Joining the GENEadvance® service to help make faster genetic progress!

Bower Park Farm in Kent, owned by the Billings family, have significant expansion and improvement plans for the farm over the next five years.  They currently have nearly 400 cows but plan to expand to around 1,000, a new rotary parlour has recently been installed and new housing is being built to accommodate the growing herd.
 
Iain McGeoch, who joined the business as Herd Manager 18 months ago, comments, “When I started here, I knew I had to make long-term changes in the herd, the breeding focus previously was to create big show-type cows and they just weren’t as productive and long-lasting as I wanted and don’t really suit the farm set up.  I needed a plan to make the herd better.”
 
Iain decided that joining the GENEadvance® service was going to help him make faster genetic progress and create replacements for the herd more suited to the business goals.
 
“Nick Tong, our Genus ABS breeding advisor spoke to us about GENEadvance®.  He explained how the use of genomic testing can identify the genetic potential of females to help select the best animals to create my future herd replacements. Alongside the use of Sexcel® and Beef InFocus on the lower end of my herd, it all clicked – I knew this was the way to get where I wanted to be with the herd – but faster.  As farmers we contract out many aspects to the experts and breeding should be the same – we know it’s taken care of and it allows us to concentrate on other things. Whatever you do in a farm business, you need a plan, it’s the same for breeding.  With GENEadvance®, you get a plan that clearly shows which sire to use on which cow, it’s really important to stick to this plan to get the outcome that Genus ABS predict.”
 
“I think analysing individual sires pedigrees and data isn’t a very good use of my time, there is a better way to make breeding decisions and achieve your genetic goals now.  I trust Genus ABS to do the right thing – they are the experts. They understand our goals for the herd and will help us to achieve them.  The whole service is measurable too, you can predict the genetic improvement and they can demonstrate the progress you have made with the breeding decisions made differently based on the genomic testing results.  I wouldn’t know what to do without GENEadvance® now.”