Beef and dairy farmers are joining forces to raise money for testicular cancer, while also improving their herd genetics as part of Breedr’s ‘Bulls Out for Cancer’ campaign.
Running throughout May and June, the campaign aims to raise £5,000 for the OddBalls Foundation, at the same time as helping farmers to improve their breeding and performance.
Using the free Breedr app, farmers can register all of their breeding information – like when they turn out the bull, calving ease and weaning weights. With regular growth data they can then identify the best performing bloodlines and management practices.
For every bull logged in the app in May and June, Breedr will donate £10 to the OddBalls Foundation, with an extra 10p added for each bulling activity or artificial insemination added. Farmers who share their photos or video on Twitter with the hashtag #BullsOutForCancer will earn another £1 for the charity.
“Around 2,300 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year, and the OddBalls Foundation is all about raising awareness and getting men to check themselves regularly,” explains Suzy Wheal, co-founder of Breedr.
“Healthy balls are vital to farmers, whether that’s their own or their bulls’ – they’re clearly a vital part of any breeding system.”
What is Breedr?
Since its launch in 2019, Breedr has helped farmers to monitor and predict growth rates, keep track of medicine usage, and maximise productivity based on real-time data.
It recently launched a live trading platform for farmers to buy and sell cattle as well as the world’s first smart, minimum-priced beef contract.
Now, it is unveiling a suite of free breeding tools, enabling farmers to collect all their information in one place and benchmark against industry standard Key Performance Indicators.
“By collating information on fertility performance, bloodlines, calving ease, birth weights and growth rates, farmers can easily see which animals perform best,” added Wheal.
Whether you’re a suckler beef producer or a dairy farmer, selecting superior parents for breeding will lead to cumulative and permanent gains in the herd productivity, efficiency and profitability.
Tom Ellis from the OddBalls Foundation responded to the campaign by saying: “Thank you to Breedr for raising money for the OddBalls Foundation.
“The money raised will go into helping us raise awareness of testicular cancer and get more men and boys talking about and checking their balls.”
