Export – sire profile:
MEGABUCK – Protein power family
It wasn’t long after the first Megabuck daughters calved in New Zealand last spring that reports began filtering in from the field of these tall strong dairy cattle that were pumping out large volumes of milk from exceptional udders. CRV AmBreed sales consultants were impressed with the early daughters they were seeing by this OMan son, one of a handful of the first OMan sons to graduate via CRV AmBreed’s progeny test program.
And HSS Oman Megabuck’s initial proof was looking healthy too, based on 99 daughters for production, and 62 daughters scored for Traits other than Production (TOP). Whilst a New Zealand Merit Index (NZMI) score of 204, and Breeding Worth (BW) of 167 with 83% reliability keeps him well below the breed’s ‘index’ toppers, it is in several of Megabuck’s individual production and type Breeding Values (BVs) that the merits of this new sire are emerging.
Descending from a world class cow family, and sired by the international commercial super sire O-Bee Manfred Justice-ET, or ‘OMan’, Megabuck passes on many exceptional traits, some from sources deep within his pedigree. The Megabuck daughters excel in all the traits that made OMan a commercial farmer’s dream irrespective of which country his daughters were milking in. They excel for fertility, longevity, somatic cells and calving ease, with Megabuck’s somatic cell BV of -0.29 amongst the top for the breed. This is partnered with tremendous milk and protein BVs (lifting 543 litres and 19kg protein above breed average), good components, and a high protein:fat ratio of 0.88.
Daughter TOP scores confirm the Megabucks as tall strong cattle exhibiting good capacity, near ideal rump angle, leg set and superb udders. Megabuck’s udder overall BV of 1.05 is accompanied by exceptional scores for ligament, fore and rear udder attachments, and he brings both fore and rear teats under. Megabuck also increases liveweight by a significant amount. However with liveweight being a negative trait under the New Zealand index system this explains Megabuck’s modest final rating(s). His daughters however have all the qualities to excel under supplemented pasture and/or high input production systems.
Holim Heidi family
The maternal cow family behind Megabuck is rich in protein and high yielding cows and will be instantly recognizable to breeders around the globe. Bred by HSS Genetics, New Zealand, Megabuck is a direct descendent of Holim Heidi, a feature cow from the Delta Nucleus herd in Holland. In the 1990s HSS breeders David Fullerton and Henk Smit imported a Gibbon embryo out of Holim Lizzette, a Mascot daughter from Heidi. Holim Gibbon Lisa-ET went on to produce many high profile cows and bull mothers for HSS and the Waipiri stud of David and Pip Fullerton, Hamilton, where most of her descendents are farmed.
A flush to Donor produced several high profile daughters out of Lisa, including Megabuck’s grand dam Holim Donor Liza-ET VG89, her best record 12,638L, 3.72 470F, 3.44 434P, 305 days. Liza was flushed to Fatal son Hazael Fatals Duke to produce Waipiri Duke Liza-ET VG86, Megabuck’s dam, with best record 12,684L, 2.48 315F, 3.51 445P, 305 days at 5yrs. Another Donor Liza daughter (by OMan) was the highest protein yielding 2 yr-old in New Zealand last year (2008-09).
Of the Lizas David comments, “they’re quite big cows…all extremely high in protein, and certainly the Lizzette side of the Heidi family got a lot more style and better udders than the others.”
HSS Genetics breeds and places bulls into AI for both domestic and international markets. A large proportion of their bull dams are carried at Waipiri, the highest milk and protein/cow herd in the country (2008-09), which milks 430 cows year-round on a high-input pasture-base system. The farm also carries over 200 young bulls and currently conducts ET work on approximately 30 donor cows, being a mix of high indexing, brood cows and virgin heifers.
Megabuck was identified early via genomics and as a consequence he has been catalogued as a CRV AmBreed ‘Insire’ bull for the past two seasons. This season however will be the first that he is marketed as a proven sire.
Holim Lizzette
(s. Mascot)
↓
Holim NLD Gibbon Lisa-ET
(s. Gibbon)
↓
Holim NZ Donor Liza-ET VG89
(s. Elite Mountain Donor)
↓
Waipiri Duke Liza-ET VG86
(s. Hazael Fatals Duke-ET)
↓
HSS Oman Megabuck
(O-Bee Manfred Justice-ET)
Indexes and Breeding Values quoted as per AE run 13/2/2010
