A bull selected for Premier Sires has fulfilled a broad range of dairy animal criteria, the most important of which are Breeding Worth (BW) and traits other than production (TOP).
The vehicle that delivers information on the various criteria is DairyNZ's regular Animal Evaluation (AE) run.
AE runs generally occur every month (although during the peak of the season, in spring, the runs are conducted more regularly).
Examples of information that gets fed in to the AE run include herd test information, qualified assessments on an animal's traits-other-than-production, and the current price of milk fat and protein.
Therefore, every AE run enables DairyNZ to update latest dairy animal production statistics, other data, and economic weightings.
This information enables latest Breeding Worth calculations, allowing dairy farmers and breeding companies to rank their animals, and enabling animal owners to compare their animals against contemporaries and competitors.
It's not all about BW... what else makes for an 'elite' bull?
A bull's breeding worth is his starting point before he is considered for a Premier Sires team, but BW is by no means the sole qualification.
Some high BW bulls don't make the cut if they don’t live up to a range of other criteria (such as udder conformation).
A group of breeding advisers independently assess each bull to ensure it continues to meet the standard of the Premier Sires brand.
Along with the assessment of phenotypic traits, bulls selected for Premier Sires come under the microscope for their ‘market fit’: The sire selection team discusses in detail factors like inbreeding, recessive fertility genes, and ancestry.
Market trends and predictions are also taken account of. This year we must consider the fast-rising value of fat and what impact this might have (if any) on the Daughter Proven and Forward Pack teams, and the co-operative has launched its liquid A2/A2 team to fulfil an expected market demand for A2/A2 bulls.
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
Phil Jackson (former American NBA professional basketball player, coach, and executive)
Advantages of the Premier Sires team concept
Using a team of bulls increases reliability by spreading the risk of individual bull movements that may occur over time – that’s among the strongest advantages of using Premier Sires.
Premier Sires also provides farmer choice and offers a good deal of flexibility.
We are confident we're delivering the best of our genetics for the best value, with all the analysis done on behalf of the New Zealand farmer.
So, for your artificial breeding requirements this spring, make it a case of simply:
- deciding on the team of elite sires for you: KiwiCross (or KX A2), Holstien-Friesian (or H-F A2), or Jersey, and Forward Pack or Daughter Proven), and;
- drafting your cows out for mating.
