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#11 Awards

By Reg Tyler (Jun 09 2011, 9:09 AM)

Guys i have been reading this topic with much interest. Handing out awards to reward Dairy Farmers and their abilities to breed good cattle is always a great promotion, but dont forget to look ahead when setting up the awards. Be aware of what could happen down the track. Would the breed be happy to be handing out the same awards each year to the same couple of breeders and then does it loose its hype. eg. Awards 1 and 2 Top ASI herds knowing how the system works, If the number one ASI herd of either catagory just used, say the top 2 ASI bulls each year its fairly well odds on that herd will not be knocked off the No 1 ranking as his Genetic Progress will be as good as anyone going around so no one will gain ground on him. One of your members has had the No 1 Jersey herd for the last 8 years and no one has threaten to knock him off. Will the award loose interest after its awarded to the same people all the time. award 5 Dont give out awards just for being a great bloke. In award 5 you say its for Top New ASI herd. What happens if there is only one new herd that falls into that catagory for any given year. Is he going to get it even if his herd could be below the national average. I'm not trying to bag your efforts but you need to be aware of what could happen down the track. Cause your awards will loose focus if the qualifications have to change too much. I,ll throw up a couple of other options for awards. With Progeny Test being the must important part of growing your breed, why not reward the Dairy Farmers that are proving the next Great Sires 1 Highest Scored Progeny Test Daughter done on LTEs. (breed code only needs to be UU**) this opens it up to all Aussie Red users 2 Highest Scored Group During LTEs. need 10 daughters, must have at least 50% of the 10 by PT bulls others can be contempories.(agian breed code can be UU**) both these awards actually reward the farmers who are growing the breed in proving more bulls for all Aussie Red breeders. Remember the Aussie Red Breed already has its annual awards MORE COWS IN CALF EACH YEAR BETTER CELL COUNTS LESS CALVING PROBLEMS BETTER HEALTH TRAITS isnt that enough of a AWARD cheers

#12 Awards

By Tim (Jun 10 2011, 11:34 AM)

Hello, As a new member of the Australian Red Breed I am pleased to see such an award for an elite lifetime cow. The discussion of cell count limits within this award is a difficult one. Before commencing dairy farming 3 years ago I was a dairy veterinarian for 15 years and my major area of expertise was mastitis control. A cell count level is not necessarily a good indicator of mastitis resistance. A cow with a chronic staph aureus infection that has been spreading the bacteria to other cows within the herd for years may have a cell count of 500,000 – 600,000. A cow with an E.coli infection may have a cell count spike of 10,000,000 but eradicate the infection herself and not spread to other cows. I would certainly rather the second cow in my herd than the first. My first thought is that if a cow qualifies for the award by having calved each calendar year for a minimum of 8 lactations it is highly likely she has very good mastitis resistance. I also think it is unreasonable to expect that at some stage over the 2400 days she would have been milking she has not had some event where bacteria penetrate the teat canal and cause an infection. The important criteria is how often this happens and can her immune system eradicate the infection. A peak cell count of less than 250,000 over a lactation gives a high probability the cow does not have a bacterial infection of the udder. I would like to think that an elite lifetime cow would have at least 4 of her 8 lactations where she has a peak cell count of less than 250,000. Ideally, if she had 2 lactations or more where the peak cell count was greater than 250,000 they were not consecutive lactations. (Consecutive lactations would indicate a chronic infection and an inability of the cow to eradicate the infection herself). In summary I would suggest either, a) Excluding cell count as a criteria, Or b) Setting a minimum number of lactations where peak cell count is less than 250,000 (say 4 or 5) and that if peak cell count is over 250,000 for more than 1 lactation that it does not occur for consecutive lactations. As a new breeder I look forward to the day that I can nominate one of my cows for this award. I am certain that other Australian Dairy breeds would struggle to find a cow to fill the criteria for the award. Regards Tim Humphris

#13 Awards

By Michael Riggs (Jun 10 2011, 11:36 AM)

Reg makes some good points. Progeny testing is the most important aspect of breed improvement there is. Without it no one can use the best bulls to maintain a herd of a high ASI. I think any awards we give should encourage the use of progeny test bulls in a farmers breeding program. I would suggest that any herd to be eligible for a herd award must use at least 25% progeny test semen. This should help make these awards change hands a bit. As Reg pointed out we don’t want the same farm winning the award year after year. In the LTEs awards that suggested by Reg I see a problem that not all farmers have their heifers LTE. I have never had an AI company LTE my Aussie red heifers. I would suggest that this award be for anyone who pays for the privilege of a classifier to come and visit their herds as well at those who have their heifers LTE.

#14 Awards

By Steve (Jun 10 2011, 1:24 PM)

Thanks Tim and Reg. You input has been very helpful. I can see that with the development of Award categories we need to be mindful of the bigger picture. That being, to ensure that the awards reflect and encourage the growth and rate of genetic merit in both the individual herds and the Aussie Red Breed. I can see that herds that participate in our Aussie Red PT programs by using Progeny Test semen will possibly not have the same rate of genetic gain as a herd that uses only proven semen. This is certainly something to contemplate when formulating the Awards categories. Regards Steve Steve Snowdon

#15 Awards

By Reg Tyler (Jun 10 2011, 8:48 PM)

Michael, You make a good point about PT and LTEs, offical classified PT daughters should be included so that everyone can enter the PT type awards. It may also get more farmers to classify their 2yr olds which in turn makes for more reliable proofs. Steve, your comment about Aussie Red PT users, may not have the same genetic gain as fully proven users interest me as i would have thought if you used a fair spread of PT along with proven you probably have the greatest chance of genetic gain. We have always used 50% pt 50% proven and see this as getting the greatest benefits. Not only genetic gain but it also it alows us to use the best proven sires at a cheaper rate. i would hope that whoever selects the young sire teams for what ever breed they are, are selecting a team av (apr, asi ) higher than todays marketable sires or what is the use of PT sorry about getting of track. I like the other idea way back about above prediction ASI cows. I got a Genescreen done on my herd for the first time a month ago. The GA rep went through it with me and it made a lot of sense. Maybe its a good way to get Genetics Australia to be a sponser as DR Paul Douglas could run a genescreen for anyone who wanted to enter, The Red breed might even find potential bull mothers out of it.

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