Fonterra farmers: on-farm solutions offer

For the 2025/26 season, Fonterra is offering its suppliers, who achieve any level of the Co-operative Difference, up to $1,500 in funding to invest in tools and services that boost emissions efficiency. This funding is part of their broader customer-funded incentives, including the new Emissions Incentive payment.

CRV’s tools and services are part of this initiative, supporting farmers to monitor and improve herd health, fertility, genetics, and productivity. Farmers can choose the solutions that best align with their farm goals.

Below is information about the funded services.

About the service: CRV’s myDNA service offers BVD testing. You can do this as part of your myDNA parentage test with an add-on BVD option or as a standalone test.

• Calves can be tested from 48 hours of age.

• Results are available within seven days

• Animals that test positive can be retested after 21 days, free of charge.

Why is this important? Early identification of persistently infected calves helps prevent the spread of BVD, reducing reproductive losses and treatment costs, and improving long-term herd health.

About the service: As part of CRV’s Herd Testing service, you can now include Johne’s Disease testing using the same 30ml milk sample collected during your herd test. This optional add-on provides individual cow results, helping identify infected animals early to allow farmers to take action to manage and reduce the spread of this persistent disease.

For myHERD herd recording customers, test results are automatically integrated into your herd records for easy access and ongoing management.

Why is this important? Early detection of Johne’s Disease supports more informed culling decisions and reduces the risk of disease transmission—leading to a healthier, more productive herd over time.

Note: subclinical cows can move between positive and negative results depending on bacterial shedding at the time of sampling. For this reason, testing should be seen as just one tool in a broader disease management plan. Always consult your veterinarian before making culling or management decisions based on test results.

About the service: CRV’s Herd Testing Service offers reliable, on-farm milk recording carried out by trained CRV technicians. During each visit, we collect just 30ml of milk per cow – enough to provide a full picture of individual animal performance and health. With real-time milk volume recording on farm, we deliver high-quality data that drives informed herd management decisions.

Why select the service? Regular and comprehensive herd testing delivers a complete view of individual animal performance and health, enabling smarter decisions around feed, reproduction, and culling.

About the service: Offered through CRV’s myDNA service genomic testing allows farmers to make better decisions from the beginning of an animal’s life. The genomic predictions are based on NZ data so breeding values are relevant. Data can be easily accessed through CRV’s myHERD, herd recording software.

Why select the service: Pinpointing your top-performing heifers early means more accurate selection, faster genetic progress, and reduced costs from rearing underperforming animals.

About the product: Sexed semen is available from CRV’s highest indexing bulls, recognising that farmers want quality replacements from their best cows.

With frozen sexed semen you can target your best cows when they come on heat to ensure these cows create the next generation, which is difficult to do with fresh sexed semen.

Why select the service? Using sexed semen on the top 25% of your herd is crucial for driving genetic gains and ensuring that the best-performing cows are producing the next generation of replacement heifers.

To achieve the best results sexed semen should be managed differently to conventional, starting with a plan to target the right cows at the start of mating. CRV can help with tips.