Australian Dairy farmers welcome improved bull selections - Cowsmo

Australian Dairy farmers welcome improved bull selections

Many dairy farmers will welcome the improved selection of bulls with fertility breeding values and semen fertility values in the August release of Australian Breeding Values (ABVs).

Michelle Axford from the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS) said that compared with two years ago, the latest Good Bulls Guide had more than double the number of bulls with Daughter Fertility ABVs.

“For example, In August 2012, less than 400 Holstein bulls had Daughter Fertility ABVs in the Good Bulls Guide compared to 807 in the August 2014 edition,” Mrs Axford said.

Additionally, this release includes 25 per cent more bulls with Semen Fertility ABVs.

“This will give dairy farmers who want to include fertility in their breeding decisions, more information and more choice of potential sires.

“Most dairy farmers want to improve the fertility of their dairy herds, and considering it in their breeding decisions is one of several things they can do. However, the reliability of fertility breeding values (both daughter fertility and semen fertility) has been limited in the past by a lack of data.”

The improvement in reliability over the past two years has been due to a better fertility ABV model and the addition of 1 million fertility records in the ADHIS data base.

The additional records were sourced through the Fertility Data Project which was a collaborative effort between ADHIS, the Dairy Futures CRC and farm software providers.

The project also delivered improvements in the reliability of calving ease ABVs and workability ABVs.

Source: Stock & Land

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