WOW hard to believe that it has been 1 year already since we started The Bullvine. What started as a desire to write about something that we were passionate about has grown into the largest daily digital readership in the dairy breeding industry. Reaching over 20,000 breeders a day!
The Past
Along the way we have a shared our clean side that highlights thought provoking articles and tools to help you make your dairy cattle breeding programs more profitable. However, we also have an edgy side that has not been afraid to talk about those issues the others do not touch.
Over the past year we have published over 280 feature articles (Four times more than any other digital or print dairy publication). Some of the highlights include:
- 7 SIRES TO USE IN ORDER TO BREED THE NEXT WORLD DAIRY EXPO CHAMPION
Everyone loves winning. No one enters a competition to finish last. Regardless of who you are every purebred dairy breeder dreams of winning supreme champion at World Dairy Expo. Your dream of walking in the spotlight, on the colored shavings, with everyone applauding you, starts with choosing the right sires. (Read more) - THE 2012 ROYAL WINTER FAIR HOLSTEIN SHOW – ONE OF THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD!
From an outsider looking in, the 2012 Royal Winter Fair Holstein Show may appear to be somewhat boring. The winners were pretty much the same as, and for all intents and purposes the results whereas per expectation. Yet in my mind, the 2012 Royal Winter Fair Holstein Show will go down in history as one of the greatest stories ever told. (Read more) - SELECT SIRES VS. SEMEX – A CONTRAST IN COOPERATIVES
While many would think that all farmer-owned cooperatives would have the same challenges and the same mandates, there could be no greater contrast than the approaches taken by Select Sires and Semex. Select Sires is a federation of nine farmer-owned-and-controlled cooperative and Semex is a partnership of three breeder owned cooperatives. So structurally they are quite similar with perhaps some significant differences in mandates. However these two artificial insemination companies are headed in very different directions when it comes to approaches to communications and product development. (Read more) - $10,000 A DOSE POLLED SEMEN
First it was LIQUID GOLD that caught everyone’s attention when GenerVations released him and his brothers in a limited offering for $750 and $500. That gave all breeders the chance to have equal access to early release semen, instead of playing favorites with preferred herds or contract mattings. Now it’s GOLDEN PP, Kulp-Dale Golden PP-Red that is getting everyone’s attention. When his first five units of semen sold for $50,000, it generated heaps of discussion around the industry. (Read more) - $750 DOLLAR SEMEN! ARE YOU CRAZY
When you first read the recent Limited Offering from GenerVations for Liquid Gold, Fuzion and Gizmo priced at $750 and $500 and $500 respectively, I am sure some breeders will think: “Are the bulls dead? Are these guys crazy? Are they expecting to get rich? Who the heck will buy that semen?” (Read more) - TOP TEN MOST INFLUENTIAL HOLSTEIN BREEDERS OF ALL-TIME
The great thing about the North American dairy breeding industry is how passionate breeders are about what they do. This is what makes most dairy farmers get up in the morning to do hard work that many would not. Over the years there have been many great breeders that have dedicated their lives to advancing the breed. The following is our top 10 list of the ones who the Bullvine feels have had the biggest impact on the North American Holstein industry. (Read more) - THE TOP 12 HOLSTEIN GENOMIC YOUNG SIRES TO USE FOR MAXIMUM GAIN
Confused on what group of genomic young sires to use for your breeding program? Not sure which sires are the real deals and which ones are just smoke and mirrors (read The Hot House Effect on Sire Sampling)? We decided to take a closer look at the top 100 genomic young sires from around the world to determine just which ones are worth using and which ones you are better forgetting. (Read more) - WORLD DAIRY EXPO 2012 HOLSTEIN SHOW – A BATTLE FOR THE AGES
Pre-billed as being one of the greatest shows in history the 2012 World Dairy Expo Holstein Show was one for the record books. There was the battle of two EX-97 point cows ….the Rejoice vs. Monique battle … and there was the bull stud battle. (Read more) - THE 8 GREATEST NORTH AMERICAN SHOW COWS OF ALL-TIME
Coming off what might have been one of the greatest World Dairy Expo’s of All-Time there seems to be great debate about how some cows stack up in the All-Time rankings. To help determine how we would rank the greatest North American Holstein show cows of all time, we looked at their head to head match ups as well as overall accomplishments and dominance in their era and developed the following list (Read more) - THE WINNERS OF THE 2012 BREEDER’S CHOICE AWARDS
Forget the Vince Lombardi Trophy award to the Baltimore Ravens for winning the Super Bowl last night, it is now time to hand out the 2012 Breeder’s Choice Awards. After the month long vote and announcement this past Monday of the winners of the Tanbark Trail Edition, over 3000 dairy breeders cast almost 8000 votes in a one week period for their favorites in 21 different categories. Without any further ado, here are the winners. (Read more) - MILK MARKETING: HOW “GOT MILK?” BECAME “GOT LOST”
It’s just eight days into a New Year and already I’m thinking about the ‘good ol’ days!”. Remember when the dairy industry was at the top of the agricultural sustainable list, milk was the “perfect food” and milk moustaches were seen on celebrities and sports stars? Hmmm. Where has all the glory gone? In 2013, the dairy industry is fighting to stay alive, the North American diet, including milk, is under attack as obesity from babes to the elderly is out of control and, when all is said and done, milk is a slipping way down on the favorite beverage list! (Read more)
The Present
Today we are doing so much more. We now post 5-10 Breeder relevant news items a day in our Dairy News Section. The Bullvine now has amazing daily content and conversations taking place on our Facebook page. These dynamic interactions have led to our Facebook page setting a new world record for engagement for a dairy page.
This past week alone saw these posts going viral:
Reached over 166,000 people in its first day and shared 1,500 times in under 24 hours
Reached over 118,000 people in 1 day and liked and shared 2,000 times
Seen by over 100,000 people in 1 day and liked or shared over 1,000 times.
In addition, our T-Shirts are in demand by many dairy enthusiasts.
The Future
When we first set out to launch The Bullvine, I decided that for the 1st year we would not take any advertisers on our website. I wanted to first build The Bullvine community and not be influenced or biased by who spent the most money with us.
Now that we are turning two, we are going to start to monetize The Bullvine. However, we will not be doing so in the traditional way. Instead of having breeders pay for ineffective ads, we are going to use the Google proven Ad platform model that is based on pay by performance. As part of Google’s platform we will have no control over whose ads are displayed, and hence will not be influenced by who advertises with us. , We will need to make sure that we keep generating great content that breeders want to read.
We will also be introducing some great new contests and bylines from some of the leading experts and companies in the dairy industry. This will not only enrich the articles and guides that we have already been producing but will also provide you the reader with even more opportunities to get free stuff from us here at The Bullvine, including a chance to win a trip to World Dairy Expo.
The Bullvine Bottom Line
The first year has been an amazing experience for all of us here at the Bullvine. We appreciate all the support we have received from breeders from around the world. The Bullvine community has grown much larger and much faster than we could have ever imagined. We are even more excited about the great things to come in Year 2. Once again, thanks to all the breeders who have made The Bullvine the largest and most read digital daily dairy publication. Gandhi once said “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win!” A pattern we have seen perfectly since starting the Bullvine one year ago.
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