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VikingNews UK 03 2016
10 / 24
the
bulls
botans and b. jurist are two of the world?s most famous bulls in vikinggenetics? history. both were born at the samuelsson?s farm
botans, in rättvik in the middle part of sweden. these bulls have given so much inspiration to this family and are known around the world because of their healthy, long-living and profitability daughters. having achieved such a success became the engine that drives the samuelsson?s family. the success of the botans farm inspires the next generation by veronica löfgren, communicator vikinggenetics everyone in this family talks the same ?cow-language?. from the father bengt, who spends most of time in the barn to his 18-year old daughter mikaela, who likes the cows and recently attended the calving after the first insemination made by herself. the youngest one of the three children of bengt and kristina
samuelsson is 16-year old fredrik, who most of the time also willingly assists with the cows. however, it is the oldest daughter, 20-year old, josefine, together with her mother, kristina, who leads the strategy of the breeding plan. ?it is so interesting to look at all new bulls on the computer being published on vikinggenetics? web page?, josefine says. the bulls botans and b. jurist have a special connection to kristina; "josefine and the bulls were born the same year,? kristina laughs. and the daughter feels very proud of the bulls. ?when i was in finland attending a young red breeding conference, and i said that b. jurist is from my farm - i knew he is the most fa- mous of them - and there was a person from new zealand saying: then, botans must come from your farm too!", jose- fine says and smiles. the genomic era is changing the way dairy farmers, like the samuelsson?s, do management, selection and breeding de- cisions. this family has understood the importance of genomic test on all their females, and they put in a lot of effort picking the right bulls. ?i go through the lists myself and decide which bulls we think are the best, and go for them,? facts: ? botans farm has 320 cows in two properties ? 50% vikingred, 50% vikingholstein ? 420 ha ? production average 12,600 kg ecm ? age at first calving: 26 months ? calving interval: 12.5 months kristina and bengt samuelsson with their children; fredrik, mikaela and josefine. everyone in this family talks the same ?cow language?. kristina states, although they are aware that the doses they choose could be the most expensive. right now, they are preparing three heifers for embryo flushing, on contract from vikinggenetics. they go for high ntm bulls, and important traits that they look at is production and longevity. ?with selec- tion based on these traits, we get high production and healthy cows, and that is exactly what we are aiming for?, kristina says. they use between 15 and 20 differ- ent bulls per year. ?there are so many bulls today, and we select the ones we think suits our breeding goal,? kristina adds. with so many different bulls to choose from, it is easy for each farmer to find bulls that suit his/her breeding goal on the farm. 10 vikingnews | september 2016
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