Brantford, ON, Guelph, ON, and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC – Holstein Canada and Lactanet are excited to announce the launch of Compass, a free online software that helps Canadian producers make profitable decisions in an industry constantly in flux. Developed in collaboration with Zoetis, Compass is an advancement in herd management, with current and projected genetic information freely available to all Canadian dairy farmers.

Compass is a unique, unbiased strategy tool that uses individual herd information to apply specific breeding strategies and goals to a herd. Producers can make the best on-farm breeding choices with the most up-to-date genetic information, customize and apply criteria specific to their herd, and make plans with their herd’s expected growth in mind. This helps them achieve an optimal return on their genetic investment and make their operations more profitable.

Compass offers a clear window into a herd’s past, present, and future. Once created, a personalized Compass account will highlight specific elements that are relevant to daily or weekly decision-making. The software will also provide the most accurate genetic evaluations for all females in the herd as new performance data is accumulated via milk recording and type classification. Producers can have a comprehensive view of all of their data through the five different modules of Compass:

1. Past Breeding Success

• History of breeder prefix strengths and weaknesses, as well as your herd’s national ranking.

• Producers can upload their herd inventory to create custom charts, groups, and assessments of their herd’s performance.

• This section allows producers to select which genetic index works best for them (LPI or Pro$) and identify five key traits important to their herd.

• Producers can customize their breeding strategy to maximize their herd profitability while illustrating the return on their genetic investment.

• Filterable lists of bulls divided by proven, genomic or MACE as to the specific preferred index as well as up to five selected traits. They are filterable by AI Controller and Haplotypes/Recessives, making listing bulls for their strategy very easy.

Information on how to use the software is available in the Help section of Compass. Personnel from both organizations will provide customer service and support for producers using the software. To start navigating your own herd’s genetics, please visit www.compasscan.ca.

Contact:
Brad Eggink
Manager, Classification Services
Holstein Canada
beggink@holstein.ca
(519) 756-8300 ext. 265
20 Corporate Place, Brantford, Ontario N3T 5R4

Brian Van Doormaal
Chief Services Officer (bilingual), Lactanet Canada
bvandoormaal@lactanet.ca
(519) 767-9660 ext. 101
660 Speedvale Avenue West, Suite 101, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1K 1E5