Health, lifestyle just as important for cows

Health, lifestyle just as important for cows

Dairy farmers wanting to produce healthier and more efficient animals can now make this part of their breeding programme.

Herd management company CRV Ambreed has developed two new breeding indexes, ‘Better Life Health’ and ‘Better Life Efficiency’, which enable farmers to breed specifically for an efficient, easy-to-manage herd that stays healthy as it ages.

Both indexes are expressed as percentages so farmers can easily pinpoint the expected health and efficiency value of an individual bull.

Peter van Elzakker, global grazing genetics product manager at CRV Ambreed says the CRV Better Life Health index identifies a bull’s overall contribution to a healthier herd. A higher percentage means the bull’s progeny will have a lower rate of health incidents like mastitis, lameness, difficult births or reproductive problems.

“The benefits to farmers are easier to manage animals, fewer treatments, less veterinary bills, and in the end, greater financial gain,” said van Elzakker.

The traits that are factored into this index for New Zealand include fertility, calving difficulty, somatic cell count, residual survival, condition score and a number of TOP-predictors. Overseas genetics incorporate ketosis, udder health, fertility, hoof health, calving ease and calf vitality.

For example, Okura Lika MURMUR S3J, one of CRV Ambreed’s top bulls, excels in calving ease, fertility and cell count, giving him a Better Life Health value of 8%. Bulls pass on half of their genes to their progeny, so MURMUR’s daughters will be 4% healthier than daughters of a bull that scores 0%.

The CRV Better Life Efficiency index supports sustainable dairy farming by helping to reduce feed costs and increase life time production resulting in a lower environmental footprint.

“Better use of feed, lower feed costs and lower cost per kilo of milk can only be a good thing, especially when payout is low,” said van Elzakker.

The traits included in the Better Life Efficiency index for New Zealand are kilos of milk, fat, protein, live weight, longevity, and fertility. Overseas genetics incorporate the new feed intake breeding value.

“In the end, healthier and more efficient cows mean fewer treatments on animals, better animal welfare, reduced costs, longer lifespan and happier farmers!”

The Better Life Health and Better Life Efficiency indexes for all of CRV’s bulls can be found in the sire directory on CRV Ambreed’s website at www.CRV4all.co.nz.

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