As I write this the rain has just started to fall, to the relief of many farmers in the country. Whilst some farmers in the North West have reported good Spring growth rates the majority I have spoken to over the past week have been in a situation where growth just equalled, or in some cases was below, demand.

This varying situation brings to mind two sayings which relate to pastoral farming; “no two years are the same” and “no year will go as you expect it to go”. Variations are a given - the key to success is how well any business reacts to the variations.

After talking with clients, we (in conjunction with the BGS) have decided to hold the regular Pasture to Profit Conference on 17 November near Worcester. Detailed information will come to you in the next few weeks.

Genomics

You may have read about the decision, in New Zealand, that saw the body responsible for animal evaluation, NZ Animal Evaluation (NZAEL), suspend genomic data from NZAEL BW estimations until it is better able to provide comparability between estimates of merit of young sires.

Genomics is accepted, world wide, as an emerging science which will widen the frontiers for profitable dairying – but it’s early days, and a step back into history helps put things into perspective.

Back in the 1950s, artificial breeding was a new science being pioneered by LIC’s forbears. Debate in the industry then was similar to what it is today surrounding genomics and there was varied understanding of the new science and suspicion of its advantages.

Artificial breeding has, with time, delivered the promise on every dairy farm in the world and genomics will do the same.

What has happened in recent weeks to stir the debate on genomics is in its memorandum published on 14 April 2011, NZAEL said that it “recognises the value for genomic technology to significantly increase the rate of genetic gain in the New Zealand dairy herd. However the

procedures to date have been found to consistently over-predict the BW value of juvenile bulls with genomic information. Similar results have been observed in breeding programmes internationally.”

LIC was fully involved and understands the decision to temporarily suspend the genomic data beinging incorporated in BW estimations, appreciating that the speed of scientific progress cannot always be matched by analytic technology.

Every other developed dairy nation now includes genomic information in their official evaluations. As in New Zealand initial evaluations have been found to be over-estimated but adjustments have been applied and significant advantage remains with the young bulls. As genomic technology develops, this advantage will become more pronounced.

LIC is confident that genomics is the way of the future for the global dairy industry. It enables the shortening of the generation interval meaning that elite sires can be identified three or four years earlier than traditional sire proving.

LIC is proud to lead the genomics revolution in New Zealand and proud to provide choice to UK dairy farmers so you can choose a bull team which is right for your farming business - traditional Daughter Proven sires, or DNA Proven.

Possible tours within New Zealand

For the rugby minded customers, we have had enquiries about whether LIC will be arranging a study tour to NZ around the time of the World Cup. Due to unparalleled demand on accommodation (most booked months ago) it simply hasn’t been possible to do this but, as an alternative we are considering arranging farm visits for clients who have already booked places on rugby tours and would like to visit farms on non rugby days.

If you are at all interested in doing this please make contact with your Area Manager and if there is enough interest I will start to make arrangements.

Robert Hassall

General Manager

In This Issue:

• The Golden Rotational Cross

• Staff Update

• AI Technician Sevice

• Events Diary

As milk prices around the world remain depressed many farmers are taking a closer look at cross-breeding as a means of extracting more profit from already tight margins. Inevitably the questions turn to breed choice, what to do after the first cross, and the perennial will it really make me more money?

The answer to this last question is a resounding yes. Documentation of this can be found in trials from around the world but is backed up by the New Zealand experience where approximately 35% of all cows are now crossbreds.

Before we can answer the first two questions we need to consider some of the key facts.

1. New Zealand experience on crosses between Holstein and Jersey show hybrid vigour (improvement) for the yield traits (around 5%) and for longevity (18-20%).

2. This kind of gain is roughly the equivalent of 4 years traditional genetic gain for the production traits and many times this for the fertility and longevity traits, you get it in one lump, and it’s additional to any other genetic gain you achieve by applying positive selection intensity to bull selection.

3. New Zealand experience on crosses between different strains of Holstein (i.e. Holstein and Holstein-Friesian) shows hybrid vigour for the yield traits (around 3%) and for longevity (around 6-7 %).

4. As a rule of thumb any breed you choose to add to a cross breeding scheme should have a genetic level within 5% of the best breed to be used otherwise the gain in hybrid vigour is outweighed by the step backward in normal additive genetic gain.

5. Point four may rule out breeds like Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, Guernsey, Normande etc as partners for a Jersey- Holstein crossing programme unless you can be sure their genetic level is roughly comparable to that of Holsteins and Jerseys.

6. A two breed rotational cross (i.e. a criss-cross between Holsteins and Jerseys) locks in about 67% of the hybrid vigour found in the first cross. This means that the first cross outperforms later crosses for hybrid vigour but later crosses still lock in the equivalent of around 2.5 years of normal gain.

7. A three breed cross locks in about 86% of the original hybrid vigour.

8. Crossbreeding programmes can also utilise complementarity – where you aim to combine the different strengths of two or more strains or breeds i.e. utilising the high milk of Holsteins and the high components of New Zealand jerseys to get a high milk high component crossbred.

Putting all these pieces of information together creates a bit of a minefield but there is at least one mating scheme that utilises all of the above facts. Ideal for those of you with a Holstein herd, the cross we’re talking about is as follows:

Holstein x NZ Jersey x KiwiFriesian™

Why?

Well first you are starting with a high milk, large body size, low fertility animal with low components. By crossing this animal with a NZ Jersey sire you get both

STAFF UPDATE

Greetings all! I am Phil Bertrand. It’s exciting to be part of the LIC UK Team andI am looking forward to contributing towards the continuing growth of our company as Area Manager of Yorkshire. I really enjoy meeting new people andgetting to know their business and enjoy the challenge of helping farmers makethe right buying decisions to achieve their farm goals.

I have been involved in the NZ dairy Industry for the past 40 years. With my wife Jan, I owned and operated a dairy farm for 23 years, and some of this time over-lapped with my fulltime employment with Livestock Improvement (LIC) NZ. I joined LIC NZ in 1989 and worked for them until coming to the UK. Currently, Jan and I own a Blueberry Orchard, exporting fruit to Japan, Korea, USA and Australia. To keep a work/lifestyle balance I enjoy deer hunting, fishing, cycling and squash.

My roles within LIC NZ have mostly been focused around sales and people management but I have also been involved in the development of software to manage sales and animal information. I am very familiar with NZ’s Animal Evaluation system and likewise most of LIC’s Products and Services that have contributed to making NZ’s dairy animals the most efficient in the world.

Whilst I am confident of my ability in the NZ dairy environment, I am aware I have a lot to learn about the UK dairy industry, however I am a quick learner and I look forward to the knowledge, help and tolerance I know you will all freely give.

Crossbreeding and the ‘Golden Cross’

The Golden Rotational Cross

hybrid vigour and complementarity. NZ Jersey’s have some advantages over other strains of Jerseys in that they have higher fat and protein test with a national average of 5.3 % fat and 4.0 % protein which complements the Holsteins high milk. They also exhibit superior longevity - approximately 85 days more than US Jersey's and 186 days more than pure Holstein, complementing the Holsteins low fertility and productive life nicely. And, according to the 2004 NZ Sire Summary they also have better strength and conformation.

This cross should result in a more moderate sized robust animal (the most profitable size according to recent research) which has intermediate milk volume and components, better health, higher fertility and longevity, which is, of course, more profitable - some studies indicate up to 20% more. This animal is then

mated to a KiwiFriesian™, once again to maximise hybrid vigour and complementarity. This cross takes advantage of the hybrid vigour that exists between KiwiFriesian™ and both the Jersey and Pure Holstein. In this case the more KiwiFriesian™ genes the better. The KiwiFriesian™ also adds great complementarity. They once again have higher fertility (+6%), longevity (+394 days) and components than pure Holsteins, and yet have higher milk than NZ Jersey's.

At this stage the resulting animal can then be mated back to the breed, which displays the characteristics most needed by the individual animal.

The result of this rotational crossing should be a medium sized, medium milk, high component, long lived, highly profitable cow – the one most of us would like to breed and milk.

Richard Charmley from Kennels Farm near Whitchurch in Shropshire used the LIC AI Technician Service during last year’s mating season.

The majority of the 230-strong spring calving herd at Kennels Farm are out wintered, with cows being brought in prior to calving and put out to grass once they’ve calved.

The calving season starts fully on the 18th of February, with some heifers being front loaded from the first of the month, to make the best possible use of the first spring grass. Richard Charmley aims to calve all 230 of the herd in a 10 week period.

Richard has a very definite breeding plan, which he developed in association with his vet Owen Atkinson, with actions in place to ensure the best possible results. The aim is to ensure that the cattle are in good condition for mating and that Richard has as much information about them as possible.

All cows are wormed, vaccinated for lungworm and given two high iodine boluses at drying off. The real breeding plan comes into action about the end of March when cows are given another mineral bolus about 42 days before mating.

“This approach might seem costly but I think it’s important that we do everything to ensure the cows are in excellent condition for mating,” Richard says. “It is crucial to my system that we get the cows in calf and I would rather we ticked all the boxes then regretted it later.”

By the beginning of April, about 35 days prior to mating, when most cows will be at least three weeks calved, the whole herd is Metrichecked and

tail painted. About a week before the start of mating the vet checks those cows with no rubbed tail paint and CIDRs are used for true non-cyclers.

“Then one day before mating begins tail paint is renewed for the whole herd and we’re ready to begin!” he says.

Richard starts checking submission rates at about 10 days from the beginning of mating, when the target is to have 45% of the herd mated. By day 21 after the start of mating, he aims to calculate the submission rate for the whole herd and by this point the target is to have 90% of cows served. The bull goes in at week six or seven and pregnancy diagnosis (PD) is carried out over the whole herd at week 14, or 30 days after the bull comes out.

“The idea of using an LIC AI technician came from a breeding refresher day I attended in April 2010 run by Sean Price the LIC Regional Artificial Breeding Operations Manager for the South Island in New Zealand. The day itself was a great chance to refresh awareness of some of the important pointers around things like heat detection and it helped me get my brain back into mating gear!” Richard joked.

“I decided to try using an LIC AI technician because of their under-standing of a block calving system. I’m working to a structured breeding plan and it’s important to work with someone who knows the results we need to achieve”.

Richard met with his AI technician, Vitus Acherman, who is originally from Switzerland but has farmed in New Zealand since the 1960s, about a week before mating began in order to run through his breeding goals.

LIC AI Technician Service Works Like a Charm

Richard felt that right from the start Vitus understood the system at Kennels Farm and knew what they were aiming for. One of the things he found particularly useful was that he saw the same technician every day and at the same time. Vitus soon got to know the herd and crucially the cows and we got to know him. He was often inseminating up to 15 cows per visit so accuracy and record keeping were essential.

“LIC provided us with a really useful Mating Book in which I entered the details of the bulls to be used and the cows which were to be serviced on that day,” Richard explained.

Every New Zealand LIC AI technician uses DataMate, which is a handheld electronic device that has the farms herd records loaded into it. Not only does it identify if there is potential for inbreeding or a recessive gene as a result of the planned mating, it also provides the technician and farmer with accurate nonreturn information. Vitus used a DataMate on Kennels Farm but the situation differs slightly in the UK.

“The LIC AI technician was always assessing the herds and his own performance.”

“From 21 days after the start of mating we were already having figures back on the numbers of non returns in the herd. The AI technician was as keen as I was to get the results we needed.”

And the results speak for themselves. During last year’s mating season the overall conception rate to AI was 61% mating, with an empty rate of 6%.

After PDing the herd Richard is expecting the following figures this calving season.

Percentage of cows calved by:

• 3 weeks-60%

• 6 weeks-90%

• 9 weeks-95%

The excellent fertility at Kennels farm is a result of a whole farm

approach. It’s all about having a system that suits Richard, the cows and the farm. Working with an LIC AI technician means he is working with someone who has a huge amount of experience working with block calving systems and is as keen as Richard to get the results he needs.

Events DiaryLivestock Improvement (UK) will be exhibiting at the following shows:

Royal Cornwall9-11th JuneRoyal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge

Royal Welsh18-21st JulyRoyal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells

Dairy Event6-7th SeptNEC, Birmingham

The South West Dairy Show5th OctThe Premier Showground, Shepton Mallet

Welsh Dairy Show17th OctThe Showground, Nantyci

AgriScot16th NovRoyal Highland Centre, Edinburgh

HASSLE FREE HERD RECORDS

Web based farming software solutions

www.farmwizard.com

Links with:• BCMS• NMR• SIC• NVZ• HUKI & other

Breed Societies• Interfaces with

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Field Manager:• pasture monitor• fertilizer monitor

Herd Manager:• tagging• vet centre• feed records

Milk Manager:• milk records• yield monitor• breeding monitor

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