Jocko Besne Son Steals Limelight In New MDC Bull Rankings
08/05/06

Skalsumer Jorryn, son of the French-bred sire Jocko Besne, makes his debut into the new MDC breeding+ rankings of available Holstein bulls by entering in top place with a £PLI of 87. Jorryn is one of eight Jocko Besne sons in the latest rankings of top 100 bulls published today (8 May). Jocko himself ranks in fifteenth place.

photo courtesy of www.jennifermackenzie.co.uk

Skalsumer Jorryn, son of the French-bred sire Jocko Besne, makes his debut into the new MDC breeding+ rankings of available Holstein bulls by entering in top place with a £PLI of 87. Jorryn is one of eight Jocko Besne sons in the latest rankings of top 100 bulls published today  (8 May). Jocko himself ranks in fifteenth place.

Tested in Holland and marketed in the UK by Cogent, Jorryn takes the number one spot from Mascol who, despite increasing his £PLI by 2, drops into second place with a £PLI of 83.

Mascol ranks as one of the best bulls for improving somatic cell counts with a predicted proof of –25. The only bull to beat this in the top 30 and with a SCC score of –26 is third-placed Picston Shottle. 

With a £PLI of 82, the UK’s international flagship bull Picston Shottle shares his third place with O-Bee Manfred Justice. Shottle has moved up from eighth place and added 11 to his £PLI with 100kg more milk on his production proof. He has also climbed to +0.5 lactations for his Lifespan proof.

 O-Bee Manfred Justice – who again has increased his £PLI – is one of the better fertility bulls in the top 100 with a Fertility Index of –1.2. The average Fertility Index of available bulls stands at -2.0, indicating that O-Man is better than the average Holstein bull available in the UK.

Delta Canvas stays in the top five available Holstein bulls with a £PLI of 81, but with a Fertility Index of -7.9 he is one of the lower ranking fertility index bulls in the top tier for £PLI.

In sixth place is UK tested Netherside Dynamo who has nearly doubled his daughter count and has increased his £PLI by 1 to 77.

Sharing seventh place and a £PLI of 75 is Moet Lookout CV and Holim Rafael CV. Lookout is the highest ranking 99% reliability bull and has added more than 500 daughters to his production proof. He also transmits a respectable Fertility Index at -1.8.

In ninth place is the second new entry to the top 10 and the second Jocko Besne son  Kelstein Kilmer. Tested in Holland and from the famous high components Holim family, Kilmer is bred from the same family as the Addison son Holim Rafael CV just above him.

Moving down from fifth place but just in the top 10 is Ricecrest Boone who now has a £PLI of 72.  De Crob Dynasty *CV and Watergate Delegate have both reduced their £PLI by 3 and are twelfth and sixteenth respectively.

“This latest ranking of the top 100 Holstein bulls available in the UK has 64 bulls that are proven to improve fat, 53 that can improve somatic cell count and 86 type improvers,” says MDC breeding+ director Marco Winters.

“This shows that among the top 100 £PLI sires we can identify bulls that can improve health and welfare traits alongside good production. From August 2006 we plan to incorporate the new Fertility Index into £PLI in a determined effort to improve the fertility levels of the national herd.”
  
A bull with an above average Fertility Index will breed cows with improved calving intervals and better non-return levels. “As a rough guideline, every point increase in Fertility Index, say from -3 to –2, will decrease calving interval by half a day and improve non return rates by 0.5%,” adds Mr Winters. “The range in Fertility Index is roughly from +10 to –10 with an average for Holsteins of -2.0. Bulls with higher production proof tend to have lower Fertility Indexes and the average Fertility Index for the top 100 Holstein bulls ranked on £PLI is lower at -3.5.”

The best Fertility Index improving bull in the top 20 £PLI, at +1.4, is Alta Tucano.

“Our advice to farmers is that you should use the Fertility Index in combination with other available breeding information, so it is used as a wider selection policy, and not as a primary selection criteria.

The Holstein sire list includes HUK Type Merit values and the company marketing each bull. Every effort has been made to make sure that lists published by MDC breeding+ and HUK are the same.

MDC must be retained - RABDF levy board response
RABDF National Dairy Conference
Nominations sought for RABDF Princess Royal Award