From about a 25% market share it is now approaching 30%, via CRV Ambreed, for herd products and services, the biggest part of this in semen sales from its dairy sires. The company is now joined under the CRV umbrella by Liberty Genetics.
In the latest ranking of active sires (RAS) list for breeding worth (BW), CRV sires are said to be heavily represented in Holstein-Friesian and Jersey – far more than the company’s market share would suggest, says the genetics product manager Toni Trusler.
In the May animal evaluation, 19 CRV sires appear in the top 50 Holstein-Friesian RAS list (38%) including four new entrants. Top ranked CRV/Holstein Friesian NZ sire Dumpling holds the number 3 place, and Maelstrom is up four places to number 6.
Further, says Trusler, “seven of the current top 10 Holstein-Friesian sires are either CRV bulls or a son of a CRV bull while 54% of the top 50 are either ours or by one of our bulls.”
On the Jersey RAS list, CRV sires Manzello, Murmur, Degree and Iceberg have held the top 4 places since the February run earlier in the year, albeit a slight reshuffling in the rankings between them. A total of 13 CRV (43%) sires help make up the top 30 Jersey sires by BW, and 60% of the top 30 are either a CRV bull or son of. This increases to 80% in the top 10.
“We are pleased with the performance of our bulls, particularly as the May bull run is a significant one on the dairying calendar,” says Trusler.
The May run represents the last major BW calculation for the season as the majority of bull daughters complete their lactations around the country.
It is also a key run as it includes several important trait updates outside of the usual production traits, these being breeding values for somatic cell, calving difficulty, fertility, longevity, liveweight and top scores.
