About Alpha

Breed cows with the traits you want. Use Alpha® nominated to mate your herd with hand-picked bulls that meet your breeding criteria and increase your herd’s genetic value and profitability.

Holstein friesian cows grazing in long grass 2

Breed for success with Alpha

Choose your Alpha bulls

Or choose Alpha packs. Then contact your LIC rep to buy.

Daughter Proven

Bulls with a proven track record. The right choice if you're looking for reliable, consistent results.

Genomically Selected

Elite young bulls to fast-track genetic gains.

Hand-pick top-ranked bulls to get the results you want — from improved production or shorter calving to cows suitable for once-a-day milking or high input feeding.
Increase your herd’s genetic value and profitability.
Suits a variety of farming systems, including high input and once-a-day.

Choose the bulls individually, or put together an Alpha pack to get a selection of bulls at a discounted price. We also offer No Choice packs made up of teams of bulls we put together to meet specific breeding criteria, including A2 and high input.

Choose Alpha bulls
Buy Alpha packs

Breed from New Zealand’s top bulls

Alpha bulls are carefully selected to increase your herd’s genetic value and profitability. Many feature in the top 30 of the Ranking of Active Sires (RAS) List — New Zealand’s top-ranked dairy sires.

Choose from four main selections of genetically superior bulls:

Holstein-Friesian
Jersey
KiwiCross
Ayrshire.

Mate your whole herd using frozen semen from hand-picked Alpha bulls, or get the best of both worlds by combining nominated mating with our team-based Premier Sires artificial breeding programme.

You can also choose from two types of Ayrshire bulls:

Daughter Proven
Young Ayrshires, which are selected on the basis of their ancestry.

Genomically Selected bulls for a competitive edge

Genomically Selected bulls are elite young bulls that show great genetic promise. Genomically Selected bulls are a good choice if you want to fast-track genetic gain through early access to the bulls we expect to become star performers.

In spring we add a number of promising yearlings to the list of Genomically Selected bulls. Register your interest with your LIC rep if you want guaranteed access to these yearlings — or find them in the Alpha list.

Daughter Proven bulls for reliable results

Daughter Proven bulls are graduates of our Sire Proving Scheme, a rigorous four-year programme to identify New Zealand’s top bulls. Daughter Proven bulls have a proven track record, making them a good choice if you’re looking for reliable, consistent results.

Economy bulls for great-value genetics at a good price

Economy bulls include older bulls and those that performed very well in our Sire Proving Scheme but have not been included in our main daughter proven selection. Economy bulls are a good choice if you’re looking for a cost-effective option that offers great-value genetics.

Choose your Alpha bulls
Buy Alpha packs

Get a choice of great bulls at a discounted price. Alpha packs contain straws from three or more bulls at a significantly lower cost per straw than if you choose individual bulls to breed from.

To get the discount you must choose a minimum number of bulls and order a minimum number of straws.

Put together your own Alpha packs, or use our No Choice packs to get straws from teams of bulls we put together to meet specific breeding criteria.

Different Alpha packs to meet your needs

Choose from seven types of Alpha packs:

Classic Pack for Daughter Proven bulls.
Genomic Pack to fast-track genetic gain with young genomically selected bulls.
Economy Pack for great-value genetics at a good price.
Ayrshire Pack for Daughter Proven Ayrshire bulls.
Young Ayrshire Pack for promising young Ayrshire bulls.
No Choice packs to meet specific breeding criteria.
Adapta Pack - mixture of Daughter Proven and Genomically Selected bulls.

See Alpha packs for more information about how the packs work and what breeds are available.

Customate is an unbiased sire selection tool, run through your LIC representative’s laptop, free of charge. If you have specific preferences for particular traits, Customate will sort through the huge number of sires available and identify those that meet your breeding goals. You can set criteria around BW, Protein, Fat, Fertility, SCC, Udders etc.

If you’d like to take things one step further, Customate Plus will check both sire and dam information to achieve calves that will make the best gains for your herd according to your criteria. You will be provided with a report detailing optimal matings per cow, matings include inbreeding and recessive gene defect protection. The Customate Plus program is chargeable and available for nominated matings only.

Customate

Product	Price per cow listed
Product Customate	Price per cow listed No charge
Product Customate Plus	Price per cow listed $2.75

Contact your LIC rep to sign up for Customate or Customate Plus.

All prices exclude GST.

They’re experts at what they do — they perform almost 5 million inseminations every year and they produce consistently high conception rates.

Contact your LIC rep to book an artificial breeding technician.

Alpha® Technician service

Number of inseminations	per insemination
Number of inseminations 1-300	per insemination $8.75
Number of inseminations 301-600	per insemination $8.40
Number of inseminations 601 +	per insemination $8.05

Pricing effective 1 April 2025.

Some locations, timing of services, or non-dairy herds may incur additional charges.

Cancellations and alterations

Alpha orders cannot be cancelled within 30 days of the AB start date, as per LIC's Conditions and Service Rules. Alpha orders altered after dispatch date may incur a $35 handling fee.

Dispatches

All Alpha DIY orders will incur a $35 dispatch charge.

Non-LIC straws

The cost of an LIC AB Technician using non-LIC straws is $11.00 per insemination. Non-LIC straws do not contribute toward the Alpha Technician service graduated scale.

All prices exclude GST.

DIY insemination option

We also offer a DIY insemination option. Improve your inseminating technique with our 5-day artificial insemination training course.

See DIY insemination for more information about the training courses and how to buy DIY insemination equipment.

DIY insemination training

DIY full course - 1 week	$899
DIY refresher training - 1 day	$300

All prices exclude GST.

The technician can then inseminate the cow with a more suitable bull.

DataMATE also updates your mating records in MINDA.

If you’re doing DIY insemination using Alpha sires ask your LIC rep to prepare a DIY Mating Report to avoid inbreeding and recessive genes.

Inbreeding and recessive genes – more details about how we reduce the risks of inbreeding.

Alpha® Packs

Alpha packs give you the control to choose the bulls best-suited to your breeding requirements, while taking advantage of our discounted pack pricing.

Pack Type	Bulls	Price per straw
Pack Type Economy	Bulls 3+ bulls	Price per straw $19.35
Pack Type Classic	Bulls 5+ bulls	Price per straw $27.00
Pack Type Classic	Bulls 4 bulls	Price per straw $29.45
Pack Type Classic	Bulls 3 bulls	Price per straw $31.95
Pack Type Genomic pack	Bulls 5+ bulls	Price per straw $33.20
Pack Type Adapta pack	Bulls 6+ bulls	Price per straw $30.50
Pack Type Ayrshire	Bulls 3+ bulls	Price per straw $23.30
Pack Type Young Ayrshire	Bulls 3+ bulls	Price per straw $16.55
Pack Type Young Ayrshire	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $7.15
Pack Type Short Gestation Length - Dairy	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $23.25
Pack Type Short Gestation Length - Beef	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $15.85
Pack Type Compact Calving (Dairy)	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $26.95
Pack Type Beef	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw From $12.90
Pack Type Variable Milking Selection Index (VMSI, formerly OAD)	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $24.65
Pack Type High Input	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $24.65
Pack Type Polled	Bulls No Choice pack	Price per straw $24.65

Pricing effective 1 April 2025.

Volume discounts (1-10%) may apply.

For efficiency, orders are packed and dispatched according to technicians’ runs. This is to ensure orders arrive on-farm for planned start of mating. Charging occurs in the month of dispatch and therefore, at times, customers may be charged in the month prior to starting AB.

Cancellations
Alpha orders cannot be cancelled within 30 days of the AB start date, as per LIC's Conditions and Service Rules. Alpha orders altered after the dispatch date may incur a $35 handling fee.

Dispatches
All Alpha Nominated DIY orders will incur a $35 dispatch charge.

All prices exclude GST.

InvestaMate Discount

Percentage discount	Year of qualification	How/When applied
Percentage discount 3%	Year of qualification First	How/When applied Applied as a credit in March, following the season's mating.
Percentage discount 5%	Year of qualification Second	How/When applied At the time of charging.
Percentage discount 10%	Year of qualification Third and subsequent	How/When applied At the time of charging.

You will move up or down the InvestaMate scale each season depending on whether the 95% threshold was met in the previous season.

Straw purchases may comprise any combination of Premier Sires or Alpha straws. Premier Sires Fresh Sexed and Sire Proving Scheme inseminations contribute to the 95% threshold of (InvestaMate) qualifying purchases.

‘Qualifying’ animals are female animals born prior to 31 December 2023 in the ‘herd’ at the time of October charging. ‘Herd’ is defined as the ‘whole herd’ group in MINDA. The InvestaMate discount does not apply to Premier Sires Fresh Sexed or Sire Proving Scheme products (i.e. InvestaMate discounts only apply to Premier Sires Daughter Proven, Premier Sires Forward Pack, Premier Sires A2/A2, and Alpha products).

All prices exclude GST.