I was excited to hear that the topic of BullChat, a TweetChat event on May 17th, would be “Summer fertility – bulls and cows.” Serendipitiously the Dairy Crossbred blog at www.dairyxbred.com started the blog topic “Round Table Discussion: Breeding Strategies for Heat Stress” the day before the scheduled BullChat event. So what were the common [...]

The 3 homozygous polled Norwegian Red sires offered by ABS Global in the U.S — Nordbo (10553), Skjenaust (10558) and Naxbie (10632) – – have an average DPR (Daughter Pregnancy Rate) of 6.3. What does this mean in practical terms?

Bottom-line #1: A DPR of 6.3 = 6.3% more pregnancies for daughters of the homozygous [...]

Polled dairy cattle are increasing in numbers. The Norwegian Red breed appears to be the leader in polled dairy genetics since 50% of all Norwegian Red calves born in Norway are polled. Polled beef cattle are much more prevalent than polled dairy cows, but luckily, there are far more polled dairy cattle than the elusive [...]

On April 11, 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new policy to phase out the use of antibiotics in animal feed for non-therapeutic purposes such as growth promotion. Several U.S. governmental agencies are trying to find the right balance in addressing public-health concerns (bacterial resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine) [...]

genoBULLetin is a publication of “all things Norwegian Red.” The spring 2012 edition is available at genoBULLetin 1-2012.

The bulls: 10 to 12 Norwegian Red (NRF) bulls achieve elite status in Norway each year, some of which are exported to 20 countries throughout the [...]

News about dairy growth in March 2012 included an update of the proportion of U.S. dairies with 1000+ cows plus announcements from two states that are encouraging dairy producers to dramatically increase production.

Growth news:

U.S.: According to the “Farms, Land in [...]

The 6th International Cattle Breeders Round Table conference was attended by 31 people representing 10 countries March 5-7, 2012 in Hamar, Norway. The aim of ICBRT is to stimulate discussions among a group of scientists from universities, research institutes, data recording centers, and cattle breeding organizations about methods, future directions and ongoing research. Previous meetings [...]