DPR Leaders at Alta

That dairy producers have become much more focused on fertility over the last few years would be an understatement, to say the least. The attention that’s paid to Alta’s ConceptPlus list of bulls demonstrates the point. More recently, the fertility that a sire transmits to resulting daughters (evaluated as Daughter Pregnancy Rate - DPR) is also being given increased consideration. Why? When dairy producers check their DairyComp 305 data by daughter group, it is clear that reproductive parameters do vary significantly by bloodline. And with the value of each day open pegged at US$2.50 to $3.00, the expectation is that the trait will continue to gain the attention of more and more dairy producers.

The criticism of the DPR trait is without question, the reliability that’s attached early into a sire’s career. Still, there are highly reliable bulls out there with exceptional ratings for DPR too. The table below identifies those bulls that offer a minimum of +2.0 DPR (each DPR point is associated with a decline in days open by 4 days) with at least 95% reliability for Production and +1500 TPI. There are only five qualifiers among the current list of NAAB active bulls and three can be found on Alta’s marketing list.

To quantify the extra value that the bull AltaBLASTOFF delivers with his breed-leading DPR rating, here’s a conservative estimate:

What’s AltaBLASTOFF’s DPR rating really worth?
+3.7DPR x 4 days per DPR point x $2.50 per day = $37 x 3 lactations = $111

Consider as well that resulting from the extraordinary reproductive performance, AltaBLASTOFF daughters provide an extra 3.8 months of Productive Life. If they average 60 lbs of milk a day and if we peg revenue over expenses at $0.05/lb, these daughters will contribute an extra $270 compared to the typical cow in the herd over and above the Days Open advantage. Combined it’s worth nearly $400 per cow!

In addition to AltaBLASTOFF, FORREST and AltaTOMAHAWK also represent elite daughter fertility improvers. While FORREST now has 442 production daughters in his proof, AltaBLASTOFF went over the 750 daughter threshold this time and AltaTOMAHAWK has over 1200 daughters contributing to his DPR rating. Extreme ratings and the reliability is built in.

It’s important to point out that these three bulls have always been highly rated for DPR. Since they first arrived they have sported flashy numbers that more recently have only become more extreme. It suggests that taking a risk on a lower reliability bull can really pay off. So who are the more recent DPR specialists at Alta? Fortunately there’s a growing list of bulls to choose from.

What’s more, most of the bulls specializing on reproductive performance demonstrate advantages on most Health and Management traits. The majority of these bulls are also highly rated for Productive Life, they tend to be among the lower Somatic Cell Score transmitters and nearly all are Calving Ease bulls. Clearly there is a relationship between these traits.

Selecting for DPR improvers is a smart decision to make on your dairy and Alta is a leader in the industry for providing exceptional sire choices to get you there. And you have a choice: high reliability options exist that rank among the very best, and newer bulls with a bit more chance for proof changes can give you a head start on the next generation of AltaBLASTOFFs out there.

Posted Nov 18th

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