farmers-vikingred-costs-9.html
VikingNews UK 02 2016
10 / 24
double the speed with embryos
markku
is
breeding
a 40-head holstein herd in pälkäne in finland with his wife taina and son hannu. hannu?s fi- ancée
miia
salin is soon finishing her studies in agricultural school and works currently as a part time relief worker for other farms nearby. the vimmu farm has been in the family for 100 years now, and the average produc- tion is 10,297 kg milk with 3.9% fat and 3.3% protein. during the last 10 years there has been many embryos bought and some flushes done in vimmu herd.
markku
and taina bought three asmo embryos from a d ole heifer called illanvarjo. she had the highest genomic test in fin- land at that time for ntm. they got two heifer calves, asmo kouvotar and kuu- tar by vh miracle. ?one of those three embryos was a third class embryo and we got that for free. we don?t remember if that embryo gave a pregnancy, but we have said that it is kouvotar that didn?t cost us a penny?
markku
laughs. even though kouvotar would have been a 1st class embryo, she sure is worth it. she is genomically tested with gntm +33. she was flushed as a heifer with casual and a bull calf was born in september 2015. today the bull is called vh catrus and he is in hollola station waiting to get old enough to have his proof published and start semen produc- tion. his dam, kouvotar, has now been in milk about five months and already produces over 5700 kg milk with 4.5% fat and 3.4% protein. the pregnancy rate for embryos has been good in the herd, around 70-80%. they also have been really lucky with the born calves as about 75% of those were heifers. follow the latest technology when
breeding
advisor from faba comes to the farm, it is
miia
, who pulls on her overalls and goes to the barn. ?we go through the cows and discuss
breeding
goals together? says
miia
. ?then it is up to the
breeding
advisor to decide the bulls we will use. i?m not that interested in indexes that i would go through all the bulls? she continues. the cooperation with the
breeding
ad- visor seems to work perfectly. for the ai (artificial insemination), they use faba?s ai technicians. all heifers are being genomically tested. in january, they started to use the dna ear tags and that made taking out genomic tests much easier. ?we are looking for an easy cow that milks a lot. the udder conformation is also impor- tant?
miia
says and summarizes their
breeding
goal. ?about 10 years ago we had problems with feet and legs. then we gave that high priority in selection and today we can say we have no prob- lems with feet and legs,? says
markku
. what will the future bring? the future for the herd is guaranteed. hannu will continue farming with
miia
. ?they can take over in one year when we will get the golden medal for producing 1st class milk for 25 years?, says taina laughing.
miia
and hannu have a clear view for the future: a new barn with two milking robots is already in their plans.
miia
also wants to have vikingred and maybe some other breeds in the herd too. ?we just love to work with cows?,
miia
smiles. by riina koivulahti, vikinggenetics in 2004 when
markku
aspila participated in a
breeding
course in northern savo, he heard peop- le telling that embryo transfer will double the speed of genetic progress in the herd. he was a bit sceptic but decided to try some embryos too. today he can agree what he heard over 10 years ago. the dam to vh catrus and her proud owners;
markku
, his wife taina, their son hannu and his fiancée
miia
. vh catrus ? born at vimmu farm. here he is at the hollola station in finland, waiting to grow big enough to start semen production. 10 vikingnews | june 2016
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