High components sire is top proven Holstein

A new number one sire takes top spot in the proven Holstein rankings, published today. Westcoast Yamaska moves up from sixth position as some 159 daughters are added to his genetic evaluation, earning him a Profitable Lifetime Index of £776.

Yamaska is a high components sire, with Predicted Transmitting Abilities for fat of +0.22% and protein of +0.16%. He also boasts the best Lameness Advantage of the top 20 proven sires at 3.7.

Climbing to second position is Welcome Silver Griff, with phenomenal PTAs for fat (60.1kg, +0.25%) and a high score for the newly launched EnviroCow, at 3.8. His PLI is £760.

Graduating from his young sire days and into the proven list is Peak AltaZarek, a strong udder health bull with good lifespan figures who earns at PLI of £756 and EnviroCow of 3.7.

Aurora AltaAntonio makes significant gains to move into fifth position, and transmits the highest Type Merit of 2.17. He has a PLI of £731.

Sixth and seventh position are taken by two sons of Cogent Supershot, with PLIs of £730 and £729. In sixth position is ABS Moonglow, a bull which transmits extreme milk production, at 1,296kg and high protein, at 45.1kg. With a score of -5 for Gestation Length, he’ll also reduce the gestation period for his calves.

The second Supershot son is Bomaz AltaTopshot, who similarly shortens gestations (GL -5 days) and offers good cell count transmission (SCC -18). A former number one proven sire and previously high ranking in the genomic rankings, he now reaffirms his position with 895 daughters milking in 146 UK herds.

In equal eighth position are De-Su 14222 Kenobi and ABS Crimson. Both of these bulls are successful sires of sons in the August genomic rankings, and continue to fare well on £PLI themselves, Kenobi as an all-rounder while Crimson is of particular note for Calf Survival (3.3) and HealthyCow (207).

A new entrant in ninth position is ABS Outback, a truly modern bull who ranks strongly for HealthyCow and the newly launched Feed Advantage, as well as EnviroCow, at 3.7.

Completing the top 10 is another newcomer, VH Bosman Bahrain, whose PLI of £707 is close to that he earned as a young genomic sire and features the best udder health in the top 10 with a Mastitis Index of -3 and SCC of -19.

“Proven sires continue to appeal to producers who like the assurance of daughters on the ground and this ranking will provide exactly that,” says Marco Winters, AHDB Head of Animal Genetics. “They should also feel reassured by the consistency of proven sire performance, as some five of the top 10 bulls featured in the previous, April rankings, three are newcomers which have graduated from the genomic rankings and two have moved up from outside the top 20.”