CRV AmBreed’s 2010 New Graduates – How have they fared?

The 2009/10 season has been a tumultuous one in the breeding world with the introduction of genomic coefficients into Animal Evaluation for one company – and the crazy results of the early season RAS List.  Fortunately, NZAEL have seen sense, and this year’s crop of new sires will not graduate until they reach 75% reliability on daughter information.

Back in March we showcased CRV AmBreed’s New Graduates for 2010 – now with a full season of production and full BV data plus a base change behind them, how have they fared?

According to NZAEL’s most recent RAS List, CRV bulls are number 1, 2 and 3 on BW.  With 3 of the top 5 sires and 12 of the top 30 spots on the Jersey list, the focus our Genetics team has been putting on breeding for robust, long-lasting and profitable cows is coming to the fore.  Added to that, of the 18 top 30 bulls that are not from CRV AmBreed, 9 are sired by CRV AmBreed bulls.

We graduated 7 bulls this season, the most noticeable of them being Murmur and Inspector now sitting at first and third respectively.  Along with Javed and Ozark, Inspector is a result of our Joint-Venture with Liberty Genetics.  It is hardly surprising that this JV is resulting in successful sires  given that LG’s breeders cannot access genetics from the other major AB company because of IP restrictions.

Our belief is that NZ farmers are better served by working cooperatively with farmers and breeders to produce the genetics that the industry needs.  This is the thinking behind the JerseyGenome project we have underway with JerseyNZ, giving breeders access to genomics and pathway for the future development of the breed.