Are you ready to lead with vision and drive innovation? NAV, a leading company in Nordic cattle breeding, is excited to announce an opportunity for a dynamic leader to join our team as director.
Read more about the position and how to apply for it from the position profile.
NAV has opened a trend page for beef breeds. On the NAV Trends – Beef genetic trends for beef breeds are displayed. With trend page it is easy to display graphs that illustrate the genetic progress (the average breeding value per birth year) for sub-indices. You can choose to show the trends for different breeds and together or separately for the three Nordic countries (DFS – Denmark, Finland and Sweden).
The latest NAV routine genomic evaluation took place as scheduled. NAV carried out genomic prediction for Holstein, RDC and Jersey. Genomic breeding values of bulls are updated to NAV Bull Search after each evaluation.
NAV has also released breeding values for purebred beef bulls and cows. Beef breeding values are updated to NAV Beef Search. It is now possible to search for live animals in NAV Beef search. When this additional search parameter is selected, search result includes only animals which were alive when data was extracted for the latest breeding value evaluation.
Read more from the NAV newsletter.
Saved feed was included in the Nordic Total Merit (NTM) in 2020 for all breeds. With the introduction of new saved feed index in February 2025, its weighting in the NTM for Holstein has been adjusted. The new weight for saved feed is 0.18, more than double the previous value of 0.08. For NTM, 10 index units in saved feed will change NTM by one unit. A bull with 110 in saved feed will increase NTM by one unit according to the changed weight for saved feed.
The introduction of the new saved feed index has also changed the correlation between NTM and saved feed, not only for Holstein but for all breeds. The updated NTM correlations can be found on NAV homepage.
In February 2025 evaluation, a new Saved feed index was introduced. The new index is based on dry matter intake (DMI), production (ECM) and weight change. The interpretation of the index remains the same: higher index values indicate lower feed intake. One index corresponds to a reduction of 15-20 kg in dry matter intake per lactation. There is a low correlation between the old and the new index for saved feed which means a large reranking between animals for the saved feed index. Since Saved feed is included in NTM there will also be a minor effect on NTM.
Read more about the new Saved feed index: