24 WESTGEN staff, clients reminisce


telling members it gives them access to more than 400 consultants in Canada. Already established in


providing business management and animal health consulting, communications coordinator Kassie Jansen said Proventus is working on growing its services to include benchmarking, human resources training and group benefits/insurance plans. WestGen itself is part of a


larger body, Semex, which is now one of the top five genetics companies in the world. Like WestGen, Semex is selling less dairy semen overall but more sexed semen. Beef semen sales are also growing. Increasingly, semen is not coming from proven sires but from genomically selected bulls. Semex CEO Steve Larmer


reported that sales of conventional semen dropped from 77% of total sales in 2014 to just 59% last year. At the same time, sexed semen sales increased from 19% to 33% while beef semen sales doubled over the same period. He noted most revenue is now coming from genomic sires. “In 2013, only 39% of our


revenue came from genomic sires. By last year, that was up to 73%.”


He said Semex continues


to generate a profit despite depressed global milk prices and political trade issues. “Semex experienced record


growth for the ninth consecutive year and generated $7.8 million in net


income in 2018,” said Larmer. WestGen’s partnership


earnings from Semex helped it post another surplus in 2018 despite a significant write-down in its investment portfolio. On a positive note, treasurer Ridley Wikkerink reported that the investments are bouncing back, saying the portfolio had regained just about all it lost in 2018 in just the first two and a half months of 2019. After the formal


proceedings, Brian Shaw shared thoughts from his 44 years of service as an AI technician and trainer for WestGen. He pointed out how much technology has improved, saying technicians have gone from using 1 cc ampules of semen when he started to now using just a quarter cc. He also proudly noted he has trained up to three generations of farmers to do their own AI since taking over the AI school in 1978. Farmers David Davis of


Davistead Farms in Langley, Ben Bredenhof of Bredale Farms in Chilliwack and David Janssens of Nikomekl Farm in Surrey then shared stories of their involvement with WestGen. Although Davis, a second-


term Township of Langley councilor, admitted this was only the second AGM he has attended, Davistead has a long history with the organization. Davis’s grandfather Leslie was the original secretary-treasurer of the LFVAIC and his father, Hugh, who passed away a year ago in his mid 90s, “never


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MAY 2019 nfrom page 23


Brian Shaw reflected on his 44-year career as a technician, fieldman and AI trainer with WestGen and its predecessors during WestGen’s annual meeting in Abbotsford, March 19. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


missed an AGM.” He noted Hugh spent 10 years as a BCAI AI technician and later served as a BCAI director for many years. “It’s unbelievable what’s spun off from what those farmers created 75 years ago,” he said.


He noted that like


WestGen, Davistead has grown from humble beginnings. His grandfather milked just 15 cows while his father expanded the herd to 150 cows in the mid-1970s. Today, Davistead milks 177 Holsteins, 80 Jerseys, 11 Brown Swiss and two Ayrshires three times a day. After realizing he is not the AI technician his father was,


Davis switched to again using WestGen technicians to do his AI and the results have proved their value. “In 2012, our first service insemination rate was in the bottom 25%. After just 18 months of full service, we are in the top 10%,” he said. Bredenhof, who recently put in a new 60-stall rotary parlour, said his family has enjoyed a 40-year partnership with WestGen. He said the farm has been on a “relentless pursuit of perfection” since his parents started with 28 cows in 1981.


He also uses WestGen’s full-


service technicians to do his breeding, saying his philosophy is to “breed top


cows on top cows on top cows.” “We started genomic testing animals seven to eight years ago,” he says, saying the results speak for themselves. “WestGen has done an amazing job for us on milk and we are gaining over 200 LPI (Lifetime Profit Index) per generation, compared to the national average gain of 121 LPI, which means we are getting all the top bulls.” Nikomekl Farm was established in 1957, with David Janssens, now a director of the BC Milk Marketing Board, taking over from his father, Frank, in the mid-1990s. Frank served as a director of BCAI from 1978 to 1993, while David served on the board from 2002-2015. “I was there when we got


rid of the bulls,” he recalled. He admits it was a “very


controversial” decision but now appears to have worked out for the best. He says his time as a director of WestGen, the BC Dairy Association, Dairy Farmers of Canada and now the BCMMB have been good for his farm. “You get to work with like- minded producers and industry professionals, get exposure to new technologies and have opportunities for travel and professional development,” he said. “There is so much I can take back to the farm.”


He thinks the strategic planning those organizations engage in is most useful, saying, “strategic planning is not something we as farmers think much about.”


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