AmBreed celebrates birthday with new name

40 years of rock solid reliability: AmBreed celebrates birthday with a new name

From 1 March, 2009, AmBreed is changing its name to CRV AmBreed. To the trained eye there is a slight difference in physical appearance, but their genetic traits are identical.

The name change reflects the desire of AmBreed’s parent, CRV Holdings, to internationalise their business. “We invested in AmBreed 4 years ago because we saw they had a great breeding program and strong relationships with their dairy farmer clients” says Roald van Noort, CEO of CRV. “New Zealand is an important dairy country and we saw an opportunity to bring real competition to New Zealand by continuing the AmBreed philosophy of developing a range of genetics to suit the different environments in New Zealand and to breed cows that are built to last.”

The Netherlands-based CRV has companies in 8 countries around the world and operates breeding programmes in 4 different countries to produce sires from the Holstein-Friesian, Red Friesian, Jersey, Ayrshire, New Zealand Crossbred, Fleckvieh, and the tropical dairy breed Gir among others. It is the 3rd largest dairy genetics company in the world and has been supplying dairy genetics in Holland for 130 years.

AmBreed has been in business in New Zealand for 40 years, and since 1969 has developed a reputation for reliable, quality genetics better suited to the range of farming systems in New Zealand. Stars such as Okura Manhatten and KO Pierre are good examples of quality sires that pass the test of time. (More) Manhatten has topped the NZ RAS List for the past 5 years and despite the best efforts of the competition looks set to continue that domination.

Over the years AmBreed has punched well above its weight with famous sires, such as Magley, Extasy and Skelton, having an enormous impact on the New Zealand Dairy Industry as evidenced by the presence of six of the top 10 Friesian sires on the NZ RAS List that were either produced and marketed by AmBreed, or are sons of an AmBreed sire.

Now with the international resources and world-leading R&D power of a global dairy genetics giant backing the New Zealand operation, CRV AmBreed looks forward to a long and productive future in New Zealand. The new corporate name reflects the commitment CRV and AmBreed have shown to the New Zealand dairy industry with such notable events as the release of New Zealand’s first genomically selected Bull Team, development of the Test Day Model for herd testing, DIY AI training courses for farmers and the first release of sexed semen from NZ–Proven bulls.