Management
Beef-on-Dairy: Various Beef Breeds Have Their Own Selection Programs
In HI’s February issue (pgs. 10-11) you became acquainted with the phenomenon Beef-on-Dairy: the breeding of dairy cows to beef bulls. As the result of extensive use of sexed semen...
Mastitis – The New Heavyweight Among Health Traits
Theoretically, a breeding value for somatic cell score (SCS), as is routinely calculated in most countries around the world, could continue to serve as a genetic indicator for udder health...
Wellness Traits: Building a Healthier Herd
Use of genomics in official genetic evaluations has transformed the dairy cattle breeding industry over the past decade. Now genomics is being used to offer breeders new options when it...
“Beef on Dairy”: Significant Increase in the Use of Beef Bulls on Dairy Cows
In HI, we seldom or never write an article about the beef breeds. Nevertheless, there is a good reason to do that now, because the use of beef bulls on...
TPI and Net Merit: Do You Know Exactly What They Include?
With US Holstein genetics playing a major role on the international scene, the TPI is widely recognized and has become a common language understood in many different countries around the...
Preventing Holsteins from Becoming Too Tall
The breeding of tall, impressive looking cows has been the goal for many a breeder down through the years. Now, slowly the tide of opinion is changing and many believe...
Cow Comfort: What Are the Main Options for Bedding Material?
Improved cow comfort is often listed as a major contributor to increased milk production. Improved barn design, increased air flow and ventilation, better access to the feed bunk, and more...
Lepoint: ‘Genomics Overestimates Popular Families. That Needs to Change.’
France has two large breeding companies: Evolution and Gènes Diffusion. At the latter, Frédéric Lepoint has already been employed for 28 years and thus is both a genetic manager and...
Bull Fertility - Much Consulted Trait in Sire Selection
Timely pregnancy of heifers and cows is critical to the economics of dairy farms. That is the reason why during the past number of years, fertility has received increased attention...
Arnout Dekker about the Positive Effects of OmniGen-AF
‘Stress reduces the resistance of cows, causing the likelihood of infections to increase. And the number of stress moments is quite high actually; cows are like people with autism, they...
Growing Demand for AI Equipment
A common sight on many farms around the world is the arrivial of the AI technician to breed cows. Now the number of farmers with their own tanks and doing...
10 Years of Revolution: Paul VanRaden Looks at the Evolution of Genomics
It is now almost 10 years since the arrival of the genomics. In that time it has evolved into the biggest revolution the cattle breeding industry has seen. To look...