Older cows have higher production and a lower environmental impact. The first productive years of a cow are necessary to payback the cost involved in breeding her, and it is only in later lactations that a cow actually starts earning.

Older cows produce more milk, which means that average production is higher. They also reduce the need for replacement in the herd, which implies that fewer young cattle have to be raised. Healthy and productive cows form the foundation of a long life.

CRV has a long tradition of focussing on high lifetime production and longevity. Thanks to the high volume of data collected by Dutch and Flemish farmers, and the use of unique predictors, the breeding value for longevity is one of the most accurate and reliable breeding values in the world.

CRV is leading in longevity and we offer several solutions:

• Top ranking sires of various breeds who pass on high longevity
• The mating advice programme SireMatch to breed cows with a higher longevity
• The genomic herd management solution HerdOptimizer Go that makes herd management easy and allows you to select animals with the highest genetic level for longevity

• Over the past 60 years, a total of 37,777 cows have achieved 100,000kg of milk production in the Netherlands
• More than six CRV cows* per day reach the exceptional milestone of 100,000kg of milk production per day
• At culling, Dutch herdbook cows* note a lifetime production that averages 31,553kg of milk, with 1,371kg of fat and 1,120kg of protein (2019)
• The Dutch cow Big Boukje (Cash x Labelle x F16 x Tops) was the first cow in the Netherlands to smash the magical 200,000kg milk barrier
• Longevity is part of the CRV Efficiency index, a unique index that helps to breed highly productive cows that convert feed efficiently into milk and achieve high lifetime production

A study among more than 22,000 animals also examined the performance of culled cows. The results revealed remarkable differences between the 25% highest scoring and the 25% lowest scoring cows for CRV Efficiency.

The highest scoring cows were not only more productive, they also had longevity of 274 days more. This resulted in a difference in lifetime production of more than 13,000 kilos of milk and more than 1,000 kilos of fat and protein. The best cows also had a significantly higher genetic level for longevity and CRV Efficiency. Breeding for longevity really does pay off in practice!