The Paris Olympics was a record success for Australia with our Olympians producing elite performances against the best in the world.  Our athletes can be very proud that they were able to match it with the best and with a lot of hard work and preparation it resulted in a record gold medal haul.

The ABVs release is, in a way, the Olympics of the breeding industry. Bulls from around the world are measured on the performance of their progeny or genomic tested and compared to each other. We can be very proud that Australian bulls match it with the very best, and in many cases stand on top of the podium as the very best bulls for Australian farmers.

The August breeding values clearly demonstrate the strong performance of both GA and TLG bulls, including several the best in their respective breed for many traits.

Australian proven Holstein bulls with daughters milking PILBARA, LASTIN and PEMBERTON are the top three bulls available in August. These popular bulls have hundreds of daughters milking with PILBARA at $497BPI, 1016 SI and 41kgs protein clearly a gold medal performer. He offers improvements across the board to production, health and type traits. LASTIN follows closely at $494BPI while PEMBERTON, one of our most popular Holsteins and the sire of several sons and high-ranking daughters, is in third place at $487 BPI. He can be used with confidence with more than 560 milking daughters making him 99% reliable.

The performance on the BPIg list is even more impressive for Australian bulls. Genetics Australia holds the top four positions with AUSTRALIND [Rocknroll x Jeronimo] breaking the 600BPIg mark and topping the list closely followed by JOBOLT [Bolti x Pemberton] $597 BPIg, FENDER [Rocknroll x Bandares] $568 BPIg and JORDLIV [Varley x Nippon] $567 BPIg POLMAX [Fedora x Jeronimo]  $559 BPIg follows at number 6. In addition, LUKIE [Varley x Superdave] is the number 1 production bull at 320 ASI, JOBOLT [Bolti x Pemberton] the number 1 Sustainability Index bull at 1,140 and TLGSHERIFF [Bolti x Altamater] is the equal number 1 bull for Longevity.

Not only is it pleasing to see the strong performance of bulls sourced from Carenda Holsteins in WA holding the dual positions with PILBARA and AUSTRALIND, but congratulations must also go to Winaview and Wilara Holsteins in Gippsland. The cow families these elite breeders have developed are making a solid contribution to genetic improvement in Australia and are clearly matching it with the best in the world.

Also pleasing to see is the contribution several Australian bulls are making as sire of top-rated sons. The 2024 Holstein bull team offered by Genetics Australia and Total Livestock Genetics holds 10 of the 20 leading positions on BPIg.

Holstein daughter fertility has taken a significant lift in recent years with a greater focus on this important trait, and no doubt genomic technology has been at the forefront of this improvement. The polled gene is also rapidly gaining in interest and in a relatively short time a number of high rated polled bulls can be confidently used in breeding programs.  ILLUMINATOR P [A2P2 x Delta] 468BPIg, VISSLA P [Magicball x Superhero] and MDOUGLASS PP  [Fomo x Bighit] $435 BPIg have proven very popular for farmers looking to reduce or eliminate dehorning from their job lists.

The SLICK gene is relatively new and leaves cattle with a short and sleek hair coat and research has shown they have a greater thermal tolerance. The gene was first identified in Senepol cattle and has been introduced into dairy cows.  Two heterozygous SLICK bulls have been included in the Spring Holstein team following the August ABV release. With climate change and the Heat Tolerance ABV, greater emphasis is likely to be placed on this into the future, both in Australia but also in the Asian counties where heat stress is a current concern.  The bulls HONDA [Solar x Lundy] $420 BPIg and ICEMAN [Solar x Jeronimo] $461 BPIg not only warrant their place in the team for SLICK, but also for several other key traits. HONDA is also heterozygous polled, 104 for Heat Tolerance and the number 1 Holstein bull for Daughter Fertility at an impressive 121 ABV. ICEMAN on the other hand is in the top 2% of the breed for BPI at $461 BPIg, 111 for Daughter Fertility and is Homozygous Polled. 

The Summit View prefix is beginning to appear on a small group of GA and TLG bulls.  Appearing for the first time is the tenth highest Holstein at $554 BPIg Summit View Enzo -TLGENZO. ENZO also has a high breeding value in the USA in August at +2,987 gTPI, NM$841 and +2.00 PTAT. Joining ENZO at over 500 BPIg is HEROIC [$520 BPIg], TLGELEVATION [$504 BPIg and EVANDER [$502 BPIg]. The Summit View prefix for the internal Genetics Australia breeding program for bulls or females born from either the donor dams acquired from the acquisition of TLG in 2022 or calves resulting from embryos sourced from the Peak Genetics breeding program, now part of the URUS joint venture program. The program is designed to complement and provide diversity to the genetics that can be sourced locally and will help position Genetics Australia to continue to provide elite genetics to the Australian industry.

The August release of the ABVs clearly demonstrates the commitment Genetics Australia has to the ongoing supply of elite genetics to current and future dairy farmers in Australia.