Who's The Daddy ?

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

Chloanne Lowick

At the end of last week , our young Holstein bull , Chloanne Lowick , was finally picked up by Cogent Breeding to be taken down to their premises to begin being tested as a young sire for them! He is by the sire Morningview Legend and is out of the truly great cow Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious.

This is the second bull to be tested from the dam , who is sadly not with us due to complications after calving last year .
It's an amazing feeling when a company is interested in some of the animals and genetics that you are working with , topped only by the news that they will indeed take an animal .
If all goes according to plan , then semen should be ready from him later in the year, with the first offspring being born late summer next year .It really is a waiting game to see just how well the farmers and breeders who used the bulls liked them , or indeed didn't like them. It is the information supplied by them to the AI company that will determine whether the young bull will go on to bigger and better things , or simply not be good enough for their exacting standards.
The first bull , Chloanne Gallagher, now has 61 registered daughters in around 30 herds. I don't have figures of how many daughters could be in commercial herds but do still milk record.Our first daughters are now at the age to be running with the bull , and hopefully over the next few weeks and months more daughters will get in calve.
It is once these daughters start to calve down themselves that their figures will contribute to a young bulls proof. Getting a bull to the point of him having a proof takes a very long time and bucket loads of frustration.
We use plenty of young bull semen throughout the herd as well as using proven bulls . I feel very strongly that more farmers should use some young bull semen , even if it was only 10 or 20 straws.The genetics available now from all studs are the best on offer from around the world, and by using young sires it is a chance to get the very best from the best cow families available . With young bull semen being available from some companies for as little as £3 or £4 a straw, it really is an ideal chance to better your herd for little cost. All proven bulls have started off life as a young bull , and farmers who refuse to use young bull semen on grounds of low reliability etc should think to themselves that if we all took that attitude then no bull would get a fair chance at all .