The GENEX Blog

April 2013 Jersey Proof Highlights

Genex continues to lead the industry in profitability, fertility and diversity.

Otter Morr Plus Smores

One highlight of the April sire summary was 1JE00711 PLUS. He added more than 200 daughters to his progeny proof, increased to over +2000 pounds of Milk and is now the no. 4 JPI™ bull in the breed among all bulls (not just progeny-proven bulls). PLUS daughters aren’t just good on paper; they are standouts in every milking string and heifer pen I have seen. The milking daughters have outstanding udder conformation, making all of that milk from shallow udders that are extremely wide and have great texture. They are tall, wide and have great openness and angularity.

PLUS is joined in the active list by 22 other bulls over +$500 Cheese Merit (CM). Among these are seven new additions. Five of these: 1JE00812 HAWTHORNE, 1JE00811 RADFORD, 1JE00815 PAYTON, 1JE00817 HOOKER and 1JE00807 SPRINGER are all Zuma sons, each from a different maternal grandsire. These five Zuma sons will sire shallow udders, excellent components, high Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR) and low Somatic Cell Score (SCS) which should make this group a strong complement to the many new milking daughters of Paramount Violet sons like Valentino, Vernon, Virgil and Victory.

Dam of PAYTON: Sun Valley Impuls Panda, EX-90%

Two other new additions are: 1JE00814 MAGUIRE, a Blitzen from a VG Tbone, and 1JE00818 LEGION, a Hendrix from an EX Blair that sires total performance and features a remarkable +2.57 SCS. Both LEGION and MAGUIRE have pedigrees that are completely free of Impuls and Paramount Violet.

Joining these bulls in the +$500 CM club are: our CM leader 1JE00792 MACHETE; progeny-proven fertility standout 1JE00654 ALLSTAR; our first PLUS son, 1JE00794 ZAYD; and 1JE00791 DIVIDEND, a high JPI bull that combines extreme yield with elite udder conformation. All four are available in GenChoice™.

The Genex Jersey lineup averages an exceptional +1.4 Sire Conception Rate (SCR) on 23 evaluated bulls. They are led by 1JE00763 LANCE-GR at +4.4 and 1JE00759 BRUNO at +3.2. PLUS and ALLSTAR are also over +3.0 SCR.

The new PregCheck™ rating provides clear evidence that popular young genomic bulls 1JE00801 MADDEN, 1JE00809 WILLIE and 1JE00810 ENRIQUE have excellent fertility four months before they will have official SCRs.

We’re proud of the diversity of the Jersey lineup. In total, 24 different sires are represented, 17 different maternal grandsires and 20 different breeder prefixes. The profit-minded breeder can find a bull in the Genex catalog that will complement the pedigree of every cow in the herd and sire high CM$, excellent yield and quality udders. Most important, using semen from Genex bulls will result in pregnancies.

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Author Scott Carson has been a member of the Genex Dairy Cattle Genetics sire procurement team since 2009. Scott is a graduate of Virginia Tech University. He then went on to study at North Carolina State University with Dr. Ben McDaniel where he participated in research activities that led to the implementation of genetic evaluations for Rear Legs-Rear View. From 1991 to 2008, Scott and his wife owned and operated Celestial Jerseys in New Lebanon, N.Y., earning several accolades including the 1997 National Outstanding Young Jersey Breeder award and the 1999 William M. Etgen Virginia Tech Outstanding Young Alumnus Award.