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An Assessment of the Calving Ease
Options Available to Producers
By Bill Thompson, Sales Personnel Development Manager
At least some portion of every dairy producer’s AI program is dedicated to the use of calving ease sires. It is a long standing segment of the market that perhaps has grown in importance as herd sizes have increased. Never has Alta’s advantage in this part of the market been more evident. Why? Because the May 2005 sire summary shows that Alta has more breed leading calving ease sires available than any other source.
Alta Leads the Industry
The Holstein breed’s very best calving ease sires are 5% or less for Percent Calving Difficulty. On the May 2005 sire summary, Alta had 8 of the 25 (virtually one of every three) bulls in this elite group of calving ease sires. The accompanying chart clearly shows our dominant position.
Our industry leading group of elite (5% calving difficulty) calving ease sires includes 11HO5183 ADAM, 11HO5454 FOUR STAR, 11HO5543 MERCHANT, 11HO5822 DARON, 11HO5929 ALLY, 11HO6016 SMARTY, 122HO1443 FROEMMING, and 11HO8675 FORTE. This group is even more impressive when you consider that their individual genetics are diverse enough to meet a wide range of other customer wants and needs.
In addition to this breed leading group, we have another nine sires that are only 6% on calving difficulty and can be used for calving ease confidence. This group includes 11HO5086 BLASTOFF, 11HO5778 ORIGINAL, 11HO6116 ROLEX, 11HO6314 CARTEL, 11HO6903 ARCHI, 11HO7208 LUCKY MIKE, 11HO7379 COSMONAUT, 11HO8046 RAMOS, and 122HO1392 PAGO. With this much calving ease power in our lineup, dairy producers will appreciate the selection and diversity.
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Putting Calving Ease The accompanying chart shows the May 2005 distribution of all active AI sires for percent calving difficulty. You can quickly see that calving difficulty ranges from 3% to 18% and that the average AI sire has an 8% calving difficulty. A quick calculation shows that 65% of all active AI sires are either 7%, 8%, or 9% for calving difficulty. Real calving ease sires are 6% or less for calving difficulty and they make up just 14.3% (103 total) of the active AI sire population. The very best calving ease sires are 5% or less on calving difficulty and they make up only 3.5% (25 total) of the active AI sire population. This distribution chart can help put things into proper perspective. |
More Benefits from Alta...
Virtually all producers use calving ease sires in their AI breeding programs. Still, it’s not calving ease sires without regard for other genetic attributes. Alta’s lineup of sire choices provides unequalled diversity and a range of benefits including calving ease. Whether it’s ConceptPlus bulls, HealthPlus specialists or CheeseMaker sires that appeal to you, you can be sure there are numerous calving ease leaders among them!
Posted Jun 7th
