Australian Breeders To The Fore in Top Bulls List

The August public release provides Australian Holstein breeders with many sire options leading into the spring mating period. Whatever the main selection criteria are for breeders there are multiple choices to meet the diverse needs within the market.

Ongoing improvement in BPI strongly supported by increases in fertility, components and the next generation of genomics, with increasing representation from Australian breeders within the top list, highlights the genetic progress within Australia.

Listings are represented within three segments:

• Australian Proven - sires with sufficient Australian daughters to meet the Good Bulls Guide listing criteria
• Balanced - includes bulls with milking daughters in Australia (A) or overseas (I)
• Genomic

For the Health Weighted Index (HWI) and Type listings only sires with milking daughters either in Australia or overseas are included.

AUSTRALIAN PROVEN

With each run the Australian Proven list evolves as bulls add Australian milking daughters moving from either the Balanced list or Genomic list resulting in a complete ABV for all traits based on Australian data. For August this has added 5 new bulls and with the bulls retained from April we see the average BPI for the top 10 increase to 432, a lift of 19 BPI points.  

The bulls that are new to the Australian Proven list are not new names to breeders but as noted have previously appeared in other lists.

BALANCED

The list below includes bulls who have achieved a full ABV based on Australian daughters (included in the Australian Proven list) and bulls who have an Interbull proof based on overseas milking daughters.

With each new run there are domestic and international daughters added which will impact the proof often creating the movement of a number of bulls in or out of the top list plus the transition of bulls from the genomic list to daughter proven.

GENOMIC

The Genomic list provides a window to future genetic progress and highlights the progress of Australian breeders in developing bulls that compete on the world stage from an Australian base.

This list will constantly change as new high genetic merit bulls become available and older bulls add milking daughters and graduate to other ranking lists.

HEALTH WEIGHTED INDEX (HWI)

The HWI ranking included in the Good Bull Guide includes only bulls with milking daughters noted as Daughter proven. To provide an indication of the progress being made around health traits for the Holstein breed a number of the top ranked genomic bulls have been included in the table below which are noted in the Genomics Only column.

OVERALL TYPE

The Overall Type listing provides a starting point for breeders focussing on breeding for type. To gain the best results it is important to look further and once you have identified a bull of interest look through his full Type proof to determine if he has the improvement for traits important to achieve your breeding goals.

SUMMARY

Each proof run is a culmination of an incredible amount of data, not just from Australia but from around the world. The release from DataGene provides Australian Holstein breeders the opportunity to review their goals and select the best bulls to maximise genetic progress for the traits of most importance to their breeding programs.

What makes it exciting is that breeding goals vary between breeders and within each proof run there is such a diverse range of information to support your breeding decisions.