I have had a few recent discussions on Twitter about bulls, good ones , bad ones, why I use particular ones, what I'm looking for in a bull, which bull has done good , and which ones have done harm . It did kind of get me thinking as to some of the answers to these points.
In these days of maximising profit, longevity has to be the key to any breeding policy . Replacing animals has to be one of the most costly things you can do , so the less often you have to do this the better. So a bull that has a positive lifespan score is always going to be a step in the right direction.
But this has not always been the case. I remember many years ago when the main objective was to get as much milk from the cows and therefore keep using bulls with high milk figures and you were onto a sure fire winner. Problem was these cows just didn't last , they were literally being milked to death. Over the years , breeders have come to realise that whilst milk production figures are important in a bulls figures , so too is the need for the milking daughters to last as long as possible in order to contribute to the farms profit for as long as possible.
Looking back over the last 14 years to the bulls we have used in the herd , it is a real who's who of the Holstein breed , with many popular names and also a few names that have come and gone , never to be heard of again.
Singingbrook NB Mascot was a bull that came onto the scene in a big way , he was THE bull to be seen using and we in turn used him , looking back at how his daughters milked , they milked fine , but their mammary systems left much to be desired .
Pirocco Magnitude I can remember as being an easy calving bull and we used him our heifers. He left some cracking daughters that had some fairly tidy udders on them .
One bull that really did leave his mark on the herd was Hairybriez, he was a Mascot son. We had many daughters by him , each one instantly recognisable by the distinctive "dotty" markings .I don't think we had a really bad daughter by him and his influence is probably still felt in the herd today . Certainly the markings are still here.
Young bulls have always been used here , as mentioned in other posts here on the blog. Many from Cogent and many from Genus alike . In all , I would say that they have not done us much harm at all . In the early years of using young bulls , it was the young bulls that had the highest index figures , and often it would be daughters of those bulls that went on to be our highest index cows.
Etazon Lord Lily and Eastview Meadowlord have easily given me some of the nicest cattle I've milked. We still have 6 Meadowlords around now.They are tall, graceful and very black cattle , they certainly stood out from the herd.
Urnieta Zelati was an interesting bull when I first used him , and I always wish I'd used him more heavily .Looking back we were using him in July 2003 , so that was quite early for him . His daughters were milk machines and we still have 5 milking in the herd today.
Two bulls which I acquired were Conant Acres Alonzo and Silvershade Saunders. We has many many daughters of these bulls and on the whole they have done us no harm at all . We still have 5 Saunders milking and 3 Alonzo's.
Another bull worthy of a mention has been Hanno, a very under rated bull in my opinion. With 6 daughters still on the go , they just keep going , and never really show themselves to you for anything untoward. They're the best kind of cow .
For more up to date bulls , we have youngstock on the ground from bulls such as Alpag Iron Active , Cogent Loader, Chloanne Gallagher, Wa-Del Hayden, Dalbytop Phil, Cogent Desmond, Chloanne Hannover ,Go Farm Pitbull and Bangaro Red to name a few.
Current service sires for the herd are Ralma Gold Crown and Bomaz Marion Emerald.
Current service sires for some of the Chloanne girls have included End Road Oman Bronco , Cogent Twist and Coppertop Doberman.
Today we are looking for the bull which will leave a truly "Long Life cow" .
They must be capable of passing on sound feet and legs , a mammary system that is both functional and can handle the quantities of milk expected from a modern Holstein. Calving ease and somatic cell counts are now even more important in a bulls proof as these traits should hopefully contribute to a cows profitability.
There is no one bull that will deliver all things to all herds in one generation, no matter how good his figures look in the catalogue!
It's a simple matter of keeping on breeding the best cattle you can and as long as you see some progress in either the classification results, the herd averages in milk production or the average number of completed lactations in the herd , these are steps in the right direction
