The Year 10 Science students were once again privileged to see the use of world class genetics in action when they visited Garry, Lee and Maddison Hibberd’s 'Cooriemungle Holsteins' dairy farm. Garry described the evolution of the farm and explained that breeding was very important to their 500-550 cow dairy business with the enterprise using embryo flushing and embryo transfers from dams sired by world class international bulls to maximize genetic gain in their herd. Peter Younis from The Vet Group explained the procedure and students were able to see how embryos were flushed from high genetic merit cows to be assessed before being inserted into surrogate cows. Lee clarified that she would rather milk and feed 500 efficient, quality cows that were good at converting feed into milk rather than 1,000 average cows. Maddison described the use of calf hutches to maximize the health of the resulting calves and the use of the cow barn to ensure that there was minimal feed wastage and it also allowed the cows to avoid either hot or cold adverse conditions. Technicians Paul and Elle described their respective career pathways and encouraged students to consider a career in agriculture. We are very fortunate to have access to see world class genomic technology introduced to our class by such passionate advocates in regional Victoria. Thank you Garry, Lee, Pete, Paul and Elle. Comments are closed.
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March 2024
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