13/01/09
New excitement in the world of Holstein breeding has emerged with the publication of the January ’09 genetic indexes today (13 January), as sons of the renowned O-Bee Manfred Justice start to gain their own proofs.
An O-Bee Manfred Justice daughter
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The most promising of these makes his
debut well within the DairyCo breeding+ top 10 Profitable
Lifetime Index ranking and just a few places below his famous father.
But remarkably, O-Bee
Manfred Justice himself (otherwise known as O-Man) holds his number one
position with little close competition, his PLI of 267 representing a further
improvement on his previous performance and largely reflecting a strengthening
of his daughter Fertility Index (FI) to +1.6.
There are increasing
numbers of lifespan, fertility and overall ‘fitness’ improvers high in the
rankings, according to Marco Winters, director of DairyCo breeding+,
who says there is plentiful choice for the producers who are keen to improve
these important traits.
“All of the top 10
PLI sires are cow survival improvers as measured by the Lifespan Index (LS),
and as a group, they also improve daughter fertility, with an average Fertility
Index of +1.9,” says Mr Winters.
Topping the lifespan
improvers is the second placed PLI sire Laudan, with daughters surviving
nearly a full lactation longer than the average cow, as indicated by his LS
score of +0.8 lactations. Laudan has improved 15 points on PLI since the last
proof run in August ’08, to 229. His daughter survival is no surprise, as this
bull is a fitness specialist who reduces daughter somatic cell counts, improves
daughter fertility and transmits good legs and mammary traits.
Number three is Wizzard,
who at +40.9 kg of fat is the best fat improver of the bunch.
Re-entering the top
10 in fourth place, adding 14 points to his PLI to reach 205, is the popular Braedale
Goldwyn. This type specialist at +3.6 Type Merit has a no-holes proof combined
with one of the best daughter SCC scores in the top list at
-22.
Remaining in fifth
place is Leif, again with very strong fitness traits.
The highest new entry
is the first of the new O-Man sons, the sixth placed
Wa-Del Hayden.
Out of a Mtoto dam, and with an impressive -22 SCC, +0.2 Lifespan and an
incredible +4.0 Fertility Index, this bull seems to have inherited all of the
strong fitness characteristics of his sire, which he combines with a strong
Type Merit of +1.6, which arguably is more characteristic of his maternal
grandsire.
“There are likely to
be more O-Man sons coming through in the near future as AI companies announce
their marketing strategies, but our lists today only include bulls which are
already being actively marketed,” remarks Mr Winters.
In seventh place is Jardin and climbing into the top 10 this time are Gibor, Jobess and Klassic
Merrill Lynch – the latter with a FI of +7.3, making him the best
daughter fertility improver of the top bulls. In equal 10th place with Merrill
Lynch is Janthur, who matches his PLI of 187.
The highest British
bred bulls are equal 14th placed Burlane Tennyson who improves his
previous PLI by 10 points and Bilsrow Jock, both at PLI 179.
Other British
interest can be found at numbers 23 and 28 with new entries of Lookout son - Richley
S S Lookout (171 PLI) and Courier son – Cogent Easter (PLI
167).
Commenting on the
rankings, Mr Winters says: “With the formula for PLI having been significantly
changed in 2007, the featured bulls are no longer necessarily those with the
highest production, but more a reflection of the balanced approach to breeding
this index was designed to support. Further evidence of this is the fact that
the highest production bull now no longer ranks in the top 50 available PLI
bulls.”
A list of the top 30 available Holstein
bulls ranked on the latest PLI (January 2009) is below.
Rank |
PLI |
Bull name |
Rel % |
Milk kg |
Fat kg |
Ptn kg |
Fat % |
Ptn % |
SCC |
LS |
PIN |
FI |
TM |
Supp-lier |
1 |
267 |
O-BEE MANFRED JUSTICE |
98 |
704 |
31.8 |
28.0 |
0.06 |
0.06 |
-21 |
0.6 |
54 |
1.6 |
0.5 |
DD |
2 |
229 |
LAUDAN |
94 |
642 |
22.1 |
20.9 |
-0.03 |
0.00 |
-10 |
0.8 |
36 |
1.0 |
2.4 |
BUL |
3 |
208 |
WIZZARD |
74 |
585 |
40.9 |
22.0 |
0.23 |
0.04 |
4 |
0.2 |
55 |
-2.1 |
1.1 |
ALT |
4 |
205 |
BRAEDALE GOLDWYN |
99 |
417 |
24.4 |
15.9 |
0.11 |
0.03 |
-22 |
0.4 |
35 |
-0.5 |
3.6 |
SMX |
5 |
199 |
LEIF |
93 |
264 |
25.6 |
11.6 |
0.20 |
0.04 |
-21 |
0.5 |
33 |
4.2 |
1.3 |
BUL |
6 |
197 |
WA-DEL HAYDEN-ET |
70 |
614 |
28.9 |
19.0 |
0.07 |
-0.01 |
-22 |
0.2 |
39 |
4.0 |
1.6 |
GEN |
7 |
194 |
JARDIN |
74 |
472 |
20.6 |
25.1 |
0.03 |
0.12 |
10 |
0.2 |
47 |
1.7 |
1.6 |
BUL |
8 |
189 |
GIBOR |
83 |
529 |
11.0 |
18.2 |
-0.11 |
0.01 |
-21 |
0.7 |
26 |
3.0 |
1.4 |
BUL |
9 |
188 |
JOBESS |
74 |
697 |
29.1 |
22.7 |
0.03 |
0.00 |
-11 |
0.3 |
43 |
-2.3 |
1.2 |
DD |
10= |
187 |
KLASSIC MERRILL LYNCH |
98 |
269 |
19.8 |
14.4 |
0.12 |
0.07 |
-6 |
0.4 |
33 |
7.3 |
0.8 |
BUL |
10= |
187 |
JANTHUR |
72 |
239 |
34.6 |
9.6 |
0.33 |
0.02 |
-12 |
0.3 |
38 |
3.3 |
1.0 |
BUL |
12= |
181 |
MASCOL |
81 |
371 |
23.5 |
18.5 |
0.12 |
0.08 |
-19 |
0.2 |
40 |
-2.6 |
2.1 |
BUL |
12= |
181 |
ALPAG IRON ACTIVE |
77 |
556 |
25.3 |
16.7 |
0.05 |
-0.02 |
-11 |
0.4 |
34 |
2.6 |
1.2 |
DD |
14= |
179 |
URNIETA ZELATI II |
99 |
264 |
36.0 |
12.0 |
0.33 |
0.04 |
-17 |
0.3 |
42 |
-4.1 |
1.0 |
WWS |
14= |
179 |
BURLANE TENNYSON |
95 |
773 |
27.5 |
21.8 |
-0.02 |
-0.04 |
-7 |
0.2 |
38 |
2.6 |
1.4 |
GEN |
14= |
179 |
BILSROW JOCK |
94 |
516 |
30.3 |
22.4 |
0.13 |
0.07 |
-10 |
0.0 |
49 |
-0.7 |
0.4 |
COG |
17 |
178 |
JANGO |
70 |
718 |
24.6 |
24.4 |
-0.03 |
0.02 |
0 |
-0.1 |
42 |
3.1 |
3.4 |
DD |
18 |
177 |
TELEMARK |
74 |
142 |
26.5 |
13.7 |
0.27 |
0.12 |
0 |
0.3 |
41 |
-2.2 |
1.7 |
FTF |
19= |
176 |
COMESTAR EXPORT |
99 |
336 |
23.3 |
13.0 |
0.13 |
0.03 |
-9 |
0.4 |
32 |
2.7 |
1.6 |
SMX |
19= |
176 |
RAMOS |
97 |
265 |
10.6 |
10.0 |
0.01 |
0.02 |
-26 |
0.7 |
18 |
3.7 |
2.2 |
ALT |
21 |
175 |
IJSSELVLIEDT BREAKOUT |
99 |
28 |
25.4 |
10.8 |
0.32 |
0.13 |
6 |
0.3 |
38 |
2.7 |
0.9 |
ALT |
22 |
173 |
DELTA PERIDOT |
97 |
202 |
29.7 |
12.4 |
0.28 |
0.08 |
13 |
0.2 |
40 |
4.4 |
1.1 |
GEN |
23= |
171 |
LANCELOT |
99 |
377 |
17.2 |
20.8 |
0.04 |
0.11 |
7 |
0.4 |
39 |
-1.0 |
0.9 |
ALT |
23= |
171 |
RICHLEY S S LOOKOUT |
91 |
595 |
21.4 |
22.8 |
-0.01 |
0.04 |
-10 |
0.1 |
40 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
GEN |
25 |
169 |
JURUS |
73 |
474 |
23.5 |
17.6 |
0.07 |
0.03 |
-26 |
0.0 |
36 |
1.5 |
2.3 |
BUL |
26= |
168 |
USONET FIN |
73 |
949 |
28.3 |
30.3 |
-0.09 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.0 |
49 |
-1.3 |
0.2 |
FTF |
26= |
168 |
ENSENADA TABOO PLANET |
69 |
937 |
25.6 |
25.9 |
-0.12 |
-0.05 |
-9 |
0.3 |
39 |
-4.4 |
1.4 |
DD |
28= |
167 |
COGENT EASTER |
79 |
538 |
18.1 |
22.5 |
-0.03 |
0.06 |
2 |
0.2 |
38 |
-1.6 |
2.4 |
COG |
28= |
167 |
BOBAS |
72 |
697 |
18.0 |
23.0 |
-0.10 |
0.01 |
-16 |
0.4 |
35 |
-3.2 |
1.1 |
BUL |
30 |
166 |
EMIL II |
74 |
374 |
22.6 |
17.9 |
0.11 |
0.07 |
2 |
0.3 |
39 |
-1.9 |
1.4 |
BUL |
ALT = Alta; BUL = bullsemen.com; COG =
Cogent; DD = DairyDaughters; FTF = FarmerToFarmer; GEN = Genus; SMX = Semex;
WWS = World Wide Sires UK.
FI = Fertility Index; LS = Lifespan
Index; PIN = Profit Index; SCC = Somatic Cell Count Index; TM = Type Merit.
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