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Select Sires continues to be an industry leader with seven of the top eight GTPI proven sires in the December proof run. It is also home to 21 of the top 100 on Holstein Association USA’s Top Genomic Young Bulls list. We asked some of the SMS Consultants in Wisconsin for recommendations on several mating questions. For more information, visit www.selectsires.com. Q: According to the Holstein USA website, there were over 400 Mogul daughters registered in the last two weeks. If these are breeding age heifers, what would you recommend for mating options? Brian Kelroy, East Central Select Sires: The Mogul daughters have quickly become herd favorites. Mogul continues to sire daughters that classify well and have a great balance of type and production. Many heifer pens are full of Mogul daughters and the question of what to breed them to is often asked. 7H11477 McCutchen is a great cross on the Mogul daughters. McCutchen daughters are tall and long, have plenty of length to their neck with a good amount of dairyness and rib. Their udders are attached extremely tight as his linear shows, he excels in udder depth and his daughters have rear teats that are centrally placed. Feet and legs are also a strong point on McCutchen. One classifier told me the McCutchen’s daughters have some of the best feet and legs they have seen in a long time. 7HO10290 Gold Chip, 7HO12353 Beemer and 7HO12569 Heisenberg are other options that would work on Mogul heifers. Q: What current matings are you most excited to see calves on the ground? Bob Sabo, NorthStar Select Sires: I think anytime you make mating decisions, whether you are a registered breeder or a commercial dairyman, you are excited to see what the next generation will bring. Two of the high net merit young bulls that will be interesting are 7HO12600 Modesty (Pety x Supersire) +2854 TPI and 7HO13250 Jedi (Montross x Supersire) 2787 TPI. One of the new high production, high type young bulls is 7HO12723 Gama (Montross x Sterling) at over +1800 of milk and +3.27 on type. Select Sires is the breed leader when it comes to making high type sires and people are waiting to see the calves of 7HO12593 Union (Doorman x Atwood), 7HO12587 Diamondback (Doorman x Talent) from the Apple family and 7HO12464 Chrome (McCutchen x Sanchez) at +3.28 on type. Another young bull that is creating a lot of buzz is 250H12589 Jacoby (Doorman x Goldchip). A bull that has been around a while that is still creating excitement with his calves is 7HO12353 Beemer at +3.67 for type. People continue to love their Beemer calves. I think as people continue to learn how to use 7HO11118 Brokow and 7HO11596 Defiant, those calves will continue to do great things in the show ring. These are just a few highlights of the exciting next generation of calves coming from Select Sires. Q: What is your favorite group of daughters that you’ve seen fresh over the last few months? Eric Westphal, East Central Select Sires: My favorite group of daughters I’ve seen lately are the second lactation 7HO10999 Bradnick daughters. With his consistant type pattern of tremendous udder improvement and sound feet and legs, his daughters are standouts in many of the herds that I work with. The growth and development from first lactation to second is very impressive and comes as no surprise with a sire stack consisting of Sanchez x Shottle x Durham. I believe Bradnick is the perfect cross for many of the Goldwyn bloodlines present in herds today with his ability to lower pins and slightly straighten rear legs side view. I would recommend to use him on daughters of GW Atwood, Guthrie, Dempsey, Atlantic and Golden Dreams. Q: Showcase Selections sires Defiant and Armani had exciting December proofs. If producers would like to incorporate these sires in their herd, what would be the best cross to use them on? David Sarbacker, East Central Select Sires: Defiant and Armani, now with more and more milking daughters, continue to confirm their ability to make the kind of cows producers are looking for in a elite type sire. Armani adds length, stretch and style with ideal flex to the the hock. The udders have been very well attached with good texture and I would protect him some on depth of rib. Armani should cross well on Talent, Advent, Colt P, Sanchez, Bradnick, Dundee,and Damion blood. While Defiant adds depth of fore and rear rib with tremendous dairy strength. I have been pleased
with height and width of the rear udders as well. Defiant is a logical mating on the Apple bloodlines as well as Advent and Ladd P blood. Both have many opportunities to make the extreme one for the Red and White breeders as well as Black and White. Q: A high number of heifers placing in the top 10 at WHA shows in 2015 were sired by Atwood, Brokaw and Braxton. What would be your recommendation for matings on these heifers to make show calves for 2017? Perry Phend, NorthStar Select Sires: This is a difficult question to answer, due to inbreeding! Maple-Downs GW Atwood is a Goldwyn son from a Durham daughter, so that eliminates a lot of high type bulls, such as Gold Chip, Dempsey, Armani, Beemer, Bankroll, Brokaw, Corvette, Defiant, and Jacoby. So that leaves a handful of bulls that I would believe to make the fancy show heifers. First, Mr D Apple Diamondback *RC is a Doorman son from a Talent from Apple. I believe he will keep the show style but add a little more strength to the Atwood’s but you still have to protect the Rump Angle some. They should be very long and have lots of ring presence. Next, Regancrest-GV-S Bradnick is Sanchez son from a Shottle from Barbie. This would be the best cross with Atwood daughters. They may not make the super fancy show calves, but they would surely make the best cows. He will give you more strength and change rump, plus add a little more foot angle. I have seen many Bradnicks milking, they are nice 2-yearolds, but really change from 1st to 2nd lactation. They are going to make great older cows. Finally, Webb-Vue Mccutchn Chrome is a McCutchen son from a Sanchez from a strong family. I think this will make a nice cross with Atwoods. He will give them more strength and improve rump angle but still give that stunning style that is needed to be competitive. Mr Atwood Brokaw is an Atwood son from a Mac daughter from Barbie. Much like Atwood, if you do not want to inbreed you can’t use any Goldwyn bloodlines. So these are the three bulls that I would recommend on Brokaw daughters. De-Su Bkm McCutchen is a Bookem son from a Shottle. I believe this would be a nice cross with Brokaws. He should lengthen the neck, giving them more style through the front end. I have seen many McCutchens and am very impressed with them. Siemers Mogul Pety is a Mogul son from an Explode daughter. His oldest daughters are breeding age and are very impressive. They have a lot of style and have nice length to them with good feet and legs and nice rump stuture. Morningview MCC Kingboy is a McCutchen son from an EX Super. His calves are very much like the McCutchens but are a little deeper in the rear flank and wider in the rumps but very stylish calves Regancrest S Braxton is a Shottle from Durham Barbie. With Braxton there is no Goldwyn, but with Shottle in the pedigree you still have to stay away from bulls like Gold Chip, Beemer, McCutchen, Corvette, and Defiant. So here are my recommendations for Braxton daughters. Mr Apples Armani is a Goldwyn son from Apple. He will make fancy show heifers with Braxton daughters, because he will put dairyness and style to go with the strength and depth of the Braxton daughters. Lirr-Drew Dempsey is a Goldwyn son from a Derry daughter. This would be the mating that I would use to make great cows down the road. They may be too strong to make fancy heifers. He is a bull that the more milking daughters you see, the more you will like them. Fustead Goldwyn Guthrie is a Goldwyn son from a Blitz daughter. This mating will make some fancy calves but it should be a good cross to also make nice cows. Guthrie’s quality and style will be a very very nice fit with Braxton daughters These are some of the crosses that I feel would work very well without inbreeding! wisconsin HOLSTEIN news/March 2016-21