Climate-friendly cows closer
Dairy farmers are one step closer to breeding cow with lower methane emissions, offering an innovative way to reduce the nation's agricultural carbon footprint without compromising farm productivity.
CRV Ambreed has a new national artificial breeding manager, Craig Scott. He was formerly national franchise manager at pregnancy tester Ultrascan Ltd.
Scott says delivering ‘gold standard’ service to farmer customers is a core focus of the CRV AB delivery business.
“CRV is continually investing in new technologies and genetic innovations to help farmers breed healthy and efficient cows with great temperaments and smaller environmental footprints.
“But getting cows in calf is our number one priority. The AB technician team [must] do a good job of delivering these products and services to farmers.”
Scott grew up on a Taumarunui sheep and beef block and experienced family dairying in Waikato.
He has been in operations management, customer support and relationship management, working in the agriculture, sports and information technology sectors, including 10 years managing Verusco Technologies, supplying video analysis software and statistics to rugby union teams.
CRV Ambreed’s operations manager Andrew Medley says Scott “brings leadership and management experience with the necessary planning and organisational skills to add value to our AB service”.
Scott looks after about 200 AB technicians NZ-wide, contracted to CRV during the mating season. Next month he will attend the ‘pre-mating’ seminars CRV holds each year for its AB technicians. team. A key part of their role is using CRV’s PortaBULL app, which links the mating to the cow to update herd records. The data can be viewed on the spot.
CRV technicians also use an inbreeding alert provided to farmers who are also using the company’s SireMatch service, yielding a report specifically tailored to a farmer’s herd. It helps prevent inbreeding and genetic defects using the cow’s pedigree information, and recommends the ideal sire to match with each cow.
This year CRV technicians will have some added fun -- looking out for five golden straws hidden inside farmers’ CRV AI units, worth $2000 each.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) chair Kate Acland says there are clear governance processes in place to ensure fairness and transparency.
This International Women's Day, there are calls to address a reported gender disparity gap between men women New Zealand's horticulture industry leadership.
WorkSafe New Zealand is calling on farmers to consider how vehicles move inside their barns and sheds, following a sentencing for a death at one of South Canterbury’s biggest agribusinesses.
Now is not the time to stop incorporating plantain into dairy pasture systems to reduce nitrogen (N) loss, says Agricom Australasia brand manager Mark Brown.
Building on the success of last year's events, the opportunity to attend People Expos is back for 2025, offering farmers the chance to be inspired and gain more tips and insights for their toolkits to support their people on farm.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients fertiliser SustaiN – which contains a urease inhibitor that reduces the amount of ammonia released to the air – has now been registered by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI). It is the first fertiliser in New Zealand to achieve this status.
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