NZ Dairy Summer 2020

10 | nz dairy www. wollandcontracting .co.nz rvices / Spraying • Cultivation Se • Grass & Maize Silage vation • Exca • Solid Muck / Slurry Spreading • Hay & Balage • General/Livestock Cartage 027 444 2000 027 446 0087 Maurice: Jamie: 06 376 8857 Office: AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTORS PAHIATUA we know farming at its grass roots Simon Curran Principal, Dip. AG, B.B.S, C.A. ( HELPING GROW YOUR CLOVER AND CASH ) at MCI & Associates, Talk to us today or visit us at: www.mcia.co.nz Dannevirke: (06) 374 7059 Pahiatua: (06) 376 7476 WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT HENNIE VERWAAYAN Phone: 06 374 7090 Email: scott@dannevirkehonda.co.nz www.dannevirkehonda.co.nz Proud to Support Hennie Verwaayen Delivering cost-e ective, high quality stockfeed direct to your farm. sales.nz@adm.com | 0800 123 PKE (753) admnewzealand.co.nz DAIRY PEOPLE » Hennie Verwaayen H ennie Verwaayen, President of the Holstein Friesian Association of New Zealand, is proud of the Association’s lead involvement in an exciting new project to significantly improve the on-farm collection of Traits Other That Production (TOP) data. TOP refers to the behavior, temperament, and physical attributes of a cow, and helps the AB companies to evaluate breeding bulls for the benefit of farmers. Working in close collaboration with all breed societies in New Zealand, the Holstein Friesian As- sociation is spearheading the development of a new system called BreedIT designed to collect TOP data from 50,000 cows each year as scored by inspec- tors employed by the breed societies. For the last 20 years data collection has been handled through LIC, but overtime the technology has become outdated. “LIC no longer wished to invest in the system and the breed societies have long felt that it was not ideal to have an AB company collecting data for their own use,” says Hennie. “The breed societies were given funding from MPI for the development of a new system, with the requirement that the breed societies contribute 20% of the total development cost.” Completely independent of the AB companies and utilizing state of the art technology, BreedIT will transfer data directly to the Dairy Industry Good Animal Database (DIGAD), which is managed by DairyNZ’s New Zealand Animal Evaluation (NZAEL). “The project is well underway and we believe most of the work will be completed by the end of this year. Whether farmers use AB or not, all farmers in New Zealand will benefit from the new technolo- gy, helping them better evaluate the bulls they use.” Originally hailing from Holland in 1989, Hennie and his wife Kerrie own and operate their 145-hec- tare dairy unit in Dannevirke. Running 380 cows, the majority of which are Holstein Friesians, Hennie and Kerrie also own a 95 hectare run-off block a couple of kilometres down the road and lease 120 hectares, which are used for cropping, silage making and grazing young stock and a beef herd. “I’m a hard a core dairy farmer,” says Hennie. “I like working with dairy animals and in particular the dairy cow breeding side of things. The difference between dairy farming without doing anything in • to page 11 NZHFA president lauds development of BreedIT system Richard Loader NZFHA president Hennie Verwaayen says all farmers will benefit from BreedIT data when evaluating the bulls they use. “I’m a hard a core dairy farmer. I like working with dairy animals and in particular the dairy cow breeding side of things. The difference between dairy farming without doing anything in breeding and dairy farming with a breeding focus is that you have more involvement with the individual animal and you can see certain cow families develop over time.”