Locally-bred and farmer-favourite bull Kaarmona Jeronimo BRADY (CSCBRADY) continues his dominance of the Australian Breeding Values genomic Jersey rankings, maintaining his position at number one after 18 months.
At 445 Balanced Performance Index (BPI) he hasn’t changed, despite many bulls around him shifting positions and even disappearing.
ABS Global Australian business operations manager Bruce Ronalds said BRADY’s consistency was a testament to the bull, cow families and his pedigree.
“He’s a consistent bull and that suits the Australian market,” Bruce said.
“That’s why we — ABS in partnership with Central Sires Co-Op — chased him so hard.
“He’s positive for components, high survival, elite type and udders, but when it all boils down, he continues to hold his place and that’s crucial.”
Balnageith JANGO-P (CSCJANGO-P) has started adding daughters into Australian herds and at 386 BPI, he’s the number two polled genomic Jersey bull in the country.
With 10 daughters across three herds, he’s demonstrating why farmers select him to breed for Survival, Production, Polled and A2.
New, western Victorian-bred bull Miami HEATHSTAR (CSCHEATHSTAR) at 333 BPI is becoming a favourite for farmers wanting to improve health traits and is a huge 107 for Daughter Fertility.
Global Jersey bull Cal-Mart JAMMER is the new number one JPI proven sire and also has increased to 385 BPI after adding daughters locally and overseas.
High for milk and components — unique for the Jersey breed — he also covers many bases at 108 Mastitis Resistance and 103 Daughter Fertility.
Used heavily as a ‘sire of sons’ for overseas ABS markets, JAMMER provides some outcross for the Australian market as he doesn’t have any VALENTINO in his pedigree.
Top-ranked red bull arrives in Australia
The highest ranked Red bull in Norway has just hit Australian shores, entering the Australian market at 218 Balanced Performance Index (BPI).
NR LAUPEN-PP was sourced for the local market by ABS Australia because of his high ranking on the Norway Total Merit breeding index at 52 TM.
Bruce Ronalds said he holds this position because of his positive health traits, good udders and elite production.
“We selected him because of his ranking on the Total Merit index, but we also know there’s a lot of red breeders looking for homozygous polled — double P — bulls,” he said.
“This August was his first genomic proof in Australia and with his milk and components he’s ranked fairly well here — like he did in Norway — but once his health traits come through Interbull, we suspect he will lift on BPI.
“In Australia, the BPI for Reds only considers production traits but we know how important health traits are.”
ABS Global again has the top five Red bulls based on Fertility and the only three true polled — homozygous polled — Reds in the Good Bulls Guide.
Farmer-favourite and big production sire, SAUSVATN-PP, maintains his grip on the top-end of the ABV proven rankings at number two and 247 BPI with 128 daughters across 11 herds.
Go to www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au for ABS Global’s ABV results for Holsteins.