We place a large emphasis on its Sires of the Future Programme as this provides the Graduates that will represent us in the future.
Our young sires are predominantly sourced out of NZ proven cows.
These cows are then contracted to the best sires for New Zealand.
The resulting bulls are then purchased and entered into CRV AmBreed’s Sires of the Future Programme.
We source a small group of elite young sires from two international successful progeny test programs, Holland Genetics and CRI. We identify bulls that will produce daughters that will excel in New Zealand conditions and offer genetic diversity not found in our cow population.
These bulls are joint sampled and will receive proofs in New Zealand and their country of origin. Because we believe that choice is paramount and farmers have different budget and breeding objectives, we have designed three different options for purchasing young sire semen.
Fast Forward
‘Fast Forward’ is the formal component of our progeny testing program to identify elite bulls.
It requires young bulls to be randomly mated across participating Fast Forward herds and the resultant heifer progeny to be evaluated for production, management and TOP as 2 year olds. As of 2008, our Progeny Test team is comprised of the very best young bulls selected from a group of ‘genomically selected’ Friesian and Jersey Elite Candidates. These elite young sires are only available to herds participating in our Genomic Fast Forward program (Ayrshire young sires are not genomically selected and semen is also available to other farmers).
Obligations of participating Fast Forward farmers:
• To record mating and calving information and submit this information to database.
• To herd-test Fast Forward heifers at least 4 times in first lactation.
• To put up 2 yr-olds for TOP inspection.
Packs of bulls are allocated to Fast Forward herds via random computer sorting. Fast Forward clients have no choice of bulls although they can choose the breed of bull.
This data provides vital field validation for first-crop proofs of our new ‘graduate’ sires, and benefits the New Zealand Dairy Industry in allowing accurate identification of elite proven sires for widespread use.
Benefits of Fast Forward to the farmer:
• Low cash outlay for an elite product
• Genetic gain – the first to milk daughters of new generation sires.
• Flexibility within the Fast Forward program – while we require at least 75% of the herd to be mated to Fast Forward, the remainder can be mated to nominated sires.
