USA Dairy Tour Highlights 2008
Written by Lauren Norman - Sales & Marketing Administrator
On the 28th September 2008 Brad Gavenlock, Lauren Norman, John Dickinson and Lisa Broad travelled to the United States to visit the World Dairy Expo and were fortunate enough to visit some prestigious Holstein & Jersey herds. During their 2 week tour they viewed daughters sired by bulls that are currently being marketed in Australia through Agri-Gene.
Our time in the States was spent visiting operations varying from 6000 commercial cow barns to 30 tie-stall registered herds in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon and California. Many of the herds had used Agri-Gene sires and it was fantastic to see row after row of daughters exhibiting the functional qualities you want to see in a cow; well-attached udders, the uniform capacity, the desirable strength and exceptional feet & legs was inspiring.
Holstein - First bull off the rank is the US Type & Show Specialist MD-Delight Storm Alanta EX90. It should come as no surprise that Alanta has a great type score as he comes from the world renowned Adeen & Alicia cow families. One of the highlights was viewing a lot of milking Alanta daughters. They were so consistent with good functional mammary systems. Udders were a real strength of this bull with high, wide rear attachments, good teat placement, udder depth and overall texture. Alanta is a bull that will transmit deep, powerful front ends and capacity. The daughters had exceptional feet & legs, great udders and increased rump width.
We were fortunate enough to visit Milk Source Genetics where we viewed several Probstland Ernesto EX90 daughters. Ernesto is is a high TPI Sire who is +2.39 for overall Type and over +3 for Udder Composite. Udders are a definate strength of this Forbidden son – he is over +5 for Teat Placement and Ligament, over +4 for Rear Udder Width and over +3 for Rear Udder Height and Fore Udder Attachment. The daughters displayed great fore and rear attachments with perfect teat placement and excellent udder texture.
When you combine the quality of udders with his high production & type, this bull is the perfect option for breeders wanting to breed a more moderate sized cow with great production. The daughters were all consistently black in colour.
Red & White Holstein - New Release R&W Holstein sire Hurtgen-Vue Reality Red VG88 is a new outcross Sept Storm son backed by generations of EX cows. We were fortunate to view daughters in milk during the Excalibur daughter tour. His consistent outstanding width and frame coupled with the perfect blend of strength and refinement is something that our Holstein breed requires. Every daughter viewed had an excellent front end, spring and depth of rib, and above average rump width with correct slope. Ligaments in particular were exceptional as was rear udder height and width. Fore udders were well attached with teats in the correct position. The daughters were great natured, beautifully balanced compact cows with exceptional feet and legs; this was quite evident seen as though Reality is the No.1 R&W bull in the world for Feet and Legs.
Jersey - The best line of cows without question was the BW Special Forces daughters which we inspected at Brentwood Farms. The daughters were tall of stature with long, deep dairy frames, very open of the muzzle and chest. Their udders were well above their hocks with strong centre ligaments, snug fore udders & extremely high, wide rear udders. If you are looking for a bull to add strength & front end to your cows, Special Forces is the sire to use.
A large group of Sunset Canyon Maximum daughters were inspected at Jer-Z-Boyz. We admired these cows for their capacity, width and fantastic rumps. They all had great dairy strength, nice depth of rib and good rear udders and texture. A group of Sunset Canyon Magnitude (Maximum’s full brother) daughters were also viewed at the same farm. This group of deep-ribbed, balanced dairy cows was very impressive. Excellent width and front end was a highlight and would not go astray in some of our Jersey herds here in Australia. Teat length was extremely good and the rear udder height, width and udder support was a standout feature. The dairy strength and high components of Maid is evident in these two sons and certainly impressed the group.
We were also fortunate enough to view daughters sired by the No.1 JPI and No.2 Type Sire in the USA - Richies Jace Tbone A364. Tbone is a New Release Jace son out of a VG86 Lemvig daughter who has projected over 30,000 Lbs milk. He offers superb Type, Production and positive components. Tbone is ranked in the Top 10 USA Rankings for JPI, Fat, Protein, CM$, NM$, FM$, Type, Stature, Foot Angle, Fore Udder Attachment, Teat Placement and JUI. The daughters whom we inspected at Nyman Brothers Dairy displayed good dairy strength, bone quality with good frames. Their rear udders were firmly attached, high and wide with great udder texture & tremendous teat placement. Their mobility was good, exceptional foot angle with plenty of depth of heel.
A bull that has been heavily used world wide is Sil-Mist Montana Blair. We were fortunate enough to view a large line-up of second-crop Blair daughters. He has confirmed his ability to sire great type and high components. The daughters had great udders, good height and width of the rear udder and excellent teat placement and had a great dairy bone.
Also new to our Gold Label line-up will be BW Illusionist, an early BW Legion son from an Excellent Illusion cow – BW Illusion Tina ET 352 EX90 which we viewed during our time spent at Brentwood Farms. She was tall, silky and stylish with a beautiful sweep to her rib. Her udder was soft in texture with a deep, strong medial suspensory ligament. We were also fortunate enough to also view Illusionist’s grand dam – BW Sambo I785. BW Illusionist will be released at IDW 2009; don’t miss this opportunity in using the great combination of Brentwood’s finest with Anthem EX95.
Grand Champion Jersey at WDE was crowned to a Belles Jade daughter - Alexvale Made Me Giggle EX96. She was a tall, deep-ribbed cow who was so clean & sharp. When you got behind her, she had so much width & capacity with a high, wide rear udder with good teat placement and outstanding texture. To add to this outstanding achievement, Giggle was recently named Grand Champion Jersey at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Canada.
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