News

An exclusive agreement between CRV and NZ Wagyu Corporation Limited will provide New Zealand dairy farmers with the opportunity to diversify their businesses and capitalise on high returns for Wagyu dairy beef.

Podcast: Dairy farmers and their staff spend about 50% of their time milking. Milking times have a big impact on the structure of the working day. An increasing number of farmers are looking for more flexibility in their milking routine and considering alternative options to twice-a-day. CRV’s Rosanna Dickson talks to DairyNZ Senior Scientist Dr Paul Edwards about how farmers can maintain productivity and profitability, while reducing the number of milkings per lactation. They also discuss how genetics can help farmers breed cows suited to a flexible milking regime.

Two CRV bulls have been selected by breeding societies as the top Holstein Friesian and Jersey sires in the country for 2021.

With access to quality data essential to effective dairy farm management, the upgraded national animal database is set to deliver significant benefits to farmers.

Podcast: Breeding for increased numbers of heifers has become popular for dairy farmers wanting more from their top cows. An increasing number of farmers are considering sorted semen as a tool to get more from their herd improvement programme, getting replacement heifers from high genetic merit heifers and top producing cows. There are also significant benefits for farmers in using sorted semen to reduce their number of bobby calves and potentially have easier calvings for heifers. Decisions based on animal welfare outcomes is becoming an increasingly important consideration. Rosanna talks about the ins and outs of sexed semen with Marleen Broekhuijse from CRV HQ in The Netherlands and Canterbury dairy farmer Ian Hopping.

Podcast: NZAEL manager Brian Wickham gives us an update on the new animal evaluation system in 2021 and what dairy farmers can expect over the coming months. We discuss the automatic transfer of data from your herd recording service provider to NZAEL. We talk about NZAEL’s new model for fertility evaluation and other traits being reviewed. Lastly, Brian talks about NZAEL’s efforts to ensure data quality, its work with breeding societies and the National Breeding Objective review.