Background Breeding
Breeding clubs feel ignored by CRV and Rijk
What's the point of aligning with cattle breeding company CRV on officially non-competitive matters like national breeding values if you're not going to be heard. This is what AI organisations, semen dealers and other breeding-related organizations that still exist next to CRV are wondering.
So far they have been obediently seated in the so-called 'Users Council' of the CRV cooperative, which, as owner of the Dutch Rundvee Syndicate and as a recognized studbook organization, is allowed to determine the breeding values and breeding goals for the cattle herd in the Netherlands.
From the perspective of European breeding regulations, the calculation of the breeding values is a task that falls under the responsibility of the recognized studbook organisation, whereby studbook tasks may not be assigned to an organization that could lead to a conflict of interest with the breeders/affiliates. However, at the last meeting of the Users Council in Wolfheze in September, those non-CRV members came home from a cold fair.
Breeding goals 2020 have long been established
They thought they still had a say before the breeding goals for 2022 were set and, for example, could have adjustments made. For example, a survey among farmers showed that livestock farmers want more emphasis on levels and less emphasis on soft goals such as circular agriculture. The board of CRV did not agree. Worse than, during the meeting it turned out that the CRV board had long since decided on the breeding goals for 2022, because, according to director Paul Vriesekoop, there had been no more time. This is evidenced by documents in the possession of Boerenbusiness.
Board of cooperative also boss at bv
The participants in the User Council felt insulted, but formally their advice can be ignored. However, not everything is in order. The structural problem is that the board of CRV also coincides one-on-one with the Supervisory Board of CRV bv. This is a problem, because the dominant breeding organization - which has been heavily influenced commercially - can push its own agenda and that often also does. This is contrary to European breeding regulations. This has been pointed out many times over the years, but neither CRV nor the regulators RVO and NVWA are doing anything about it.
Meeting NVO
The direct result of the last meeting of the User Council of CRV is that the Dutch Livestock Improvement Organization (NVO) has convened a special meeting this week (20 October) to consider their position. The chairman of the club did not want to anticipate this in advance, but documents that have been distributed show his great displeasure.
For the sake of fairness, he also notes that the breeders who record their data in the CRV studbook may have partly brought the situation that has arisen on themselves. For too long they have been too uncritical and too divided among themselves to tackle the CRV problem. A response has been requested from CRV, but has not yet been received.
Fusion unwanted
In the end, when CRV was formed in 1998, there was already opposition to the establishment and bundling of breeding and commercial activities in a single cattle organization. Member of Parliament Pieter ter Veer opposed it in vain. Agriculture Minister Van Aartsen indicated that he thought the merger was undesirable, but could not stop it and that the review of the applicable breeding regulations was entrusted to the Agriculture Board and later the Product Board for Livestock and Meat.
CRV itself always states that it is not a problem, but it remains surprising to others that studbook tasks and commercial tasks are allowed to sit together in one organization and under one board. In fact, the route to record studbook data in the database of the cooperative CRV still goes through CRV bv, even though this is in violation of EU legislation.
These regulations prescribe that specific technical studbook activities (which include data collection, performance research and breeding value estimation) may not be invested in a third organization if there is a conflict of interest between that third organization and the economic activities of breeders who participate in the breeding program. Participate.
All data via commercial reporting point
CRV bv receives all breeding data from the affiliated Dutch and Flemish breeders/participants in the studbook. Only then will the data end up in the studbook database of the studbook organization/cooperative. What's more: CRV bv also receives all I&R data that arrive at RVO. The I&R database is the civil status of all Dutch cattle, which is used by, among others, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
CRV bv also receives all milk control data. All livestock data first goes through a commercial reporting point. It is the ideal place to get started with 'big data', one of CRV bv's stated ambitions. The question is whether CRV bv is allowed to do this just like that. According to (and also at) KI Samen, one of the organizations that has been fighting for years against the bundling and mixing of activities that it also considers to be illegal, and this is not allowed. Because of its objections, KI Samen has been involved in a legal battle with both CRV and the Ministry of LNV and RVO for years.
Often the use of 1 joint bank account throughout the CRV cluster is also seen as undesirable, but according to CRV this has to do with the factoring practice that is applied.
Silly henkie
However, due to all kinds of opposition, the organization is not making the progress it hopes. Documents that she requests on the basis of the Government Information (Public Access) Act (WOB) do not appear and/or are made illegible to such an extent that nothing meaningful can be derived from them. It is a battle of attrition, in which the organization runs the risk of being dismissed as 'crazy Henkie'. CRV has also shrugged its shoulders in several interviews about the efforts of KI Samen.
Like the indignant delegates in the CRV User Council, KI Samen feels structurally opposed by RVO and the NVWA supervisor. In addition to AI-Samen, other stakeholders have also raised the abuses in livestock improvement at a high level with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, RVO and the NVWA years ago. These individuals, who do not want to be named for fear of reprisals, state that their reports about things that are not right are barely done. According to them, the reports appear to be held back by officials from RVO and the NVWA, as a result of which enforcement from above is not forthcoming. The editors of Boerenbusiness also has evidence of this.
Written questions about these matters do not lead to more clarity for the time being. Especially because (allegedly) supervisory organizations refer to each other for substantive responses.
Klaas van der Horst
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