On 5th of September 2011, CONAFE, the Spanish Confederation of Holstein Associations signed its partnership with EuroGenomics. CONAFE represents the Spanish Holstein breeding organisations, including the four Spanish AI companies. Also INIA, the National Institute of Agricultural Research, has become research partner and will benefit from the methods developed under the partnership. With this integration into EuroGenomics, CONAFE, INIA and Spanish AI-Companies will benefit not only from the common bull reference population, but also from the know-how in Genomic Selection of the partners. This will lead to a reliable genomic evaluation in Spanish cattle breeding and give the opportunity to the Spanish breeders to get at their disposal new tools for the selection and the profitability of their farms. With the extended partnership the EuroGenomics members now have a reference population of more than 20,000 progeny tested bulls. Within a month an updated exchange will bring the reference population to more than 22,000 bulls. With this new partner, EuroGenomics demonstrates that cooperation in genomics is becoming closer and closer at the European level.
Since 2009 the EuroGenomics partners VikingGenetics (Denmark/Sweden/Finland), UNCEIA (France), DHV and vit (Germany) and CRV (Netherlands/Belgium) co-operate in the field of genomics to further increase the reliability of genomic breeding values. In July, Interbull certified the national genomic evaluation systems based on the EuroGenomics reference population for official publications. Since August, this has allowed international trading of young bulls based on their genomic breeding values. A new contract has now been signed, where the partners have agreed to exchange the genotyping and progeny data of all their newly proven bulls. The latest exchange involves 2,300 bulls, which means that the new EuroGenomics reference population now consists of 18,300 bulls, which is by far the largest reference population in the world.
You can read the press release here.
Cattle improvement organisation CRV has acquired the South African semen sales organisation Xseed Genetics. As of February 1, the company will be renamed ‘CRV Xseed’. The acquisition increases the breeding opportunities for both the current and future customers of CRV Xseed and strengthens the international position of CRV. Both partners – CRV and Xseed – have now reached an agreement to join forces. Xseed Genetics is an organisation with a substantial market share in the South African bovine semen market. Its head office is located in Bloemfontein. For Xseed customers, the backbone of CRV means they will benefit from gaining access to CRV’s breadth of genetic products and technological know-how in the field of dairy and beef breeding.
Delta Paramount was born in July 2001. Expectations of him were high, being a descendent of CRV’s great donor cow Delta Heart from the famous Art-Acres Tex B cow family. Now, over ten years later, he has succeeded in surpassing these expectations by producing over one million straws of semen. Paramount (s. Jocko Besne) received his first daughter proven breeding values in June 2006 and has been popular ever since. His popularity extends far beyond the borders of his homeland, the Netherlands. At the beginning of his career he was the highest non-US proven bull in the TPI ranking right from the start. This gained him popular recognition in the US, and he has also been widely used in countries like Brazil, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and the UK. Paramount has been used in a total of 50 countries and in 2010-2011 he ranked as CRV’s best-selling bull internationally. In the Netherlands, he still rates in the top 5 of the most used CRV bulls.