The latest Hoard's Dairyman Bull List, complete with rankings of the nation's top bulls for all seven dairy breeds, can now be downloaded by clicking the link found at the bottom of this Hoard's Dairyman Intel report.
Two themes dominate this bull list, the genetic base change and genomics growing importance.
The scheduled base change saw the average Holstein bull drop $191 Cheese Merit (CM$), $184 Net Merit (NM$), 382 pounds of milk and 0.99 type. Those represented high-end adjustments among the dairy breeds which all experienced reductions due to improving genetics. Holsteins and Jerseys tied for the most improvement as 12 pounds of protein were shaved off the base, while Jerseys outpaced all others with a 19-pound reduction in fat.
Among all bulls, 69 percent declared for sale by A.I. this December were genomic bulls. That is up from 45 percent just two years ago when compared to older bulls with daughter-based evaluations. In the Holstein breed, the number of genomic bulls is 2 percent higher than the all-breed average of 71 percent.
To download a copy of our December 2014 bull list, click here.
