Over 8,500 Prim’Holstein breeders who record milk production are members of the Service Elaboré of Prim’Holstein France.

Why ?
 Because these breeders, who often already have a high level of production, want to improve the economy of their dairy unit by increasing the genetic potential of their cows. 
They would therefore like to be more effective at the level of morphology, fertility, cells and the longevity of their cows, as well as in relation to all other factors that have an impact on the income of their farms. 

The UPRA Prim’Holstein is capable of helping breeders to be more aware of these criteria and, therefore, of being able to improve them. 
Give yourself the necessary means to sustain your level of production while taking positive action on these new selection criteria. 

 

What are these tools ?

· The visit to the farm and the gathering of morphological data

An inspector visits the farm every year. He evaluates and classifies all of the females subject to milk recording according to current technical protocol. 

Thus, each female is evaluated once in her productive life, between the first and second calving. This data will be used to calculate the morphological indexes. 
Each of these females also receives a classification. This overall classification, which is determined by a point system, varies from 90-100 (Excellent) to 51-59 (Mediocre). All females that have calved at least once and have not yet been evaluated must do so. Females with 85 or more points are automatically re-evaluated up to their third lactation. 
For more information, click on Morphology.

A report is left at the farm on the day of the visit. It includes the classification results as well as the main morphology and production indexes. 
In this way, the classification and the morphological indexing make it possible to rank the animals as to their functional morphology as well as to determine the desirable qualities of each cow but also and most importantly, to emphasize the weak points that can be corrected by the appropriate breeding. 


Morphological data gathering by the inspector

At the time of the visit, the inspector provides genetic management counselling through different documents furnished by Prim’Holstein France, including the Genetic Evaluation.

· The Genetic Evaluation and breeding
At the beginning of each insemination campaign, each member of the Service Elaboré receives a Genetic Evaluation for his livestock which includes :
- an evaluation of the livestock in terms of production and morphology, comparing the results of the herd to departmental and national averages, 
- an inventory of all the females in the herd (young and adult), giving the major data related to genealogy, production and morphology for each one,
- breeding proposals (up to 7) for each of the females with French and foreign bulls. 

This breeding strategy is the only one today that takes not only the complete genealogy of the animal plus its production and morphology indexes into consideration, but also the main selection objectives of the breeder. A questionnaire makes it possible to personalise the strategy and adapt the presentation of the document to each individual breeder. 

· Information
Members of the Service Elaboré also receive precise and objective information about genetics and the use of sires.

This information is provided at the time of the visit to the farm as well as through publications : 

- Young Genetic Inventory : published in the spring, this inventory which lists all of the young animals that have not yet calved is a valuable tool for the genetic management of young animals. 

- Prim’Info Newsletter : After each indexing, it presents new sires, major developments and a look at current events.

Le journal Prim'Info

- Sire Directory : published at the beginning of the insemination campaign, it provides existing information on French bulls as well as on available foreign bulls in the form of comparable index values. 

- Optional personalised services, particularly with PRIM’FAX: receive your females' or males' indexes by fax the day after they are published

· Promotion
 Prim’Holstein France participates in the promotion of farms by organising competitions and publishing documents (directory, top ranking farms, top ranking animals). 
Prim’Holstein France also provides each member with two free vouchers for two individual pedigrees attesting to the genetic value of the animals of their choice.

 · Marketing assistance
Since the beginning of August 2000, Prim’Holstein France offers a free marketing assistance service to all of its members on the Minitel: 3616 PHF.

Each member has the possibility of selling his animals : 
- a simple selection of animals for sale on the inventory which is automatically displayed at the time of connection will suffice, 
- zootechnical data is directly transmitted by the service, 
- sellers may write their own personalised ads. 

These ads will be made accessible to all buyers, whether or not they are members of the Service Elaboré, guaranteeing a considerable market target and excellent livestock promotion. 

Reciprocally, each member who would like to buy breeding animals with objective knowledge of their genetic value can choose ads on the basis of the criteria he is looking for.

Since September 2004, this system fill out and the advertisements are henceforward visible on our website, this is Prim’net.

What is the cost of the membership?

Generally speaking, each member may take advantage of all of the services for approximately 6 euros per cow and per year (free for heifers).

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