The anticipated base change has been put into place with the launch of the April evaluations. The genetic base for the population moved from cows born in 2015 to cows born in 2020, as the U.S. herd continues to make strides in genetic progress. These routine adjustments happen every five years in the U.S. and allow new evaluations to be easily compared with previous evaluations. A short video from the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) can be found on this link. The April 2025 Hoard’s Dairyman Bull List with all of the top sires is now available.
A small amount of reshuffling of rankings occurred in the Holstein breed with a new No. 1 genomic Net Merit (NM$) and Cheese Merit (CM$), OCD Thorson Darth Vader-ET. He bumped out his paternal brother OCD Thorson Ripcord-ET, who slipped into the No. 2 spot on both list rankings. Ripcord held his position at No. 1 on the genomic Total Performance Index (TPI), coming in at +3537 TPI.
On the daughter-proven side, Genosource Captain-ET continues to dominate the rankings, only bested by his son, SDG Cap Garza-ET. Garza shook up the rankings by reaching the No. 1 spot on NM$, CM$, and second place on the TPI list. Captain and his clones Genosource Jack-ETN and Genosource John-ETN continued their dominant run, tying for second place in NM$, third in CM$, and first in TPI. The only other contender in the top five proven list is the sire of the bull that reached the top on the genomic list, Stgen Cowen Thorson-ET, ranking second in CM$, tied for second in NM$ and fifth on the TPI list.
The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) reported the base change for April 2025 was not applied to calving traits, including daughter calving ease, sire calving ease, daughter stillbirth, and sire stillbirth. Additionally, it is important to note genetic base changes include both corrections for observed genetic trends in the population and adjustments to account for future inbreeding. After the CDCB and USDA-AGIL investigated this further, staff found that these differences were due to smaller adjustments for future inbreeding because of rapid increases in relationships among young animals over the past five years.
You can access the full rankings for all breeds now.
April 2025 Hoard's Dairyman Bull List
Top 50 Genomic Holstein Net Merit $, Cheese Merit $, and TPI
Top 50 Daughter Proven Holstein Net Merit $, Cheese Merit $, and TPI
Top 25 Holstein SCE and Jersey CM$ and JPI
Top Colored Breeds
