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Farmer favourite ILLUMINATOR achieves 88% conception in Terang

Oct 10, 2024

Tori Tucket was pleasantly surprised to get 88% conception using ILLUMINATOR P

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He was already a favorite with the team at the bull farm – now Genetics Australia’s ILLUMINATOR P is quickly becoming a favorite among farmers with early reports of his vigorous calves and excellent semen fertility. Genetics Australia Laboratory Manager, Emily Fowler, says her team has high expectations on any product they release, with their post-thaw criteria in-line with the standards set by PEAK – the world’s premier cattle genetics supplier.

“We’re very strict on our assessments and quality control measures to ensure we are only putting semen into the market that meets our world class standards,” Emily said. Emily has been assessing ILLUMINATOR’s collections for the past 12 months and was not surprised at the positive feedback surrounding his excellent conception rates on farm.

“Illuminator has exceptional semen quality,” she said. “When he comes into collection, the team knows he is going to process well and hit his targets. He always presents well with highly motile and morphologically sound sperm, so it’s not surprising he is getting good results.” According to Emily and the staff at TLG, ILLUMINATOR has been a standout bull since he first arrived on centre in 2023. They attribute much of ILLUMINATOR’s vitality to his placid temperament and his superior development.

“Illuminator is a nice natured bull that’s never stressed when he comes in for collection,” Emily said. “He clearly had a good start back as a calf and met all his key growth targets, which makes a big difference when it comes to his maturity and semen quality.”

LLUMINATOR’s vitality was demonstrated recently by local dairy farmers Tori and Ryan Tuckett. The couple manage 750 cows across two herds at Terang in south west Victoria. Last year the Tucketts installed 8x Lely milking robots to milk 550 cows on their pasture-based system. A recent pregnancy test at the Tucketts revealed ILLUMINATOR had achieved 88% conception rate at 150 days, from 50 units of conventional semen, bred on natural heats on cows from their robot herd by their local AI technician from Nationwide AB. Tori said she was thrilled by the result, and is eagerly anticipating their first ILLUMINATOR calves that are due in early December. “To get that conception rate is pretty amazing and not something we really expected,” Tori said.

“We picked ILLUMINATOR because we wanted to improve traits like chest width, muzzle width and correct pin set. All his udder traits are really good, with good teat length and placement not too close. “His proof just ticks all the boxes, so we’re going to keep using him – I don’t see any reason why we should change.”

ILLUMINATOR is destined to be in high demand again this Spring through Genetics Australia. He continues to maintain excellent stocks of both conventional and sexed Ultra 4Ml.


ILLUMINATOR P – $468 BPIg is getting tremendous feedback on his ability to get cows in

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