CLASSIFICATION AT THE HEART OF
This issue’s At the Heart sees Michael Parkinson give an insight into what is happening with Classifi cation, Research and Development and CDI
T
ype Classifi cation is a service available to members to assist in breeding a trouble free, long living, high productive cow. Currently classifi ers are managing to maintain a seven to eight month cycle, mainly due to streamlining routing and the hard work of the team. As a result numbers of cows classifi ed have increased by 20%.
The assessment consists of the scoring of 22 linear type traits, four composite scores and the analysis of fi ve welfare traits, which have been proven to directly impact cattle productivity.
During the last three years, as part of the breed review for 2013 and beyond, classifi cation has moved on to reward functional correctness. The
review focussed on cows that could achieve 60T of milk or more and six or more lactations, certain traits that impact on which animals go on to achieve this goal have been identifi ed and classifi cation adjusted accordingly. The web-based programme ‘CLASSACT’ allows breeders to analyse the herd’s classifi cation data to decipher the strengths and weaknesses in the herd. This helps members make more informed breeding decisions to improve the general conformation and productivity of the entire herd. There is also the ability to produce sire reports that show how well chosen bulls are performing in the herd. In addition ‘WEBMATE’ allows type classifying members to request mating recommendations for different groups of animals by analysing which bulls to use on each heifer or cow in order to breed animals that compliment your farming system.
While KPI reports and family reports identify animals or families that have possible issues with any traits, they are also a tool to help correct any faults in the herd.
Over the past six months we have developed a closer working relationship with DairyCo and NMR and hopefully going forward we can continue to forge close working relationships with all industry bodies. Within CDI we have a company that holds a large amount of data on all breeds of dairy cattle in the UK. It is clear that this information could be useful to many other bodies in our industry and the importance of CDI and the data it holds as as an independent company. Additionally, in the increasingly commercially driven dairy industry it is important there is an organisation that has the independence to speak for all pedigree breeds and can represent pedigree dairy in the UK at National and International level.
Looking forward, we are coming up to the fi ve yearly base change for all type Merit in April 2015. During the base change all type traits will be readjusted to take in to account the gains made in the last fi ve years, a look at the provisional list shows: • Type Merit in 2015 changing by -0.71 compared with -0.48 in 2010
• Mammary in 2015 changing by -0.76 compared with -0.40 in 2010
• Legs and feet in 2015 changing by -0.63 compared with -0.63 in 2010
This demonstrates the signifi cant improvements made over the last fi ve years in these traits. Classifi cation offers a focus on breeding to herds across the UK and during the current challenging times is one of the best value for money services available.
Holstein Complete is an excellent opportunity to start classifying as it brings together: Type Classifi caion, Milk Management, Registrations, Movement, Ancestry and Fertility payable in one fi xed monthly payment. Farmers can save potentially hundreds of pounds at the same time as increasing productivity and increasing farm profi ts. There has never been a better time to start classifying.
8 THE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2015
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