December 2024

It was an historic milestone, when during the recent World Dairy Expo the “Premier Sire” titles were captured by two bulls from one breeding enterprise: Farnear Holsteins in the American state of Iowa, with Farnear Delta...

‘We want to do much more than just organize a sale; we want to know who we are working with, and together build a long-term relationship and create something successful,’ says Bernd Sommer. The passionate German breeding...

Endurance: the ability to maintain a given production over the longest time possible. There is no better description for Otto van Zuilen, the protagonist of this herd report. In his younger years he travelled around the...

From the outset; bravo for the tremendous persistence of David Petersen from Iowa, breeder of the bull Majestic-Manor BluMoon. Petersen was convinced that his BluMoon deserved AI opportunities and spoke with numerous AIs...

Optimum teat position, teat length and udder balance are features that make the Synetics bull Urzokari de la Vigne ideal for robot milking. Good udder texture and strong attachments should result in long-lasting udders....

This special picture was taken by Han Hopman two months ago at the CRV AI facility in Giekerk (Friesland). Anyway, it is already exceptional to photograph four bulls together, but the fact that these are four generations...

A few months ago, the American “black beauty” To-Mar Blackstar appeared in HI: 09/2024. Born in 1983 and one of the top-20 most influential bulls in the Holstein breed. Four years earlier, the sire Hanoverhill Starbuck w...

Ambrose was one of the first Ranger-Red sons Semex released to the market in May of 2023. ‘Being a son of the awesome cow Mystique Lambda Anis, he was popular right out of the gate,’ comments Carl Barclay. ‘Upon release...

Siemers Holsteins in Newton (eastern Wisconsin) attained a unique achievement by winning HI’s Global Cow Competition twice in a row. After Siemers Lmda Paris 27856 in 2023, this year it was Siemers Lstr Hanan 33317-P, wh...

At Canada’s 102nd Royal Winter Fair, the awards for Grand Champion Holstein and Supreme Champion Dairy Cow of the show went to Jeffrey-Way Hard Rock Twigs. And in the Red & White Show, it was a double-double for Premium...

The recent surge in elite polled genetics is pushing the Holstein breed ever closer to the tipping point where it could quickly become a polled breed. One of the driving forces in that polled revolution is the great broo...

For twenty years, Dan Reuter has been breeding at Reuter Dairy (950 milking cows) in Iowa, with the offspring of Barbie sister Regancrest-RB Bunny EX-93. With as a notable result RJR Discjockey 7509 EX-92, the Intermedia...

The Dutch HHH show offers lots of space to young breeders and progeny groups. Above all, it is a place for Dutch breeders to present their most beautiful Holsteins. The 2024 edition was a success in every respect and saw...

‘When we look back at all of her daughters, Bliss will be quite the brood cow around the world, not just in North America. Most of her daughters made with us are still young so we are just experiencing the early stages o...

Genetic gains during the genomic era have more than doubled from earlier times, and we now select for a much more complete array of traits including fertility, health and feed efficiency. However, accompanying these impr...

In the German language, the term “foundation” is used for feet and legs. With a house, the foundation gives the construction the required stability to last for a long time. The same is true for a cow, though with a decis...

Having grown in up near Lake Constance, Matthias Schelling (54) has always been a real cow enthusiast. While he is not from a farm himself, already as a youth he preferred spending his free time at the neighbour’s dairy...

For dairy and beef production in Europe, the primary question is no longer if and how enough milk and beef can be produced to feed the population, but rather how ecologically and economically it can be done.