By Anthony Shelly
Genetics Australia CEO
Informations internes uniquement - confidentielles à ne pas partager avec l'extérieur.
Informations internes uniquement - confidentielles à ne pas partager avec l'extérieur.
By Anthony Shelly
Genetics Australia CEO
IVF is growing in demand in Australia, and several leading breeders are now benefiting from the service offered by Genetics Australia (GA). Since acquiring Total Livestock Genetics (TLG) in 2021, GA has steadily increased its IVF offerings, delivering stronger results and greater value to producers. Now, as demand continues to rise, GA is entering its next phase of growth by working closely with Trans Ova to expand services across Australia’s dairy and beef industries. By providing advanced reproductive solutions tailored to producers’ unique needs, this expansion reflects our commitment to Customer Centricity—helping breeders achieve their goals through innovative and personalized support.
This story shares the perspective of one of GA’s IVF clients, Elmar Holsteins, a family-owned stud, established in the 1920s and based at Leitchville in Northern Victoria, Australia, and run today by Steve and Deanne Hore and their son Brady.
When you have a cow family that has produced multiple national champions and is famous around the world, you want to ensure it continues. Elmar Holsteins’ Jessica family fits that bill, and GA’s IVF services are helping to extend the genetic gain for the most famous cow, Elmar Goldwyn Jessica 11, now aged 14.5 years.
The Jessicas have been bred and developed over the past 35 years, and the success of IVF is giving the family new impetus. The first 10 IVF calves are on the ground, and at least 30 more are on the way.
Deanne is impressed with the results. “Our first IVF calves were born around August-September last year, and they’ve been nice, big, strong calves,” she said. “They have done really well in our system, and we’re more than happy.”
Elmar Holsteins has been naturally increasing numbers over the decades, more recently accelerating from 450 cows in 2019 when a barn was installed to 600 today. Steve is the third generation at Elmar, Brady the fourth. The original 48-hectare home farm has grown to about 740 hectares over two sites, with Deanne’s former family farm added to the mix for fodder production. The stud was started by Steve’s grandparents, Elsie and Martin (whose names led to Elmar).
Elmar Holsteins used embryo transfers for 35 years, but it was time to move to the next level.
“We’ve been very fortunate that our Jessica cow families have bought us a lot of success, so we decided to send cows to GA,” Deanne said. “They had expired their embryo work on farm and we needed to take the next step and use IVF to try to continue using those genetics. We felt there were benefits in using newer sires over those genetics because those cows had really made an impact for us.”
Over the past 18 months, GA has managed the animals and the IVF side, while the Hores have managed the recipient side on the farm.
GA has managed our donors, and when the IVF embryos are produced, we drive there in the morning, bring them back, and put them in our recipient program. That’s the only artificial program we do. We’ve used a range of sires from what was available and what we thought would best fit. Instead of the semen being delivered to us, it’s delivered to GA, but then we have the recipients on site so we can manage them, which is an important cog in the business because calving and milking are still a priority in our system. We try not to treat them any differently. If we’re rearing a calf, we’re rearing one as if it’s elite genetics or from the bottom tier. It doesn’t matter; all we want is a healthy calf.
The family looks for dairy functionality. “Our cows live in a controlled environment, so dairy strength is important,” Deanne said. “They’re not under a lot of physical stress with no demands to walk long distances so they can carry weight, and therefore, we don’t need a big, heavy-boned animal.”
“We’ve got a really good genetic base, so when we feed them well, they do well, and we get the rewards,” Steve said.
They will continue using IVF. “Jessica is 14, and it’s time to bring her home; she’s done her job,” Deanne said.
Watch this short video à meet Elmar Holsteins and hear about GA’s IVF program.
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