Elite French dairy, beef and goat genetics destined for UK improves Mastergen product portfolio

• French breeding organisation, Innoval, and German breeding company, MASTERRIND, have intensified their cooperation and will be sharing their portfolio of bulls.
• The cooperation means UK farmers will now have a wide range of French bulls available through MASTERRIND’s UK subsidiary, Mastergen.
• Both Innoval and MASTERRIND are leaders in dairy and beef genetics, and their cooperation is a significant step for the partners, who together sell 8 million units of semen.
• The export arm of Innoval is Evolution International, who will now be selling French dairy, beef and goat semen through Mastergen in the UK.

The widest ever range of European cattle genetics will be heading to the UK, thanks to a new and intensified relationship between France’s largest breeding organisation, Innoval, and Germany’s dominant breeding company, MASTERRIND.

Through Innoval’s exporting arm, Evolution International, genetics from up to 65% of the French market will be sold in the UK through the MASTERRIND subsidiary, Mastergen.

The deal secures the strongest ever line-up of French and German dairy and beef genetics for UK producers.

Innoval’s French line-up is dominated by Holstein genetics but also feature bloodlines from the Normande, Pie Rouge and Brown Swiss breeds.

From the beef breeds, they include the Limousin, Charolais and Blonde d’Aquitaine breeds for which the country is famed, but also the acclaimed composite INRA breed, which is mainly an amalgam of Charolais and Blonde, but also includes genes from the Limousin, Red Meadows and Piemontese, and is now a breed in its own right.

The deal also secures a route for less mainstream pedigree beef breeds, some of which have previously been difficult for UK beef producers to access. This includes the Parthenaise, Bazadaise and Gascon breeds, and the popular Salers, used increasingly across UK suckler herds.

Also difficult to source have been the Abondance and Tarentaise breeds, which will be added to the dairy line-up.

Dairy goat semen will also be part of the deal, tapping into a hugely important industry and gene pool in continental Europe.

Alison Dunphy, MD of Mastergen, says: “We have had a trading relationship with Evolution for the past six years, and are thrilled to have been able to cement this with such a strong agreement.

“Innoval runs an exceptional programme of research and development and has one of the largest breeding programmes in the world,” she says. “It represents 65% of the French market, distributes its semen in 70 countries, and its R&D activity and  Genetic Development involves a network of 2,000 participating breeders.

“With over 6,000 males genotyped in Holstein every year and one of the largest semen sexing laboratories in Europe, we can look forward to the continued availability of diverse and industry-leading bloodlines.”

Much of the semen from Evolution will be marketed to UK customers by Mastergen itself, but existing routes, through third parties, will also be stepped up. This ensures farmers committed to working with other breeding companies will have no disruption of supply.

“When Mastergen was established in the UK in 2014, we were the exclusive UK importer of genetics from MASTERRIND,” says Alison. “As we also become the exclusive importer from the majority of France’s cattle breeding industry, we are proud to offer UK producers an unsurpassed catalogue of mainstream, elite and specialist genetics from the main breeders and breeding programmes across continental Europe.”