Kevin Jorgensen, Dairy Sire Analyst- Select Sires Inc.
As I was visiting a dairy today, the producer quizzed me about what I’ve been seeing and asked, “What ones don’t you like?” It was an easy answer, “None!” Of all the recent daughter groups that I have seen, all have been impressive; whether it was the PEPPER, MAIN EVENT, DRAGONHEART, DAVINCI and CAMARO daughters in Canada or the KINGBOY, MONTROSS, PETY, GREENWAY, JENNINGS, CORVETTE, TATUM, DAMARIS, KINGPIN, YODER and REFLECTOR daughters here in the U.S. All these groups consist of daughters of popular genomic young sires and they’re now passing the eyeball test as I have been travelling and looking at cows. These won’t all have enough data to graduate in December but all have made a positive impression on me. I also helped the team at East Central/Select Sires picture daughters last week and it was perhaps the best group on one picture trip I have ever been on! It continues to reinforce to me that genomic predictions may not be perfect, but they get them in the right “area code” and can produce the kind of cow that our customers are looking for, regardless of breeding philosophy.
Because there is such a big group of potential graduates, let’s not go through all of them other than emphasize the fact that there will be plenty of MOGUL sons for people to choose from! They, without exception, will be good enough on type; it’s just a question of choosing the right one for each producer’s philosophy based on production and/or fitness traits. Here are what I consider “locks” for the December Sire summary.
MONTROSS had a partial proof in August so he really won’t be a new graduate, but if you are interested in finding out how he looks next week, just look at the top of the list. Every day, we (as a sire team) get out on farms, we see more and more MONTROSS daughters and they are easy to pick out. They look like Moguls with a slightly better leg and have a bit more strength. However, their udders are every bit as good as the Mogul’s, but milk, perhaps even more, than the Supersires. 2017 will mark my 25th year in the AI industry and I can confidently say I have never seen a harder working milking daughter group than the MONTROSS’. Moreover, I have never viewed a group milking this much from udders this impressive. He definitely is a game changer for production and the people milking them love them. He is a true impact sire and his sons like Jedi, Hangtime, Duke, Scenario, Ferdinand and Markley will only be solidified by their father’s performance. If you haven’t used MONTROSS, now is definitely the time.
When a high profile sire in the genomic era gets heavy usage, the expectations are always high when they add daughters. KINGBOY is definitely not disappointing. They are every bit as good as his initial data looked like three years ago and perhaps even better, especially from a type perspective. If you liked your McCutchen’s then you will love your KINGBOYS. They are a bit wider in the front end, a bit harder toplined and are just flat out awesome from the hips back. His dam is one of the best cows at Morningview Holsteins in Iowa. She’s classified EX-91 in her second lactation and has a marvelous maternal line. KINGBOY will improve fitness traits, transmit solid production and he’s an A2A2 sire as well. Look for KINGBOY to make a very solid progeny proven debut and I think could look even better next April with more information. His sons like King Royal, King Tut, Kenosha and Rozroyal should benefit from KINGBOY becoming a progeny proven sire as well.
PETY was not used as heavily as several other Mogul sons as a sire father, but you, as customers, definitely found him. He has been in the Top 10 Super Samplers for total sales the past two years. We expect this bull to have a very memorable debut next week as his interim data looks even better than his current data for both production and type. I have seen about 10 milking daughters and they have flat out awesome udders! He gets them quite naturally being a Mogul son and his dam was the best uddered Explode daughter I have ever seen, making over 52,000 pounds of milk as a 3-year-old. PETY daughters are moderate size cows but very correct and are tailor-made for the modern freestall environment. The best news is that even though he didn’t have a lot of sons, he is the sire of 7HO12600 MODESTY. MODESTY has been one of our most successful sire fathers ever and having his sire progeny proven spells success for our future. He also offers low calving ease and high sire conception to complete his package. Pety’s momentum should continue quite nicely as proven sire.
As we close 2016, I wish all of you the happiest of holiday seasons and best wishes for a prosperous and healthy 2017! I look forward to seeing many of you in my travels to the west this winter and next spring.
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