February 2020

Over the past 10-15 years the Canadian herd Kingsway Farms has progressively risen to prominence in the area of breeding, developing and selling top quality show animals. Iconic show cow families such as Allie and Jasmin...

With 300 milking cows (which does not include the 50 dry cows) the Menoud Red herd is the largest source of milk in Switzerland. They are not only extremely productive, but also display attractive type. For that reason,...

Cows that produce 700 kg fat+protein per lactation, classify excellent at a mature age, and complete a minimum of five lactations. And preferably furnished with pedigrees that are very marketable. The Neville family has...

In the barns of the Johnson family in Minnesota, a lot of high quality milk is produced. Nice results that are certainly being seen as a team performance, and which are freely shared with others. The family farm of Johns...

615: That is the aAa code of the Italian bull Berico. As such, he was already very popular as a young sire, and today with hundreds of milking daughters, his index is stronger than ever. HI visited breeder Faccin and spo...

In April 2016, Louxor blew away the entire French DNA competition and debuted at a record high 237 gISU, no less than 24 points above the nr.2. Last December, the Iznogoud son set another fabulous record. Based on 70 dau...

It was a noteworthy debut given by Germany’s new daughter-proven Nr.1, the Mardi Gras son Monarch, in the December evaluations. It was particularly noteworthy because the offspring from the Laurie Sheik family, already s...

AltaMarlon has a very balanced, no-holes proof that has steadily climbed and now lands him at Nr.1 LPI bull in Canada. ‘He sires consistently good type, highlighted by beautiful udders,’ explains Mike Menendez from Alta....

An Estonian proverb says, “If your spirit is wise, age does not judge.” Of course, this expression does necessarily apply to breeding. Nonetheless there is an entire collection of bulls from around the world that deliver...

An interesting list from Holstein USA: the sires with 97% or higher reliability. Notable: half of this ranking is bulls from Select Sires. Even more remarkable: 9 of the 10 (with the exception of Ponder) are alive and ac...

Super sires: A phenomenon that we come across in Holstein breeding from time to time, among the very big names. These Holstein sires are so unique and superior in terms of their transmitting ability that the sons have gr...

For the second release in a row, Freemax is in second place in Germany with 164 gRZG. Employees at owner RBB are thrilled with their index topper. Torsten Dalle, sire analyst for RBB, shares that Freemax has been receive...

For international RH breeding there is no way around this sire. Hoogerhorst Rubels-Red is the rising star on the red and white scene and an absolute must-have for top breeders and commercial dairy farmers who don’t just...

‘She has made all my dreams come true!’ Thomas De Brabander speaks directly from the heart when he talks about Failue de L’Herbagere EX-90. De Brabander has owned the Savard daughter since 2014, together with Quentin Pie...

After 45 years of breeding Holsteins, a lifelong goal was achieved for the Lang family of Springhill Farms as their homebred Springhill-OH Wind Jada EX-91 was named Grand Champion of the 2019 Mid-East Summer National & O...

The EX-96 Stormatic daughter Quality-Ridge Stormi Hazel was one of the big name stars on the North American show scene. However, even more impressive was her success rate as a brood cow. Now one of her daughters has clai...

Within the UK Whinchat herd there are three dominant families – Savoire Fare, Farrah and the oldest of the three: Tippy. Despite starting with foundation cow Avondale Lance Tippy VG back in 1991, many of the family’s ear...

Sunnylodge Prelude Spottie was a first crop young-sire daughter of Ronnybrook Prelude that became the Canadian Cow of the Year 1998. Her son Sunnylodge Linjet was Premier Sire at the World Dairy Expo 2002. A couple of di...

“Fresh Cow YMCP® is a proven product of twenty plus years in my dairy practice. It is a convenient, well balanced, and ready to use adjunct therapy that I can easily modify for individual cows. I recommend YMCP as my fir...

HI traditionally keeps a close eye on breeding developments and reports on new trends which can be reasonably expected to make a positive contribution to the breed. A trend that we noticed last year is the decision to no...

The success of the Ferme Blondin herd in Quebec, Canada is world-famous. Many great type and index cows have passed through its barn including Blondin Redman Seisme, RockyMountain Talent Licorice, Val-Bisson Shottle Imel...

We all know that cattle breeding and genetic selection can be complex, but have you ever considered the process outside the Holstein arena? Here we discuss the different breeds of corn (maize) available and factors to co...

Notable. During the Dutch December release, Double W Ranger plummeted to 288 gNVI (-117). With 110,000 first inseminations during the past two years, he was the most used sire in the Netherlands and Flanders. The unprece...