BREEDING NEWS
Van Gogh a sound investment for early adopters
Holstein sire Van Gogh, who entered the latest bull rankings as the number one Type Merit sire last month, is currently available to UK dairy farmers from
Bullsemen.com at a special early order price of £25/straw, while stocks last. Whilst his unrivalled +3.77 Type Merit is
the headline strength, this German-bred Goldwyn son also ranks impressively in terms of Profitable Lifetime Index (£PLI), Lifespan, and key health and fertility traits, creating widespread appeal amongst pedigree and commercial dairy farmers alike. “Van Gogh is the only Holstein sire
currently available with at least +3 for Type Merit, Legs & Feet, Lifespan and Udders,” explains
Bullsemen.com managing director Nick Kirby. “In addition, he has an outstanding £PLI of 122, strong daughter fertility (+2.9) and is a somatic cell count improver (-19). The Holstein UK online bull selector program is an excellent tool for reviewing available sires and I challenge anyone to find a currently available bull to match these criteria. “His introductory price is £29.50, but we
are offering a limited amount of semen at £25/straw on a first-come-first-served basis.
“With the prospect of Van Gogh’s Type Merit rising to over +4 at future proof runs and such outstanding all round figures, we anticipate strong future demand for this bull. There is also the likelihood that the first Van Gogh daughters in the UK will be highly valued.”
Don’t forget
The Febuary 2011 issue will focus on
UK cow families
and willl be widely circulated in
conjunction with the National All Breeds Show
Copy deadline 7th January 2011 94 THE JOURNAL DECEMBER 2010 Genomically proven Super
Charlesdale Superstition (Super), the highest TPI Holstein currently available in the UK – and one of the first genomically proven bulls from the United States to be marketed in this country – is now available from
Bullsemen.com at a price of £25/straw. A Boliver son and O-Bee Manfred Justice grandson, Super is second
only to the unavailable Freddie in the US TPI listings and is already used internationally as a sire of sons. Both Super and Freddie are bred and owned by
Bullsemen.com’s US partner Co-operative Resources International (CRI), which is one of the main drivers of genomic analysis globally. An all rounder with outstanding production and type proofs, Super
is one of the first top sires with sufficient daughter numbers to allow comparisons to be made between their genomic and progeny-based figures. With his figures rising and comparisons between his genomic and progeny proofs looking increasingly robust, the bull is not only in demand but could be the first to bring genomic proofs into the mainstream, according to
Bullsemen.com managing director Nick Kirby. “We’ve seen his PLI rise from £105 to £130, his production increase by almost 100kg to 661kg and his Type Merit go up from 1.6 to 1.69 from the April to August 2010 proof runs,” he says. “He also has a very strong Fertility Index (+1.6) and an outstanding +0.3 for Lifespan. “More significant, though, is the close correlation between his long-
known genomic proof and his emerging progeny data. He is one of over 250 sires from CRI in the United States with published genomic data and large numbers of milking daughters. This comparative data shows very close correlation between Lifetime Net Merit (equivalent to UK £PLI), production and type figures. In simple terms, the data shows that genomic proofs are reliable and this offers the potential of gaining three years in genetic improvement terms. “I think it is conceivable that bulls like Super can help to convince the industry of the value and reliability of genomic proofs, and that will be a major stride forward for cattle breeding. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before use of the term ‘young sires’ disappears, as all bulls will be ‘proven sires’ as soon as their DNA can be analysed. Once accepted, genomic proofs will mean that a bull like Super would come into widespread use several years earlier.”
www.holstein-uk.org
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