Getting better and better: Looking to the future with your breeding programme

By Steve Forsman, Business Development Manager, CRV AmBreed

Even in harder years, most farmers recognise that breeding the next generation of money-makers is not a good place to save a few dollars. That doesn’t mean doing the same things you’ve always done; it means continuing your commitment to your future herd by looking at how you’re making mating decisions and whether you can make it easier and more profitable for the same money.

New and existing CRV AmBreed clients will have a new tool available to them this season which not only makes setting up breeding goals and actions easy and profitable this year, but means that breeding decisions in following years will be a simple case of noting successes and continuing the progress. The CRV AmBreed Herd Improvement Plan recognises that breeding great cows is a process of continual improvement and provides a hassle-free way of highlighting your individual herd goals into a single, simple to use document that confirms and focusses your breeding efforts to achieve the goals that you have set.

Behind the Herd Improvement Plan, many clients will also use CRV AmBreed’s GeneScreen products to make sure that they are getting the best breeding bang for their buck. From a Basic GeneScreen, which eliminates the wastage and danger of inbreeding, through the Advanced GeneScreen which recommends the best matings for your cows based on ancestry, production, management and TOP traits, to TGRM which makes CRV AmBreed’s genetic specialists your personal consultants, there is a level of advice that will work for your farm and get you the herd you want.

If you want to get those great cows even faster, it’s worth looking at one of New Zealand’s newest developments, Genomic Selection, which uses DNA typing to select bulls. The obvious benefit to Genomic Selection is that promising sires can be identified and made available to farmers now, compared to a four-year wait for the same bull under a traditional sire-proving scheme. This head-start accelerates the rate of genetic gain and progress towards desired traits in the herd. Although some DNA offerings in the local market have disappointed, CRV AmBreed’s Genomic Selection has continually monitored against the traditional progeny testing programme with excellent results, including the company’s latest protein superstar, Muritai Raul Wrangler, whose progeny test proof has demonstrated the accuracy of CRV AmBreed’s Genomic Selection systems. CRV AmBreed loves developing new ways of making great cows. But, like you we take care not to let our enthusiasm outweigh our common sense, and recommend Genomic Selection as a part, rather than the single solution, of your breeding programme.

CRV AmBreed is at the forefront of technological and product improvements in New Zealand and has the backing of CRV, the world’s third-largest dairy genetics company. For what you’re spending on your farming operation and breeding programme, why not expect the best?

Published in Dairyman, April 2009