Bundesverband der Tierzucht-und Besamungstechniker e.V. (BTB)
Report 2015 – Meeting European a.i. Technicians in Bergamo (Italy)
1. Development of dairy farms in different countries after the milk quota and a fall in the
price after the end of the quota
Since several years the development of dairy farm are really strange: growing in some areas
is now to double or triple the herd size. A lot of money (millions of €) were invested in luxury
barns und growing their herds. Sometimes some farms are working together now, but also
some farmers invest it alone – and perhaps they are happy that they have only 10% own
capital on the farm. In the last 10 years half of the dairy farms stopped the milk production.
Some unions of farmers (BDM=EMB, ABL) are very afraid of this development. But the
farmers’ association and the milk industry recommend this new trend. Already before the
end of the quota, the milk production is much higher than the quota. The result now is, that
the farmers now have a lot of problems: bad milk price and the fee for too much milk
deliverymeans a lot of financial problems for the farms. Meanings of the politicians and other
official persons told us, that only bigger farms are strong enough to solve such financial
problems. But in this moment, especiallythese farms have the biggest problems: they have to
pay the new barns, the rent for the land, the salary for their employees, the food for the
cows and for the removal of the manure. Typical family farms works more efficient and they
easier can survive a period of bad milk prices than the big new farms. We have to look, what
will happen in the future – the farms sure will grow in the future, bat perhaps the steps will
go so fast as in the past.
2. Consulting service from the A.I. companies
In Germany we still have a big number of A.I. and breeding companies organized as a coop. In
the southern part of Germany the a.i. companies and the breeding companies are
independent. In the northern part of Germany a.i. and breeding organization is mostly the
same coop. In the past the government organized a consulting service to the farmers – that
included breeding, feeding and business management. But more and more the government
cancelled these services for the farmers and now some a. i. companies offered such services
to the farmers but also some private companies are offering such services – the farmers have
to pay for this!
3. Handling of growing fertility problems in dairy farms
Permanent we have projects to improve the fertility in dairy herds. The discussion of
sustainability and production in lifetime collide with higher production in a short time to be
more efficient. That is a problem in our daily work – the fertility is not getting better, but also
lifetime production is not growing. Otherwise we have farms; they are able to have high
production and old cows in their herds. More and more the goals in our breeds are changing
to more functional features. Electronic heat detection and rumination control are helping
more farms to organize their breeding.
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Bundesverband der Tierzucht-und Besamungstechniker e.V. (BTB)
4. Changings with gemomics
Breeding with Holsteins are changing – most of the a.i. companies are using more and more
bulls without daughter proofs. Some a. i. companies use more than 90% genomic bulls. In the
beginning they told the farmers that the price of semen will be cheaper in the future,
because it’s not necessary to have so many bulls as before. But now the price is higher than
before. Other breeds like the German Fleckvieh, Brownswiss or Jerseys don’t have such a big
data base like Holsteins. So they still use more proven bulls. The opinion about genomic
breeding is very different: a lot of breeders miss the legends in the breed - bulls which are
becoming better and better over the years. Same for the bull dams: a lot of impressive cows
(after the 3. or 4. Calf) are not able to become a bull dam, because they are not high enough
because of their age, although they are pointed EXCELLENT and have a good production.
5. What happened with a.i. technicians in the last years
In the past the most important job was to breed cows and pigs. Today the nearly all pigs are
bred by the farmers, because mostly the pigs are housed in big farms. Today also the job for
cattle changed extremely: we have more and more technicians who work as an adviser!
They make the breeding program, preg checks and looking for fertility problems with
ultrasound, feeding advising and selling semen to the farms those who breed their cows
themselves. In dairy farms the breeding with sexed semen is growing – the quality becomes
much better the last years. Sexed semen is not very popular in farms with
Fleckvieh/Simmental, because the bull calves are very good paid! Sexed semen male are not
used for heifers and for the cows the fertility is not good enough. The handling from sexed
semen is a little bit different and must use very accurate. Some countries tried to use “long
living” semen – but in Germany there is no market for this kind of semen.
6. The development of the education from A.I. technicians in Germany
Since several years the Germany BTB was very engaged to develop a better education for the
technicians. In the last few years the course for the basic training changed in a course only
for cattle – before we also had have the training for pigs included. But most of the course
members are not interested in pigs. So now, the basic education is reduced to a 4 weeks
course. In such a short time it’s not possible to get an education which is necessary to work
successful on a modern dairy farm – the job is not only to breed the cows – an A.I. Technician
is the specialist for all fertility problems: he has to search for reproductive solutions und help
the farmer to get their cows pregnant. So after this short course, some a.i. companies spend
time to make their own further education in the field with some colleagues. The goal from
the German BTB was, to get a new and better standard educationall over Germany. For us
one of the most important goalswas that we were very interested to have this standard in the
German breeding law!Unfortunately: some of the German a.i. companies are not very
interested to have a good education fixed in the breeding law. The new education now: After
the 4-weeks basic course every participant have to pass an examination! After that they get
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Bundesverband der Tierzucht-und Besamungstechniker e.V. (BTB)
the license to breed cattle. Within 1 year every new colleague shall take part in 3 additional
courses – term: 1 week per course. In this upgrade courses the know more about pregchecks, ovary checks and working with customers. Also they recheck the knowledge from
the basic course. After these 3 weeks, they have to make an additional examination. We
regret, that this further education is optional – mostly the a.i. company decides who is
allowed to visit this course. Also it’s not allowed for free working technicians to take part on
these courses. Most of the a.i. companies are using this possibility of further education for
their technicians. This additional education was mostly developed by the German BTB and
we still hope that there is a chance to fix this education in the German breeding law. We try
hardly and work on it.
7. Possibility for free working technicians
Since the changings in the German breeding law, it’s easier to work free in Germany. In the
past you need a German A.I. company that you are allowed to breed cows. Now you can
have an own EU semen depot and you can do nearly everything what an a.i. company is
allowed to do, excluded is only producing of semen. We now have some single working
technicians who work free, but mostly a group of technicians are working together. Before,
most of the technicians worked for a German a.i. company. So after their changing, they
mostly have the same customers as before. In some areas it’s very difficult to register the
calves into the herd book, because in most areas the a.i. company and the herd book is the
same company. Also some import companies start with their own technicians. Some offer
only fertility service with ultra sound, but in some areas they also offer the insemination
service. For starting this service, they sometimes make special offers for the farmers: for
example the farmer has to pay only for every pregnant cow - € 18,00 included the semen.
That’s really strange – because in our opinion a good service, with good educated persons,
deserved also a fair price for the technicians. In this time more technicians are thinking about
the possibility to work free! The reason for that is mostly, that for the a.i. companies the
most important point is to sell more and more straws to earn more and more money. In the
past the coops was interested to breed good cattle and to offer a high-end service to the
farmers (mostly the shareholders of the coops), but now they only have 1 goal: every year
they want to make more profit! – And for this a good educated technician is not very helpful:
he doesn’t need so many straws for 1 pregnancy und he also want to earn money for his
good work. Some managers only want to have the technicians as an unskilled worker!Then
he is cheaper and use more straws!
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