Hello and welcome to the GenElite website. This is our 24th edition of the news section - thank you for visiting. We hope you find it enjoyable and informative. Please refer to this news section periodically as it is revised following each genetic update with new information. We encourage you to respond with your comments, especially if you are in need of elite Holstein genetics or have elite genetics for sale.

April Sire Summary is the 2nd of the 3 summary updates to be released this year. The next summary will be early August.

The April update was heavily influenced by the first group of Morty and Outside sons. Outside was particularly influential as either the sire or maternal grandsire of many bulls. Overall, a few new names appeared in top TPI list. Just about 2 years ago Oman became the first bull with a TPI over +2,000. This run saw 5 bulls exceed this magic number!

Picston Shottle maintained the #1 spot in April with a TPI of +2224! His production figures continue to make significant increases with each run.

Speaking of Shottle You may have noticed that the PL and DPR proofs for Shottle daughters are much lower than you would expect based on their pedigrees. This affects their CTPI and Net Merit values significantly. Here is what is happening right now:

Shottle’s official MACE proof for PL is +4.3 and his official MACE proof for DPR is -.5. This is based on 677 daus. in 355 herds (0 US herds) for PL and 473 daughters in 289 herds (181 US daus.) for DPR. However, it is Shottle’s proof for PL & DPR based on his US daughters only that contributes to the evaluation of these traits for Shottle daughters. Since a very high percentage of Shottle daughters are ET’s and many carry contracts for bulls and/or embryos, a disproportionate number of Shottle daughters are being flushed and not bred back for their second calves. At this point, this is negatively affecting his US proof for DPR. In fact the current Daughter Yield Deviation for DPR on Shottle is –7.1. While the US daughters only proof on these traits is not published it would appear that Shottle is approximately +.9 for PL and –3.9 for DPR when evaluated in this way. This is just an estimate based on the evaluation of several pedigrees. This problem is most evident on Shottle daughters right now but it is also affecting daughters of Laudan, Lancelot, Goldwyn, etc. USDA is aware of this situation and hopefully a remedy will be in place soon.

Braedale Goldwyn who jumped from #14 to #7 in January, jumped to #3 in April (he is #2 LPI bull in Canada). The Golwyn daughters show more dairy quality with more style than the Shottle daughters and are milking just as well, at least early in lactation. His DPR figures bear protecting, as they tend to lose body weight quickly after calving.

Ensenada Taboo Planet made his debut on the Top 100 TPI list at #2, adding credibility to his earlier proof.

Many of the newer bulls used recently as mating sires held their TPI values and held onto their top rankings; Bolton, Jet Stream, Forge, Armstead, Socrates, Moscow etc. Sidney, Pronto and Pagewire dropped down on the list a bit. Sure-View America-Red-ET looks like a new hot red bull, although his reliability is not high enough to qualify him for the Top 100 List.

Current Mating Sires
of our clients from the April 2008 proofs include (not complete list):

Japan Planet, Plus, Pagewire, Onward, Mega-Man, Earnit, Jeeves and Moscow on high protein% cows, Spartacus, Laramee, Temptation and Bonair. Perhaps Bushman. They will continine to use Boliver and Jet Stream on special matings.

Germany Bertil, Bobas, Gavor, Gibor, Howie, Juwel, Vachim, Jonl, Laurin, Novize, Zar. Red/R&W: America, Ludox,, Mr Landslide, Para, Stabilo, Starfire, and others.

France Planet, Socrates, Onward, Keith, Sidney, Mega-Man, Gavor, Spartacus, Jurus, Ebro, Tuchan, Riffin.

Lower reliability bulls will be added as they are identified.


Components seem to be an issue with the current group of mating sires, either low fat% or low protein% or both. Will be something the breed will need to watch. Protein% is particularly important to our European clients.

Daughters of contract interest will be primarily Shottle and Goldwyn. Others will include the top daughters of: Boliver, Oman, Allegro, Ramos, Laudan, Lancelot, Ameteur and Givenchy. Early Garrison and Marion daughters will be of interest. Later this fall, there could be an exciting group of daughters by Sharky, Marsh, Buckeye, Jet Stream and Elegant. Following soon will be daughters by Toystory, Zesty, Artic, Bolton, Encino, Lou, Airraid and Frosty. The future looks bright!

Sons of popular sires to have proofs soon include Outside, Garter (just a few) , Morty, Stormatic, Champion, Machoman, Adam and Finley.

Congratulations to our clients TopQ. Michelle-Red (Origin x Horstyle Marshall Mindy – bred by Ivan & Darwin Horst, PA), was sold at the RUW Highlight Sale in 2005. In 2007 she was the highest producing Holstein 2 year old in Germany of all B&W and all R&W with 28,714M 4.73% 1360 3.76cp 1,080cp. She is scored VG-87. Already TopQ is sampling 2 sons from her! Michelle is the result of imported embryos.

Herdmates If a cow moves from one herd to another during the course of her lactation, which herdmates will be used for genetic calculations? According to Tom Lawlor at Holstein USA, in most cases the herd in which the cow has the most days in milk will be her herdmates. There could be other factors involved as well.

Clones of the Red bull Paradox have been released by Genex. Paradox is among the best high-production, high reliability bulls of the R&W Holstein breed. Due to a short lifespan, his influence was not as great as it could have been. This is about to change with the release of Paradox 2,3 and 4. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that clones of a top bull, of any dairy breed, have been made available. A clone of Paradox might offer more in terms of overall breed improvement than clones of other bulls, because not many Red bulls have passed Paradox for production. According to geneticists, these clones will produce exactly the same results as Paradox’s proof. Source: Bull Briefs 2008 by the Red & White Dairy Cattle Assn.

Diagnostic Testing offered through the Holstein Association USA has been expanded. Here is the schedule of fees for various testing through Holstein: DNA (genotyping) - $45; CVM - $33; BLAD - $30; Kappa Casein - $35; Beta-Lactoglobulin - $35; Coat color - $35. In addition to these tests, Holstein can assist in mulefoot ($150), freemartin, Factor XI and Citrullinemia testing.

Blood-typing services In recent years, DNA genotyping for parentage has been gradually replacing blood typing. Effective December 31, 2008 the current laboratory conducting blood-typing services for the Holstein Association will no longer provide this service.