Accelerated Genetics

Written by: Dr. Ole Meland, Vice President of Genetics

Spring has arrived and with it a new crop of sires. As I travel around the country there seems to be a lot of optimism, not only in your operations but at Accelerated Genetics as well. Past planning and hard work has positioned Accelerated Genetics well for the future. We are truly excited about the opportunities that exist.

Accelerated Genetics is pleased with the new bull rankings and are excited about the large class of new PACE graduates that offer a wide variety of traits with new and unique pedigrees.

In the Holstein breed previous headliners such as 014HO04099 Billion and 014HO04026 Airraid are still near the top of the TPI list. Billion is now +2.33 PTAT and Airraid is now +3.29 PTAT. Another elite type bull is 014HO04056 Decker. He is now +3.02 PTAT.

Bulls 014HO04148 Nifty, 014HO03597 Potter, 014HO04110 Scoop, 014HO03451 Alfie and 202HO0023 Velvet greatly improved their credentials.

Nifty moves higher on his Lifetime Net Merit (LNM$) to +$577 which ranks him in the Top 4 of the breed. His Total Performance Index (TPI™) is now +1855 which will put him easily in the Top 10. Nifty’s Productive Life (PL) is now +5.6, his Somatic Cell Score (SCS) is +2.60 and his Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR) is +1.7. His new PTAT is +1.38 and he is over one point on Udder Composite (UDC) and over two points on his Foot and Leg Composite (FLC). Nifty is an outcross bull that is a breed leader for health traits, LNM$ and TPI. This unique bull is being utilized as a sire of sons.

Potter, now starting to add his second crop of daughters, maintained his production and went even higher on his health traits (+5.5 PL, +2.00 DPR). Potter jumped 25 places on the TPI list and should be back in the Top 20 TPI bulls of the breed.

Scoop moves higher on almost every trait this time. He is over +$400 LNM$ and over +1700 TPI. Alfie added 102 daughters and jumped +$50 LNM$ to +$407, he also increased +100 TPI points. Alfie is now +5.7 PL and a breed leading +3.00 DPR. Velvet, an elite type bull, is now +2.88 PTAT, +2.81 UDC and +1.00 FLC. Velvet is now +$334 LNM$ and over +1700 TPI. He is +4.5 PL and a low +2.49 SCS.

Health traits are at the forefront of dairy producer interest in the market domestically as well as globally. Cows that calve without difficulty, produce live calves, breed back sooner, have a lower incidence of mastitis and are productive members of your herd for several lactations contribute greatly to your herd’s profitability. Sires that rank high on health traits like DPR, SCS, PL, as well as lower calving ease and stillbirth evaluations, produce cows that are very valuable and profitable for your dairy operation.

Maximum profit is achieved when cows produce high levels of production and excel in health traits. Accelerated Genetics has many bulls that excel in health traits. 014HO03451 Alfie heads the list, followed by bulls like Nifty, Potter, 014HO3571 Dutch Score, and 014HO02586 Sailor.

Three new PACE graduates especially excel in health traits. 014HO04239 Travel, 014HO04386 Izzy and 014HO04203 Bandy. Travel is an Orion son from two excellent dams (EX-91 Rudolph and EX-90 Blackstar). He is a health trait specialist with high LNM$. Travel is +3.2 PL, +2.75 SCS, +1.8 DPR, 8% Service Sire Calving Ease (SSCE) and 7% Daughter Calving Ease (DCE). He is also very low in Daughter Stillbirth (DSB), +6.6 DSB.

Izzy is our first 014HO02736 Ito son and he is from a tremendous cow family at Eastview. His dam is an EX-90 EX-MS Mo daughter, then a VG-87 Duster. Izzy also excels in health traits. He is +2.3 PL, +2.87 SCS, +.9 DPR and 8% SSCE and 6% DCE. Izzy is a very low stillbirth bull (7.2 SSB, 5.5 DSB). He is +1.62 PTAT with a +363 LNM$ and +1611 TPI.

Our third new PACE graduate that rates high on health traits is Bandy who is a Mandel Moe son from a VG-85 Rudolph. His PL is +3.4 and DPR is +2.0. He is 8% on both SSCE and DCE. Bandy is +1.32 PTAT, +1.55 UDC and +1.48 FLC.

If high milk yield is important to your breeding program, you might want to consider a few additional sires. 014HO03831 Marion, still leads the breed in production with +3139 milk, +81 fat and +71 protein. Other production specialists are 014HO04213 George, 14HO04079 Dee and 014HO04191 Dan.

Accelerated added two new PACE graduates that are production leaders, 014HO04271 Goody and 014HO04280 Professor.

Goody is a Mandel Moe son from two excellent dams (EX-90 EX-MS Charm and EX-90 EX-MS Steady Eddie). He comes in at +1870 milk, +51 fat and +57 protein with good health traits to go with it. He is +2.0 PL, +2.91 SCS, +.5 DPR, 7% SSCE and 8% DCE. Goody is +$463 LNM$ and +1697 TPI, he will rank well on the TPI list. He sires medium framed cattle with correct slope to the rump, good thurl width with exceptional feet and legs. In addition, Goody daughters have high, wide rear udders with a strong udder cleft.

Our highest new production bull is Professor, he is a Hershel son from an EX-91 EX-MS Convincer that made over 56,000 milk and is from the same cow family as 014HO02909 Pyrex and Potter that goes back to an EX-92 Tesk that made over 365,000 lifetime milk. Professor is +2521 milk, +59 fat and +61 protein, he is +1.46 PTAT.

Two additional Holstein PACE graduates are 014HO04320 Rainer (97% RHA) and 014HO04348 Ryan. Rainer is a good component, good final score type Juror Capri son from a VG-86 VG-MS 014HO02090 Manfred dam with 45,870 milk and 4.0% fat. Rainer is +2.10 PTAT and is 6% SSCE and 6% DCE with better than average stillbirth evaluations.

Ryan is a Garter son from a VG-86 Storm that goes back to Mark Dellia EX-95. He is a balance of type and production. Ryan sires a blend of dairy and strength with slope to the rump, outstanding feet and legs and high, wide rear udders. Ryan is 8% SSCE and 7% DCE.

In the high protein breeds, 014JE00406 Blueprint increased substantially on his type to +1.40 PTAT. Blueprint is an outcross bull at 5.0 EFI. He is a component specialist +.21% fat with +67 pounds of fat, +.13% protein with +44 pounds protein, +355 Lifetime Cheese Merit (LCM$). Blueprint maintained his high JPI™ ranking in the Jersey breed. We have two new Jersey PACE graduates.

014JE00408 Jimmie is a high type, high JPI Barber Bill son from an E-90% Bold Daniel out of the E-95% Haves Chief Berretta Jade. Jimmie is +2.2 PL and +2.92 SCS, +345 LCM$ and +171 JPI which should rank him in the top 20 Active bulls. Jimmie is +1.6 PTAT and +5.49 JUI. As you would expect Jimmie sires great udders that are very shallow (+1.00 UD). An Additional PACE graduate, 014JE00414 Fox is a high production Barkley son from the same cow family as Jimmie, their dams are full sisters. Fox is +1806 milk, +37 fat, +40 protein and +0.80 PTAT.

It takes a lot of coordination and effort, from the creation of elite young bulls to getting them properly sampled. The results have culminated in breed leading PACE graduates that make up the powerful and diverse lineup at Accelerated Genetics. We would like to sincerely thank our entire group of PACE cooperator herds and invite you to join them in sampling tomorrow’s great sires today.