June 2019

As there are only a handful of herds in western Germany that are of a similar size, simply the number of 1,200 cows that Marc Benninghoff milks on his north-German farm is a statement. But Benninghoff Holsteins has much...

La Waebera, the ultra-modern farm of the Clément family, is world-class for conformation. But there is much more to the story than that. La Waebera does not only have a tradition as a successful breeding barn with variou...

Numerous top TPI sires, globally impacting families and highly productive cattle thriving in a large scale environment are what symbolises the American Coyne-Farms herd. Home to the world-renown Yadda, Jelly and Daffers...

Never before has interest in a competition during HI’s 25 years been as great as it is in the unique breeder competition that was introduced in HI’s January edition 2019. First, one hundred breeders were nominated from f...

During the past decade, a lot has been said and written about the stature of Holsteins. The trend towards less tall Holsteins is now probably truly being pursued, partly because of Shamrock, one of Planet’s very best son...

‘He is the undisputed French leader at an unparalleled level – never before has a bull reached this high.’ This is what HI wrote in late 2016 about the new and promising French Louxor, who made his sensational debut in A...

America’s nr.1 Einstein, Homeground, Mixology and Maestro in Canada; these four young Semex bulls debuted in the absolute top during the April release. Brian Carscadden, sire analyst for Semex: ‘Maestro, currently one of...

He is the very highest NTM transmitter of Scandinavia and is available both domestically and abroad: Growny with +41 NTM. ‘Certainly a very interesting bull: high indexing and with an alternative pedigree,’ says Claus La...

The dam is an early daughter of the Balisto son Brasil and the granddam is a productive Snowfever daughter with Laron-P, Canvas and Lightning in her sire stack. On the on the female side, the Josefien family has been par...

For the leading group of young DNA sires, Checkmate always came just a few RZG points short, but in the end, according to Ingo Schnoor from RSH, this had no influence on his popularity. ‘He had what a lot of dairy farmer...

In the US there are 12 cows that have produced 22 EX daughters or more. Gloryland Lana Rae EX-94 is one of the cows on that list, and while her total of 22 is far short of such cows as Ashlyn (60) and Adeen (37), the per...

Progressive elite breeding sometimes results in small, fragile Holsteins with insufficient durability for long-term production. This is anything but the case for the native Dutch Grietje/Genua family. This is the story o...

Grand Champion of the Swiss Expo and Reserve Grand at the European Show in Libramont: Sunibelle Dempsey Esprit is one of the true superstars of the European show ring. Here is a look at the background of one of Europe’s...

During the finale of an enthralling Holstein show, thousands of enthusiastic Holstein fans in Libramont (Belgium) witnessed as judge Mark Nutsford crowned the pitch-black Du Rahun Chelios Heline as European Champion. Thi...

The 300-cow Belbrook herd was recently identified in HI as the leading herd in New Zealand for the highest number of excellent cows. However looking closer into the herd, a bloodline emerges that’s littered with producti...

Problems with hoof health (lameness in cows) is among the biggest irritations of dairy farmers – the costs of lost milk production, additional labour, veterinarian visits, involuntary culling, and lower fertility quickly...

Soon the stifling heat of summer will be with us and that can adversely affect the production levels of high yielding dairy cows. Here we look at some of the management steps you can take to help alleviate the impact and...

With a unique selection criteria, that includes the requirement of all bulls to be A2A2 and have no haplotypes, a look into Jetstream Genetics’ ethos makes interesting reading. Still a relatively new company in global AI...