CountryLife
MARCH 2019
Bruce Hills - farmers’ friend Bruce Hills loves chewing the cud with his farming buddies. The Cambridge farmer grew up on a sheep farm in Te Pahu and farmed in Rototuna before moving to his own farm in Flume Road. Although he’s now sold part of his farm and his dairy herd, he is still working the land. Bruce began using CRV Ambreed genetics 36 years ago, and became a sales rep and AB technician for the company two years later. He covered the greater Cambridge area and over the years met a lot of farmers from around the region, many of whom have become valued friends. “I loved doing my job,” says Bruce, who relished the people aspect of the job as much as the genetics. “I enjoyed meeting farmers and dealing with other reps.” Although retired from full-time work, he still keeps his hand doing deliveries and inseminations on a part-time basis. Using genetics is the best way of ending up with a good animal, according to Bruce. “You can pick the type of animal you want.” The advisory traits he recommends include capacity, temperament, udder overall and protein. He favours a big strong animal and in the past had a full pedigree friesian stud where he classified his animals to keep his cows to a high standard. The Hills’ pedigree friesian herd was bred over four decades from top CRV Ambreed bulls, including Firenze, Skelton, Pierre, Favour, Paramount and Paladium. This year New Zealand herd improvement company CRV Ambreed celebrates 50 years in business. Established by a small group of Kiwis, CRV Ambreed is now part of the world’s third largest artificial breeding company, CRV Ltd. The company claims to breed the best bulls in New Zealand to provide the best genetics and herd management products and services to dairy farmers. CRV Ambreed currently distributes millions of straws of high-quality semen to domestic and export markets. Twenty-five percent of its semen is exported to South America, South Africa, parts of North America, plus the UK and Ireland.