Milking Daughters Answer the Question
By: Roy Wilson, Associate Vice President,
Large Herd Business Center
Genex is not only pleased to share the news from the August sire summary; we are excited to share the results. Milking daughters have now answered the question - How dependable are genomic rankings? Milking daughters have proven genomics is for real.
In January, 1HO08784 FREDDIE was the headliner for genomics in more than one way. He was a new release, genomic sire who commanded a lot of attention. He was the first sire to be released that eclipsed +$900 Lifetime Net Merit(LNM), and he stood at the top of the Genex Investment Guide $110 above the next highest genomic sire. With that elite proof, many had questions - Can a bull be that high? Is genomics overestimating? Can we rely on this prediction? How can he be priced at $50 based on his DNA?
With the August sire summaries, FREDDIE has proven to be not only a genomic headliner, but the poster child for this revolutionary technology. FREDDIE's August proof - posted with 60 milking daughters and 22 classified daughters -leads the industry. The table below compares FREDDIE in January 2009 as a genomic-proven sire to August 2009 as a daughter-proven sire.
LNM | TPITM | Milk | Productive Life | PTA Type | Udder Comp. | |
Jan. ‘09 Genomic Proven | +$918 | 2268 | 1661 | 9.2 | 1.60 | 2.30 |
Aug. ‘09 Daughter Proven | +$911 | 2303 | 1549 | 8.9 | 2.07 | 2.67 |
With FREDDIE's LNM reliability now at 84 percent and production reliability at 89 percent, the question of dependability has been answered. The only question that remains is - Did you let eight months go by before including him in your breeding program?
FREDDIE is not the only example. 1HO09040 CAVANA was released in January based on genomic information. Now with daughters, he has increased $12 to +$718 LNM. Of the original 34 genomic sires Genex activated in January, eight now have daughter proofs and average +$608 LNM. In January, those eight sires averaged +$649 LNM. Six of those 34 now have classified daughters. Their PTA Type averaged +2.26 in January and today averages +2.15. Their Udder Composite averaged +2.29 and now averages +2.39. The numbers speak for themselves.
I could continue with many more examples as Genex had 182 bulls with genomic evaluations in January that now average 60 milking daughters. Or said differently 10,920 milking daughters have confirmed the accuracy of genomics with the average change being a decrease of $42 LNM. Those nearly 11,000 daughters show that as genomic sires added daughters their Milk, Fat and Protein proofs decreased by 89, four and two pounds respectively. On average, Productive Life decreased by 0.5 and Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR) actually increased by 0.1. Yes, milking daughtersdid answer the question. Genomic evaluations are dependable.
Now, producers need to ask themselves a question - Do I believe in genomics enough to incorporate genomic sires into my breeding program? Genex believes there is an easy answer - yes! The dairy industry is becoming more and more competitive. Can you live with the fact your neighbor could have calves born by FREDDIE in two months and you haven't even bought a straw? The biggest advantage of genomics is genetic progress. However to gain that advantage you cannot wait until each genomic sire has added 60 or more daughters.
Genex has 47 genomic sires in the active lineup. As a group, these sires average +$633 LNM and +2048 TPITM. They average over +1500 Milk, +4.7 Productive Life, +0.5 DPR, nearly +3.00 PTAT and over +2.50 for Udder Composite. This is impressive to say the least. The bulls are new and perhaps unfamiliar, but so were FREDDIE and CAVANA back in January.
As a producer, we challenge you to ask yourself, can you still afford to say no to genomics?
