For ABS Australian business operations manager Bruce Ronalds, confirmation of Jeronimo’s dominance is proof of the strong health and production traits he’s delivering on-farm.
“Jeronimo is all about reliability, stability and profitability. He’s retained his top spot with 288 daughters milking in Australian herds and the addition of 33 daughters to his proof since last year,” Mr Ronalds said.
“Add to that, 86 per cent of his daughters classified for their dairy type by Holstein Australia have been assessed as ‘Good-Plus’ or better.
“Jeronimo is breeding functional and profitable cows. For the past 12 months he’s consistently produced 30-44 per cent of the country’s top Holstein females. No wonder he’s our biggest selling sire in the Australian market.”
Toora, Victoria breeder, Mitchell Jones, and his family are milking three of the top females sired by Jeronimo.
These include the number one genomic female V4 Jernimy at 578 BPI and number seven V2 Jeronimo Tiffany at 527 BPI.
These daughters have Production Indexes in the top three per cent of the Jones’ Cypress Grove Holstein herd.
As two-year-olds, these two Jeronimo daughters are classified 82 points.
“These are full sisters, and they are all high, it’s consistent,” Mr Jones said. “It means we know what they are going to produce. We can rely on the fact they are going to look after us in our pocket. It also shows the efficiency that whatever you can feed them they are going to return.”
Mr Ronalds said new young genomic bulls such as 29HO20714 Bomaz Watson and 29HO20617 Bomaz Wisteria also stacked up well in Australian conditions.
ABS also has the number seven ABV genomic bull 29HO20549 Pine-Tree Denovo Aleo at 517 BPI.
“The ranking of these genomic sires is proof of the speed of genetic gain in the dairy industry and how easy it is to improve the value of your herd, thanks to short generation intervals,” Mr Ronalds said.
“Using the latest technology to source the best up-and-coming sires, while chasing milk records of daughters to develop proven bull proofs, is how ABS ensures it offers farmers quality and diversity for their breeding programs.”