(Continued from Page 52)
• Trust the index and use the bull.
• Keep using the bull, but less.
• Use the bull, but be sure not to double up faults.
• Don’t use the bull. If the next high bull is nearly
equal for net merit, it won’t hurt too much.
Cassell also discussed a new feature that was
added to the net merit index this past February. The
daughter pregnancy rate (DPR) indicates a bull’s
ability to pass on reproductive performance.
Even though DPR is a lowly heritable trait, it is
“extremely valuable.” The change it brings will be
slow but permananent, Cassell said.
All the young bulls in sire selection programs
start out with the potential to be good but only
about one in 10 make the grade, according to Cas
sell. He strongly advised using a stud provider that
doesn’t have a biased interest in any particular bull.
“Make sure you’re with an organization that
doesn’t care which bull out of those ten makes it,”
he said.
Mike O’Connor, dairy professor at Penn State,
spoke on reproductive management strategies.
“What’s the most expensive semen?” O’Connor
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said. “Semen that doesn’t result in a pregnancy.
“Breed cows that are in heat,” was his tongue-in
cheek advice.
O’Connor’s fieldwork and research has shown
that semen is often either put into a cow that is not
in heat or is not inserted fully into the cervix.
O’Connor has an x-ray device that helps train
breeders by showing the results of their semen
placement.
At Pride-N-Joy Holstein, the Wanner family and
their PDMP intern, Marcela Martinez, offered three
tour stops. They shared their systems for feeding,
breeding and nutrient management, as well as pro
tocols for calves and young heifers. Genex/CRI was
exclusive sponsor of the meeting and helped with
tours.
The Wanners have about 400 cows and an exem
plary breeding program.
For more information about PDMP, visit the
website HYPERLINK “http://www.das.psu.edu/
pdmp/” http://www.das.psu.edu/pdmp/ or contact
Beth Moore, Special Projects Coordinator HYPER
LINK “mailto:beth@innernet.net” beth@innernet
.netor(7l7)37s-2910.
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