Company News

Canada has a reputation for continually striving to enhance our national genetic evaluation systems. Providing useful and accurate evaluations to dairymen
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BY: WYATT BECHTEL www.milkbusiness.com
Despite all of the improvements made with dairy animal husbandry there continues to be worse health performance, says Steven Larmer, geneticist and business analyst for Semex.
:Unfortunately, we do have a significant genetic and phenotypic negative correlation between milk production and health of animals. The more stress we continue to put on animals to produce more milk, the more disease we see," Larmer adds. Larmer discussed a genetic solution that Semex has been working on with Immunity+ during the MILK Business Conference in Las Vegas.
Semex made Immunity+ available to producers in 2012 after Bonnie Mallard from the University of Guelph in Canada researched and developed the technology.
Larmer says Mallard and other researchers at Guelph published more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers during that time, and research on the link between genetics and immunity is ongoing.
"When all else is equal, the thing that's going to differ between two cows on your dairy is, how strong is their immune system? How able are they going to be to respond to that challenge? Because no matter how well managed a dairy is, every cow is going to encounter both bacterial and viral pathogens almost every day on a dairy farm," Larmer says.
Having cows with naturally strong immune systems should increase longevity and reduce time that cows are out of the milking herd because of withdrawal times.
Genetics have helped push a large portion of milk production increases in the past few decades because it is 30% heritable. Immune response is similarly heritable at 30%, creating a massive potential to positively impact disease incidences simply through genetic selection.
High immune response cows account for the top 20% of cows with strong immunity through various research. Those cows have been shown to have more antibodies in their colostrum, respond better ... Read More...

Like many dairy producers, Chris McLaren of Drumbo, Ontario’s Larenwood Farms has been genetic testing heifers for years. For McLaren, knowing what to do with the information and how to use it to make better breeding decisions has always proved challenging. But things have changed since he first logged into Elevate in
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Semex is now offering female genomic testing for all commercial traits. Along with every genomic test, clients will also receive Immune genomics estimates for every tested female. Tested females will be classified as having High, Average or Low Immune genomic status. Those animals classified as High will receive the official Semex Immunity Female designation. Female Immune Genomics have been validated in commercial herds in the United States.
How are genomic values calculated? Single-step methodology (Misztal et al., 2009) is used to combine genotypes and phenotypes of thousands of animals to estimate genomic values for Anti-Body Mediated and Cell-Mediated Immune Response. Applying all animals tested for Immune Response using the University of Guelph's patented High Immune Response test as a reference population, genomic values for any genotyped Holstein animal can be calculated. Immune Response is highly heritable, and so genomic selection with a moderate size reference population is highly accurate. Animals that exceed 1 standard deviation above population mean are classified as High. Animals less than 1 standard deviation beow the population mean are classified as Low.
What is the impact of Immunity Female on farm?  Fifteen large commercial herds in the United States were analyzed to assess the impact of Female Immune Genomics on disease incidence. Mastitis, lameness and total disease frequency in heifers and cows (any case of routinely recorded disease) were analyzed as the most prevalent and consistently well-recorded traits. Disease frequencies reflect the current population average, including some animals in early lactation. A model was fit to determine the effect of High Immune Genomic females compared to herdmates, after fixed effects for herd, age, and parity. All traits investigated were found to be significant (p

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Genomically tested embryos provide extreme genetic value! If you could generate a 3300 LPI or higher calf from a 2000 LPI heifer, you would essentially be short-cutting about four generations of genetic improvement. So how can you do it? Genomically tested embryos are an important tool available through EastGen. Many of the embryos we
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EastGen members in zones 1,4,7 and 10 are invited to submit for a Director in their respective Zone for a three year term.
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The best giveaway at World Dairy Expo is healthier than ever! Semex is breaking ground once again by giving away two heifers that are genomically tested to be high immune responders.

“We all know that a healthier herd is a more profitable herd,” says Michael Hurst, Semex Director, US Sales & Business Development. “And this year at our tent, we’re actually giving away two high GTPI heifers that have been genomically tested to be more resistant to disease. They’re healthier than other calves and their genomics proves it. We’re the only company that has this test and the only exhibitor at World Dairy Expo that can literally give you a healthier herd…. All you need to do is come and enter!”   

Launched in early 2018, Semex’s Elevate™ program is a genomic testing program that is unique in many ways, including that it is the only test that offers an Immunity female test. This means producers no longer have to guess which cows are their healthiest. Instead, Elevate helps tailor their breeding program with both genomic information and Immunity results, making faster genetic progress towards a stronger, more disease resistant herd.

“We used Elevate for our own testing,” says Paul Krueger, VP, Global Key Account & Solutions Strategy. “The results are easy to follow, with a designation of low, medium or high for Immune Response. These heifers were high responders, meaning they’re more resistant to common diseases. Stopping by the Semex Tent at World Dairy Expo and entering to win one of these calves could be just the start of a healthier herd for you with Semex!”

Enter to win one of these calves at the Semex Tent during World Dairy Expo, join us for hospitality from 5:00-7:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights, with a live calf draw at 6:00 pm both nights. Winners need not be ... Read More...

Semex is pleased to announce the appointment of two individuals to key positions within the organization:


Matthew McCready has accepted the role of Director, International Sales & Business Development, effective September 10, 2018
Peter Van Beek has accepted the role of Key Account Manager, effective September 1, 2018


Reporting to Drew Sloan, Vice President, International Sales, Matthew McCready will lead Semex’s Asian business unit, providing leadership for the ongoing development of our product portfolio, including both Semex’s genetic products and solutions.

“We look forward to Matt contributing to our growth and profitability in these key markets,” says Sloan. “This market, including China, is key to Semex’s future. His passion for connecting with clients and global marketing experience make him a valuable asset to our team.”

Most recently Matt was Director of Business Development, Hybrid Turkeys at Hendrix Genetics, leading their global marketing and working closely with global sales directors and region managers. Previous to that, Matt held several positions at PepsiCo Canada. A graduate of the University of Guelph with a bachelor of commerce, agriculture business, Matt comes from an agricultural background.

Reporting to Paul Krueger, Vice President, Global Key Account & Solutions Strategy, Peter Van Beek will be the lead key account management resource for all of Semex’s European sales teams. Peter will have a hands-on role in our key account strategies and will serve as Semex’s technical expert, working closing with our sales teams to provide our clients with custom solutions.

Peter is excited to return to the AI business after managing a portfolio of calf milk replacers for Nukamel. Previous to that, he was an International ... Read More...

Paul Meyer, Westgen Sales & Marketing Manager

Rosy-Lane Holsteins LLC in Watertown, Wisconsin, USA was all about health traits long before most people talked about selecting for healthier cows. And, while the US was focusing on TPI (jokingly referred to by Lloyd in those days as being synonymous with tall, pretty and infertile cows) as the way to improve longevity, Lloyd and Daphne Holterman began blazing their own trail, breeding cows that worked for them, and keying in on a brand new genetic trait called Productive Life (PL) and shortly thereafter, Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR).

After all, says Lloyd, “You need to select directly for the traits that make cows last,” as opposed to indirectly via type traits. Becoming a NM$ enthusiast, Lloyd’s pursuit of profitable cows was based on using his own on-farm data to guide selection decisions. Today, most of the rest of the world has caught up to this philosophy and the importance of health traits within a breeding goal. Still, with a big head start, clearly it is immensely satisfying for Lloyd to have AI companies and individual breeders interested in top ranked genomic animals from his herd.

It was 1992 when Lloyd first opted for the road less travelled; that proverbial fork in the road. For many years he continued to work within his own breeding program, selecting the types of bulls that worked for him. With bulls like Manfred, Oman, Lynch and Ramos, he blazed his own trail. Increasingly, this led to disappointment during classification visits where his kind of cows, the kind that worked best at Rosy-Lane, were often not appreciated. However, the health traits he focused on steadily improved. This selection philosophy, along with his diligent focus on management, netted enviable results. With death losses now typically in the 3% range, a culling rate hovering around 20% and somatic cell counts averaging just over 100,000 on his ... Read More...

Elevate your genetics with our new industry leading genetic selection tool.  At EastGen, we are committed to offering you the strongest genetic and reproductive consultation and technology services to elevate the health and profitability of your herd. EastGen’s new Elevate program gives you a tool to make confident mating and culling decisions on a whole-herd basis while gaining valuable genetic progress. This new low-cost genomic testing program is
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