The latest Australian Breeding Values have revealed there’s a bull for every breeding goal in the Genetics Australia team.
The April ABVs release has shown the continued strength of Australian-bred bulls, both daughter-proven and genomically-proven, with many Genetics Australia bulls leading in health, breeding and production traits.
In total, 95 per cent of the Genetics Australia Holstein bulls are in the top five per cent of the breed for BPI and 19 of the 23 Jersey bulls are in the in-demand A22 category.
Genetics Australia chief executive officer Anthony Shelly said the ABVs showed there was a “bull for every breeding goal”.
The increased emphasis on improved health traits and acceleration of these traits through genomic selection in the Holstein breed is clearly evident. Of the 42 Holstein bulls, 43 are over 100 for both Mastitis Resistance and Daughter Fertility.
There are 19 A22 Holstein bulls, 10 polled bulls including five homozygous polled and 26 different sire lines.
Daughter-proven bulls Silverline (373 BPI) and Maebull (363 BPI) led the charge for ranking the best two Australian standing proven bulls, while genomic sires Sondalo (531 BPI), Karat (528 BPI) and Samaria (519 BPI) rank as the top three Australian standing genomic sires.
The Jersey ABV results show a clean sweep for Genetics Australia. Algernon (281 BPI) is the highest standing daughter-proven Jersey bull, while among the genomic bulls Douggan (393 BPI), Pickle (381), Dobson (372), Trecker (372 BPI) and Bazyli (366 BPI) are the top five Australian standing Jerseys.
Regional sales manager for northern Victoria and South Australia Greg Tiller said the ABVs reflected the depth of Genetic Australia’s Holstein and Jersey teams.
“Gone are the days of just breeding for production,” Mr Tiller said.
“We have nice type bulls to suit that breeding goal, bulls at the top of the rankings for health traits, mastitis resistance and calving ease, plus bulls that fit the needs of those chasing production.
“We’re trying to breed blended cows that will be long lasting and profitable in Australian conditions.”
Daughter fertility rates are high, with Optics 118 and full brothers Karat rating 528 BPI and 115 for daughter fertility and Kardew, 112 for daughter fertility.
As a daughter-proven bull with added reliability, SINGULAR excels in offering exceptional daughter fertility (114), cell count improvement (172) and mastitis resistance (104). At an impressive 509 for Health Weighted Index (HWI), he will be in high demand in 2021 and early ordering is advised.