We can talk about the greatness of Select Sires genetics all day long! It’s what we do. It’s what we believe in. It’s our passion. What’s exciting to us is when customers spend the time to talk about the greatness of Select Sires genetics, and that’s exactly what happened two weeks ago! Take a minute to read through the classification report we received from Fir-Ridge Holsteins. Not only did they have an outstanding four days with the classifier, but they were gracious enough to share their personal thoughts on what’s been working in their herd. Another great way to #connectto7
Fir-Ridge Holstein Farm, LLC
Scio Dairy and Cloverdale Dairy
Classification report submitted by Scott Ruby
July, 2016
My sons Matt and Jake are both working on the farm in Oregon this summer, so it gave us a good opportunity to run a full classification program on both herds. It was a 4-day project, we looked at over 1,300 individuals, and we saw some really interesting cows. A big thanks to Allan Hanselman who worked with us all four days. I hope you find the following report interesting!
Everyone is always asking me, “Are the MOGULs really that good?” The quick answer is “YES!” We absolutely love our 7H11314 MOGUL daughters. He is the type of bull that Charlie Will would say, “dominates a mating.” That means that he makes consistently good cows, regardless of who he’s mated to. Our MOGUL daughters are slightly above average for stature, with plenty of strength, depth and openness of rib. They milk from their strength, and they love to milk! They walk on very sound feet and legs, but their udders are what you have to admire most. They are especially tight in their udder attachments, both fore and rear, as well as high, wide, and full in the rear udder, with deep ligaments and squarely-placed teats. These are going to be really good, long-lasting cows.
The next question people usually ask is, “What about your MCCUTCHEN daughters?” Again, the answer is that we love our 7H11477 MCCUTCHENs too, but he wasn’t quite as easy to use as MOGUL. Luckily, we mated him to shorter cows that had enough depth of heart and depth of rear rib, because he can make them tall. They are extremely tall and long with a nice combination of dairyness and strength. They have good feet and legs and outstanding udders. Their udders are very youthful, held well above the hock; they have high, wide rear udders, and tight fore udders, along with silky udder quality. MCCUTCHEN can definitely make a fancy one!
The other high TPI bull siring really nice daughters in our herd is 7H11383 MORGAN. Just like MCCUTCHEN, he is a BOOKEM X Shottle X OMAN, but the two bulls sire very different types of cows. Our MORGAN daughters are average-sized cows with a heavier bone and more strength than dairyness. They milk from their strength, because they really milk! They have really good feet and legs, and super udders. Their udders are held well above the hock with extremely tight fore udders. They have a deep crease and square teat placement, and they actually have a bit of extra length to their teats, which many people are looking for today. They look like they are going to be excellent commercial cows who are calving easily, breeding back quickly, and should transition well from one lactation to the next.
Our 7H10920 GOLD CHIP daughters are maturing very nicely. They are extremely long bodied, with a clean bone and a silky hide. They have more drop to the rib in their second lactations, and of course their best trait is their udders–welded on fore udders with lots of chrome, high & wide in the rear, with deep creases and square teat placement.
Of course we all know of the extreme show ring success of 7H10506 GW ATWOOD, but it is also good to see that this great Type bull can also make cows that can compete and succeed in a commercial herd. We did our best to mate ATWOOD to cows with plenty of strength, and we are happy with the results: cows that have adequate strength with extreme cleanliness. They have the ATWOOD beautiful, youthful udders with especially high, wide rear udders.
Another bull siring beautiful Type in our 2nd and 3rd lactation cows is 7H9420 GUTHRIE. This Goldwyn son sires strength, power, and depth of heart. They have an abundance of dairy strength, with sweep and openness to the rib. They have really nice udders, especially being high and wide in the rear udder with square teat placement.
Other nice cows by interesting young bulls:
Other nice cows by interesting older bulls:
We had a 91-point GABOR daughter from PGA young sire semen, so it is nice to see that we can breed a 91-point GABOR from a planned mating too! This is a beautiful young cow that has really come into her own in her 3rd lactation. She went up from 88 to 91 on this classification. Just like everyone else, we love our GABOR daughters–fantastic cows.
We only have a few BOOKEM daughters, but we really like their udders.
Our PLANET daughters are making nice 4th and 5th lactation cows. This cow is at the very end of her 4th lactation and pregnant to 14H7644 CONTRIBUTION
We have lots of beautiful 5 and 6-year-old BRONCO daughters, but we wish we had more! They milk like crazy, and they look beautiful. This one is one of our favorites.
Congratulations to the Ruby family on their tremendous classification, and thanks again for your sharing your thoughts and your pictures!
For more information about these cows and more at Fir-Ridge: Scott Ruby: 559.280.6071 Matt Ruby: 559.471.9792
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