Modern bloodlines from new genomic ranking

The DairyCo ranking of genomic young sires brings forward ever more modern genetics, with the new number one bull being a son of Snowman – a high ranking Oman son which was never offered for sale in the UK – and a grandson of Planet, a bull born less than 10 years ago. With a Profitable Lifetime Index of £253 – calculated, like all genomic indexes for young sires, largely from the bull’s own DNA - the newcomer, Boldi V Lightsnow offers the prospect of high yielding daughters with exceptional fat production, topping 40kg for this trait for the first time. Lightsnow descends from the renowned Lylehaven Lila Z EX94, a former All-Canadian junior champion that sold for Can$1.15 million.

Former front-runner, Gen-I-Beq Lavaman (Man-O-Man x Goldwyn) ranks in second position at PLI £250, while new at number three is De-Su BKM McCutchen, a son of a young genomic sire – the Planet son, De-Su 521 Bookem – and out of a Shottle-sired dam.  As would be expected at £239 PLI, McCutchen’s index is impressive for production, health and fitness, but it is equally outstanding for type, at Type Merit +3.71 – the highest in the genomic top 100.

Pirolo Solemio (Man-O-Man x Goldwyn) appeared in the previous run and now has a PLI of £238, while Velthuis Alpine - another Snowman/Planet cross - is new in fifth position with a PLI of £237.

Denmire Merchandise (Manifold x Goldwyn) is the highest UK-bred sire on the list at PLI £234, just one point ahead of newcomer, Seagull-Bay Supersire.  Sired by Socrates son, Roylane Socra Robust – again a genomic young sire himself – this bull’s appeal lies as much in his unusual pedigree as in his solid figures.

Eighth ranking Genervations Lexor continues to feature in the top 10 at PLI £232, and level-pegging is newcomer, Australian-bred Currajugle Gonzo. A bull with familiar bloodlines (Panet x Oman), Gonzo offers high milk volume with exceptional daughter fertility as well as good type.

Rounding off the top 10 are two bulls sharing a PLI of £230 - newcomer, Velthuis Let It Snow and Freddie son, Ladys-Manor RD Grafeeti, which featured high on the genomic rankings in April 2012. The third Snowman x Planet in the top 10, Let It Snow comes from a different cow family but the same herd but as fifth ranking Alpine.

UK interest

Just outside the top 10 comes further domestic interest with nine of the top 50 bulls bred in the UK.

These are: Refined Mineral (Oman x Shottle) at PLI £227; Willsbro Gateau (Man-O-Man x Goldwyn) at £225; Denmire Macomber (Bogart x Goldwyn) at £221; Vortex Downtown (Planet x Oman) at £216; Ballycairn Iota Hawk (AltaIota x Goldwyn) at £214; Wintersell Milo (Oman x Goldwyn) at £213; Relough Generate (Iota x Laudan) at £212 and Moet Fangio (Planet x Mascol) at £206.

“Some of these young sires offer the chance for breeders to broaden their bloodlines with a range of interesting pedigrees amongst the top 50,” says geneticist, Marco Winters from DairyCo. “But the warning that comes with any low reliability sires is to use them sparingly and mix them up with solid, daughter-proven sires to achieve a balance between risk and reward.

“But if the right bloodlines are chosen - with potentially better indexes than available with proven sires – rapid genetic improvement can be made by using some of these bulls.”

DairyCo has published a ‘Guide to genomic evaluations’ which was distributed with the April 2012 issue of ‘All things dairy’ and also has a video on-line explaining how genomic indexes are calculated and how they should be used. For details visit www.dairyco.org.uk

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Source: newsroom - farmingnewsdaily.co.uk