bull-calves-tested-20.html
VikingNews UK 04 2016
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21 november 2016 | vikingnews vh
balzac
a new top bull by lea foustad harbo, vikingdanmark ?well, then i tried that as well. who would have thought that the first genomic test would be a ?winner?, steen baek- gaard replies to the question how it feels having a bull on the daily plan for the first time at the age of 72. vh
balzac
(vh beta x vh bento x s ross) with gntm +36 is by a vh bento cow classified vg86 with impressive protein components ? average 3.94%. the cow has just fin- ished her second lactation and is pregnant by vh sherman. her dam ? a vg86 s ross daughter ? is still in the baek- gaard herd and has five calves ? so far. steen
baekgaard
took over the farm in 1977 after his fa- ther. at that time there were 50
cows
in the herd, and this number increased to 65 in the beginning of the 1990?s when
baekgaard
redirected the production and made it organic. today, he has 40
cows
and says that the work in the barn and the field is ?a time consuming hobby?. he takes care of everything himself. a long life with
cows
enables
baekgaard
to clearly see the genetic progress in the breeding: ?in particular the calvings have improved over the years. earlier i would get up at night to check on a cow calving, but now i don?t even set the alarm clock any more. today the animals handle it by themselves?, he says. prefers healthy
cows
with long life expectancy of course, steen
baekgaard
prefers
cows
with high produc- tion, but that is not the highest priority when he goes through the breeding strategy with the breeding advisor. then he focuses on healthy animals with good feet and legs and many years in the herd. he never buys in animals ? he keeps his herd self-sufficient ? and uses little sexed semen and beef semen. he sells a few heifers every year and no longer spends much time on the bulls for the mating plan: ?when there was a local ai (artificial insemination) cen- tre in our local area, we ordered the bulls ourselves and got to know them, but now there is a constant flow of new bulls cattle breeder steen
baekgaard
from denmark has been in the dairy production business since 1967, and vh
balzac
is the first bull he has ever sold to vikinggenetics ? and the first animal ever he has genomically tested. vh
balzac
- a new top sire with gntm +36. vh
balzac
?s dam and grandam. all the time and the situation is completely different?, baek- gaard says. vh
balzac
is in top for health and reproduction with a fine balance to conformation and functional traits.
jersey-100-bulls-22.html