Lifetime Production

Despite a lack of official international statistics, the Netherlands can be said beyond doubt to be among the leading European Holstein countries in terms of high lifetime production. 1,970 new ‘hundred tonne cows’ in the past year have taken the all-time total to a striking 24,711. At the same time, the number of cows producing 10,000 kg of fat and protein rose by 211 to 1,925. HI Plus investigated these impressive figures further and looked at the most commonly used sires and the farms supplying the largest numbers of top-yielding cows.

A N A L Y S I S

text by Bert Wesseldijk

Strikingly, the top ten farms in Table 1, taken together, account for 344 hundred tonners, which equates to 1.4% of the total number in the whole country! Unsurprisingly, the table includes a relatively high proportion of large herds. Three have over 400 cows (Hol-Stiens, Van Wijk and Boonstra) and one has over 1,500 (Vreba). In theory, it is easier for larger farms like these to produce more cows with high lifetime pro-duction. This makes the performance of farms 1 and 2 in the table (Knoef and Van Velzen), with 109 and 96 completed lists respectively in the past year, all the more impressive.

Proud leaderWhen talking about cows with high lifetime production in the Netherlands, the name of Jos Knoef (Big Holsteins) quickly crops up. And no wonder because this farmer, with his family-run herd of over a hundred cows in Geesteren, is the proud leader of both farm

tables. To date, Knoef’s herd has celebrated 54 hundred tonners and 20 cows with 10,000 kg of fat and protein. Seven of its hundred ton-ners are still alive, and that number is set to rise shortly. Knoef reports a Laurenzo daughter with 99,000 kg and several other cows standing at over 90,000 kg. He expects Laurenzo to be one of the next bulls to feature in the league table of sires with high-yielding daughters. “Our 54th hundred tonner was a Laurenzo, and we have other good old cows by him. The high lifetime production was already there on the sire’s side. His own sire Cash and grandsire Sunny Boy produced plenty of hundred-tonne daughters of their own. And in Laurenzo you have a Cash son with a good breeding value for udder health,” says Knoef, who aims to breed for high lifetime production. “We want cows with as few problems as possible. There is no such thing as problem-free when working with livestock, but we do aim to minimise problems. We try to avoid mastitis and cell count problems in particular.” To achieve this, Knoef is consistent in his choice of bulls. “Yield, udder and legs have always been important traits. And they still are, although the empha-sis has perhaps shifted slightly away from udders and more towards legs,” says Knoef, who adds that udder health is now an important extra selection tool as well. As are the breeding values of late maturing and persistency. “Late maturing should not be an excuse for low heifer yields, but we don’t like to use bulls with a negative breeding value for this trait. For that reason we steer clear of bulls such as Bolton, with a score of 87 for late maturing.”

Unique survey of high lifetime production; who are the top suppliers?

The figures are undoubtedly impressive: 24,711 Dutch cows had passed the production threshold of 100,000 kg of milk by 31 August 2013, and 1,925 had given over 10,000 kg of fat

and protein. What was a rare event twenty years ago (especially the production of 10,000 kg of fat and protein) has long since ceased to be unusual. However, these remain excellent performance levels that merit close attention.

Large herdsIn this article we take a closer look at the figures for the thousands of hundred tonners that have been celebrated in recent years. For example, we identify the owners who have produced the largest numbers. There are currently 15,300 dairy farms in the Netherlands. Given the total of 24,711 Dutch hundred tonners, this should work out at an average of 1.6 per farm. Of course, this is not the situation in practice. The bulk of Dutch farms have not been graced by a single hundred tonner to date, while others seem to be collecting them. Ta-ble 1 lists the top 10 farms with the largest-ever numbers of hundred tonners (minimum 26). Table 2 lists the farms with the largest num-bers of cows producing 10,000 kg of fat and protein (minimum 6).

In the past year, Eastland Cash had the most daughters with 10,000 kg of fat and protein to his name. On the honours list of bulls siring the most hund-red-tonners, he ranks third behind his sire Sunny Boy and good old Tops.

Unique survey of high lifetime production; who are the top suppliers?

Canvas daughters for example,” explains Knoef, speaking on the basis of first-hand experience. He sees Laurenzo daughters as model cows in terms of type: not too big, solidly built and with a bit more muscle. “The Laurenzos were even a tiny bit plump as heifers, which I like to see. Better that than really bony. I also like to see heifers with lots of youth, they shouldn’t be too deep yet. That’s why I also think Pilot is an attractive bull.” According to Knoef, the above-mentioned Boukje 192 is a textbook example of how a youthful heifer can continue to develop. “As a young cow she was still a bit narrow and lacking in depth and scored 83 points. Later, she blossomed into a high-yielding cow scoring 88.”

Lord Lily leads the fieldBesides the farms producing the most hundred-tonne cows, this arti-cle also lists the most commonly used sires: both in the past year (1 September 2012 to 31 August 2013, Table 3) and over all time (Table 4). Lord Lily leads the field in Table 3, producing by far the most hund-red tonners in the past year. He is followed at some distance by Cash and Slogan. Lord Lily and Cash are also the oldest bulls on this list and those with the most daughters, which of course increases their chan-ces of a top ranking. The youngest sire on the list is Cello, born four years after Cash and Lord Lily. A year older than Cello are Stadel (the only red Holstein on the list) and full brothers Slogan and Addison. Given the number of milking daughters, Addison was used quite a bit less than his brother. The same is true of Ronald and the German Pre-lude son Proud. Addison, Proud and Ronald sired fewer than 20,000 milking daughters in the Netherlands, whereas most of the other bulls in the ranking have at least double that figure to their name.

Better plump than bonyBulls that score well on the above traits tend not to disappoint very often in practice, in Knoef’s experience. “I am often asked about the influence of breeding on the high lifetime production figures in our herd. It’s hard to say precisely, of course. But it seems clear to me that breeding has an influence, and possibly a much bigger one than many people think.” A good example of this is Big Boukje 192, a 16-year-old Cash daughter who has racked up a total of 171,000 kg. Her dam is from the combination Labelle x F16 x Tops, so four of the names in her lineage rank in the top 10 of bulls with the most hundred-tonners ever (Table 4, more on this later). “You get back out what you put in,” says Knoef, who also sees differences between the various cow families in his herd. For example, a VG-88 Top Brass daughter - and foundation dam of the Big Anna Jacoba family - was the first cow from Knoef’s farm to pass the 10,000 kg of fat and protein mark. Her daughter by F16 achieved the same feat. In addition, a Sunny Boy daughter out of Top Brass achieved a lifetime production of a whopping 170,000 kg of milk, while her Ferrari daughter and Lord Lily granddaughter also gave 100 tonnes. In other words, four generations of hundred tonners. A VG-88 Jorryn from this long-standing Anna Jacoba line recently sup-plied bulls for several AI stations.Knoef is currently doing of lot of inseminations with Big Winner, Cricket and Pilot. “The Winners are very correct all-round and also fairly late-maturing. We are milking four heifers by Cricket and are very keen on them. We used him in the first instance to improve udder health, in

FARM NAME LOCATION NUMBERMts Knoef-Hendriksen Geesteren (OV) 54A.A. Van Velzen Meedhuizen 36Hol-Stiens Stiens 34Mts Van Wijk Zuurdijk 31Vreba Melkvee BV Vredepeel 29VOF Kraakman St Maartensbrug 28Prins-Kanis Nyeveen 27VOF Stuij Ottoland 27Boonstra Agro BV Reduzum 26Stichting De Schothorst Lelystad 26Mts Van Kooten Dalmsholte 26

FARM NAME LOCATION NUMBERMts Knoef-Hendriksen Geesteren (OV) 20VOF Groot Nieuwenhuizen Woudenberg 6VOF Haarman Blokzijl 6VOF Huinder Adorp 6A.A. Van Velzen Meedhuizen 6

Mts. Knoef in Geesteren leads the field in terms of high lifetime produc-tion in the Netherlands. The total for this Big Boukje 192 RF VG-88 (Cash x Labelle x F16 x Tops) currently stands at 171,000 kg.

FARMS wITH 50 OR MORE 100-TONNERSGiven the lack of international statistics on hundred-tonne cows, Holstein International decided recently to conduct a survey of its own. It identified four farms in Europe with 50 or more 100-ton-ners, one of which is the Knoef farm in Geesteren, the Nether-lands. German farm LLFG Iden and Zani in Italy more than make the grade as well. The current European front-runner is Sandisfar-ne Holsteins on the British Isle of Man, which celebrated its 84th hundred-tonne cow last summer. In North America, three farms with more than 50 of these high-yielding cows are known to date: Kellercrest and Rosy-Lane in the US, with 54 and 72 respectively, and Summitholm Holsteins in Canada, with an impressive 87.

Table 1 - Top Dutch 10 farms with the most 100-tonne cows. As at 31 August 2013. Source: CRV.

Table 2 - Dutch farms with the most cows producing 10,000 kg of fat and protein. As at 31 August 2013. Source: CRV.

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Table 3 - Top 10 bulls siring the most Dutch and Flemish hundred-tonne cows in the past year (01.09.2012 to 31.08.2013). #100,000 = number of 100-tonne daughters, #DAUGHTERS = number of daughters in production index, YOB = bull's year of birth. Source: CRV.

BULL SIRE X DS #100,000 #DAUGHTERS YOBEtazon Lord Lily Blackstar x Rotate 126 88.259 1991Eastland Cash Sunny Boy x Cleitus 92 116.444 1991Etazon Slogan Mountain x Elton 74 34.191 1994Stadel-Red Stollberg x Cleitus 59 45.728 1994Newhouse Ronald Aerostar x Secret 56 19.799 1992 Etazon Addison Mountain x Elton 50 17.211 1994Downalane Cello Celsius x Nordkap 44 45.165 1995Archibald Aerostar x Blackstar 42 40.882 1992Proud Prelude x Cleitus 42 16.278 1993Havep Marconi Blackstar x Rotate 30 40.689 1990

Table 4 - Top 10 bulls siring the most Dutch and Flemish hundred-tonne cows ever. Source: CRV. #100,000 = number of 100-tonne daughters, #DAUGHTERS = number of daughters in production index, % = percentage of daughters producing 100,000 kg, YOB = bull's year of birth.

BULL SIRE X DS #100,000 #DTRS % YOBSkalsumer Sunny Boy Nehls x Sheik 1820 217.869 0.84% 1985Top Monitor Legend Monitor x Astronaut 1136 63.753 1.78% 1977Eastland Cash Sunny Boy x Cleitus 672 116.444 0.58% 1991Etazon Lord Lily Blackstar x Rotate 663 88.259 0.75% 1991Etazon Celsius Bellman x Bell 611 64.991 0.94% 1989Havep Marconi Blackstar x Rotate 493 40.689 1.21% 1990F16 Rocket C Chairman x Rocket 471 77.064 0.61% 1983Delta Cleitus Jabot Cleitus x Bell 460 101.913 0.45% 1989Etazon Labelle Bell Boss x Bell 448 31.628 1.41% 1989Delta Lava Ugela x Cleitus 327 45.105 0.72% 1990

Table 5 - Top 5 bulls siring the most Dutch and Flemish cows producing 10,000 kg of fat and protein in the past year (01.09.2012 to 31.08.2013). Source: CRV.

BULL SIRE X DS NUMBEREastland Cash Sunny Boy x Cleitus 17Havep Marconi Blackstar x Rotate 16Skalsumer Sunny Boy Nehls x Sheik 15Newhouse Ronald Aerostar x Secret 12Etazon Lord Lily Blackstar x Rotate 8

Tops and LabelleCash and Lord Lily have risen to places 3 and 4 in the all-time ranking of bulls with the most hundred ton-ners. A select group, of which they are the youngest members. In the coming years the pair can therefore be expected to make a serious bid for second place, still occupied at present by good old Tops. For the time being, Sunny Boy’s lead appears unassailable. Which is not surprising given his huge number of daughters. Sunny Boy has sired close to 218,000 milking daugh-ters in the Netherlands, over 100,000 more than the second-ranking bull on the list, his own son Cash. In order to make a “fair” comparison between the number of 100-tonners produced and the total number of daughters in milk, Table 4 gives a ratio for each bull. This is the percentage (%) of the bull’s daughters that have passed the milestone of 100,000 kg of milk. Note that the younger bulls in the table still have a relatively large number of hundred-tonne daughters to add, so their percentage scores are likely to rise substantially. By far the highest percentage is currently held by Labelle (1.41%). As many as 1 in 71 of Tops’ daughters have passed a hundred tonnes! In terms of lifetime produc-tion, Labelle stands head and shoulders above his more popular contemporaries Celsius and Jabot. Jabot has sired over three times as many milking daughters as Labelle, although both bulls have virtually the same tally of hundred tonners. Remarkable RonaldAs mentioned above, for the time being Sunny Boy is in no danger of losing his lead as the all-time top supplier of 100-tonners. Sunny Boy also heads the list of bulls with the most daughters producing 10,000 kg of fat and protein. With a total of 286, he is followed by Tops (134) and F16 (89). In the past year Sunny Boy ranked third, with 15 new ten tonners (Table 5). He was pipped to the post by his son Cash and Blackstar son Marconi. Ronald and Lord Lily complete the top five. Ronald’s presence is especially remarkable, given his relatively young age and modest number of daughters. n

Arno van Velzen’s farm in Meedhuizen ranks high on the lists of 100-tonne and 10-tonne cows. This Aldo daughter Amsweer Maaike 155 is one of the six cows with 10,000 kg of fat and protein that Van Velzen’s herd has produced.

Etazon Lord Lily is the youngest sire in the all-time top 10 of bulls siring hundred tonners. In the past year, this Blackstar son sired by far the largest number of 100-tonners, with 126.