Three breeders of Canada’s Top 10 Cows by Lifetime Income comment on the new 2023 CRI report
- 17, April 2024
Congratulations to the breeders who own these cows who have surpassed $142,000 in Lifetime Milk Revenue!
To view Canada’s Top 100 Lifetime earners, click here!
IVORY - Owned by Yorellea Farms
Ralph, Jeff & Tim Leroy
On robotic milking since 2013, Tim Leroy is co-owner of the farm with his father Ralph and uncle Jeff. He is pleased to see his cow Ivory ranked among the top 10 in Canada for lifetime milk revenue: “Ivory was a cow with excellent feet & legs who never had any health problems. She had adapted very well to robotic milking after completing 2 lactations in the milking parlour. Although not dominant, she was smart and waited for quiet moments at the robots to be milked. She was very persistent in milk with high daily yields, even with some long calving intervals.
“Ivory is a good example of our breeding strategy, the problem-free cow that stays around longer and allows us to sell open heifers and fresh cows. We had to say farewell to Ivory a few months ago, which was difficult for us. She was the oldest of the herd, at 14.”
Tim and his father, Ralph Leroy, consult milk recording reports and they particularly appreciate the figures that shows which cows are the most profitable as they mature. The CRI report is a new tool to potentially determine which cows will become the most profitable from a young age.
Ivory was at the highest of the 10 year-old cows in the Yorellea herd, which includes 4 cows with an average of 116,659$ Lifetime Milk Income on the 2023 CRI herd report.
BAMBOA - Owned by Ferme Parkhurst Inc.
Jacques Chabot, France Roussin, Olivier Leclerc, Mélanie and Claudia Chabot
Olivier Leclerc was one of the instigators of the 2021 Lactanet customer Resolution to develop a new production performance indicator for cows in the herd. He and fellow breeders were looking for a way to better compare cows between herds based on their economic performance.
“The CRI report satisfies our need to easily identify the most profitable cows in my herd,” says Oliver Leclerc. The $ / Day of Life column is a useful indicator for comparing cows by age, and it’s easy to tell how they rank on a national basis using the national percentile rank. Comparing by the cow’s birthday provides a fair comparison independent of the cows’ calving interval.”
As for his cow Bamboa, Mr. Leclerc says he’s not surprised by her top ranking, with her very high fat levels and regular calvings. “She left us at the age of 10, having completed 8 high-earning lactations. With a milk value of $40.29/day of life, she was the highest in our barn.”
JENY BEAUTY - Owned by Ferme Berthely
François Laliberté
François Laliberté speaks enthusiastically of his home-bred cows from the Jeny Beauty family: “They impress us with their longevity and lifetime production. Jeny Beauty and her sister Justice are one of the best duos that ever existed in Canada, according to the breed association: their lifetime milk production reaches 158,000 kg and 162,000 kg [respectively].”
François makes an initial observation of his herd’s March 2023 CRI report: “The ranking reflects very well what I consider to be the best cows in my barn. For a long time now, we’ve been selecting for long-lasting cows with strong milk components. We appreciate cows that reproduce easily, without problems, and these are indeed the ones at the top of the report’s classes.”
The Berthely Farm CRI report highlights that cows that had their first calving between 20 and 23 months of age are the best performers in each of the different classes. Their 10+ year old class includes a total of 4 cows averaging over $100,000 in Lifetime Milk Revenue. Jeny Beauty reaches the national top 10 with $145,036 in revenue at her June 2023 anniversary date, completing her 12th lactation at age 16 and producing $24.82 / day of life.
To learn more about this report, click here.
