It's time to breed an efficient herd

Feed has an enormous impact not only on your bottom line, but also on the environment and animal welfare.

Some cows are extra good at turning feed into meat and milk. Others use too much feed for maintenance and are less efficient when it comes to utilising the feed. Two cows that produce the same amount of milk may have quite different feed intake levels.  

The Saved Feed Index in the Nordic Total Merit index (NTM) shows you how efficient a cow is in turning feed into milk.

Backed by more than 9 years of research and development, the Cattle Feed Intake System (CFIT) provides real-life data for individual cow’s feed intake collected in the cow’s natural environment 24/7 year around:

• 1,300,000+ daily intake records on lactating cows​
• 12,000+ cows with CFIT data​
• 1,800+ cameras
• 1,000,000+ feed visits per day
• 100,000,000+ images per day
• 170,000+ meals per day

With the Saved feed index, you can breed for more feed-efficient and climate-friendly cows – without compromising on the production, health and reproduction performance of your cows.

Take a look at the effects of breeding for improved feed efficiency. See how much kg DMI per year you can save depending on your herd size. Click "+" to see the figures.

What if you didn't need to worry about health, reproduction, milk quality, bills and wasted time? What if your herd was simply thriving and yielding the biggest return?

Production for a dairy cow is one of its most important traits, if not the most important. Without the capability to produce a sufficient amount of milk, the cow is not supporting a sustainable and profitable dairy business.

VikingGenetics' breeding programmes for all breeds are based on improving production without compromising the cow’s health and reproduction performance.

Higher persistency = less stress on cows

A flat lactation curve puts less stress on the cow. It reduces the risk of problems caused by negative energy balance.

If you choose to focus on improving persistency, you benefit from an easier to manage herd and fewer health and fertility issues. You utilise resources in the most efficient way.

High persistency bulls (EBV >100) will produce daughters that have a flatter lactation curve. They will have a lower yield than expected in the first part of the lactation, and a higher yield than expected in the last part of the lactation.

Take a look at the effects of improved production of milk and solids. Click "+" to see the figures.

Are you managing a grass-based dairy production? Or are you looking into the opportunities to utilise pasture-based system even more to improve your farm’s impact on nature?

Regenerative dairy farming activities are gaining more and more attention. Among the broadly recognised positive outcomes of regenerative dairy farming are:

• Increasing biodiversity
• Improving soil health and protecting grasslands from overgrazing
• Increasing carbon capture in soil

Reduce your production costs by increasing the content of roughage in the cow’s feed ration. Grass is often one of the cheapest source of roughage. If that suits your conditions, utilise pasture-based production to cut costs and make use of the lands that cannot be used to grow crops for grazing.

The medium-sized cows from VikingGenetics breeding programmes are masters at turning roughage and grass into a consistent high milk yield. 

Explore the breeding solutions available to you as a pasture-based farmer.