LTH

PRODUCTION

HOOF HEALTH

RELIABILITY

PRODUCTION

HOOF HEALTH

FERTILITY

8 TRAIT LEADERS

FERTILITY

FAT(%) CONFORMATION FAT RELIABILITY

SCARLET NEW +2,551 LASS +2,315 • +2,152 PREDESTINE HOOF HEALTH OMEN +1,977 NITRO +1,910

GO-AHEAD +0.58 BIG WINNER +0.40 PRODUCTION+0.38 MONTANA MATCHMAKER +0.37 +0.35 SUAREZ •

LILAC CONFORMATION +2,255 CALVING EASE LONGEVITY LEOLA +1,664 ASTERIX P +1,280 HOOF HEALTH

PROTEIN KIAN +0.48 UDDER FATEXTERIOR +0.35 BENJAMIN • KLIMMER RELIABILITY +0.33 PRODUCTION

PROTEIN FERTILITY PROTEIN (%) JAG FERTILITY SET UP RELIABILITY LOGAN LACEY GO-AHEAD

UDDER EXTERIOR

UDDER HEALTH CONFORMATION FEET/LEGS FEET/LEGS

ATLANTIC • EDISON • RASH • GRAVITY • MALAGA

PROTEIN CONFORMATION

KODAK +750 CONFORMATION CONFORMATION PROTEIN CAMION • GLORIOUS •

+686 +679

UDDER EXTERIOR111 CLASSIC

GENOMIC SELECTION ALMIGHTY

UDDER HEALTH KYLIAN FIDELITY

LILAC LEOLA

MANIAC LAMBIEK

110 109

GENOMIC SELECTIONPRODUCTION

PROTEIN

CALVING EASE

UDDER EXTERIOR UDDER EXTERIOR

UDDER EXTERIOR

BREWSTER • SUNSET • ROZELLO • MORAZAN HOLLANDIA NEW

115 114 114 113 113

CHARLTON • CLASSIC PLEASURE

113 112 111

GENOMIC GENOM SELECTION

SELECT

LONGEVITY

HOOF HEALTH HEALTH HOOF

FERTILITY

CRICKET 111 •

108 AWARD RF UDDER HEALTH PERSUADER NEW 108 GUNFIRE 108 FRANCHISE 108

CRICKET GRAVITY • FICTION RF JAG FEET/LEGS LOGAN

106 106 104

ARNOLD TACO • MAICON CALVING EASE

UDDER HEALTH

RELIABILITY

GENOMIC SELECTION

FERTILITY

UDDER HEALTH PROTEIN

CALVING EASE114 MANIAC

106 106 105 105 105

NAVARRO NANO SURPRISE CONFORMATION GO-AHEAD MICA

106 104 102

FAT

PRODUCTION

111 109 109 PROTEIN 107 107

FERTILITY

RELIABILIT

Sires marked with a dot • are InSire sires.

LONGEVITY

FAT

FEET/LEGS

CONFORMATION

PROTEIN

CALVING EASE

UDDER EXTERIOR

GENOMIC SELECTION

KLIMMER TACO KODAK UDDER EXTERIOR

InSire sires are genomically selected.

112 111 GENOMIC 108 SELECTION

UDDER HEALTH

Improve your on-farm management now!

CRV Dairy Management Guide The Dairy Management Guide was developed for dairy farmers worldwide providing information to simplify and improve many dairy farm processes. The practical information is supported by many useful tips, calculations and clear figures to make reading easy. Business Unit Global Sales and Development worked out this collection of ‘dairy farming knowledge’ together with CRV’s dairy management consultant, Fokko Tolsma, using his years of experience and many of his unique pictures from dairy farms all around the world.

REPRODUCTIO MANAGEMENTN

3

CONFORMATION

OMEN 113 LASS 111 IRELAND 110 UDDER HEALTH 110 GOFAST • GRAND 109 UDDER HEALTH KODAK 111 PROTEIN 111 ASTERIX P • 111 CAMION •

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HIGHLIGHTS ENGLISH EDITION APRIL 2012

FOR COMPLETE PROOF INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.GLOBAL.CRV4ALL.COM FERTILITY LONGEVITY FAT PRODUCTION RELIABILITY HOOF HEALTH

LONGEVITY FEET/LEGS PRODUCTION (KG) PRODUCTION

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Consisting of ten issues with topics varying from young stock management to housing, reproduction and milking, the Dairy Management Guide complements farm processes everywhere in the world.

Moreover it provides strategic information on breeding, economics and health issues to improve the profitability of your farm and ensure your cows to enjoy a longer life.

CRV’s Dairy Management Guide issues can be ordered separately or all together in a convenient binder.

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The ten issues included in the Dairy Management Guide are:

• • • • • • • • • •

Young stock management Reproduction management Breeding management Feeding management Health management Udder health management Hoof health management Milking systems Housing management Dairy farm economics

UDDER HEALTH MANAGEMENT

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FUTURE EVENTS

Highlights is a publication of CRV BV. CRV is a Dutch-Flemish farmers co-operative with six business units (Global Sales & Development, Central Europe, Oceania, North America, South America and Western Europe).

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Editor: Marieke de Weerd. With cooperation of Piet Kloosterman (PTC+ Oenkerk) and Fokko Tolsma (page 6).

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25-29 April 2012 Salon International de L’agriculture au Maroc, Meknes, Morocco 13-16 June 2012 National Agricultural Field days, Hamilton, New Zealand 29-30 June 2012 All-Holland Dairy show (NRM), Zwolle, The Netherlands 29 June-1 July 2012 Foire Agricole, Ettelbrück, Luxembourg 5-7 July 2012 Danish National Show (Landsskuet), Herning, Denmark 14 August 2012 Indexrun, Arnhem, The Netherlands