The Perfect World

Written by Digby Gribble

Monday, 19 July 2010 23:28

I am delighted that there have been some "comments" made as a result of the article about the Guernsey World Conference and thank you to those who made them. This website is open to anyone interested in Guernseys and the more dialogue the better.

Mike Cox in his inimitable way has suggested that all maiden heifers should be mated to the best young bulls and quotes the Dutch method whereby all 2nd calvers are so treated. The Dutch dairy industry are much better organised than we are in the UK. The Government subsidize the data collection for all cattle species and both vets and inseminators are required by law to report all of their interventions to the database.

Professor Ted Burnside of Guelph University (retired) had originally spoken to the last WGCF Conference in the USA (1995) and floated the proposal that Guernseys should move to a scheme reliant on young bulls.

John Woolliams after consulting EGCS and Guernsey Island breeders drew up the Guernsey Merit Index and gave a paper to WGCF in South Africa (2001), GMI was launched in Sept 2001, but FMD restrictions delayed its implementation. The real catalyst for change was however the refusal by the AI Industry in the UK to continue to invest money in the collection and storage of young bull semen awaiting the outcome of the progeny test.

The USA Guernsey breeders still have that support and are still able to use Proven bull semen to a large degree. Mike comments that if the proven semen offers more by way of improvement then he would prefer the greater certainty that it offers. I believe that most breeders agree with him.

He also suggests that all maiden heifers should be bred to young test bulls and i have been doing some sums this afternoon (no cows on the tour schedule today). Figures presented to the Conference by the WGCF members suggest that their are approx 20,000 cows milked around the world. There are therefore between 4000-5000 maiden heifers available each year. Assuming 2 services a conception (makes for easier sums) and that the minimum amount of semen that has to be sold in order to pay for collection costs is 500 straws, then 20 young bulls could be tested annually in the World Guernsey population.

Jan Phillipson in his paper did display the number of Guernsey bulls getting a proof annually and from memory the totals were between 15 and 25 each year, but more than half of these are used in the USA and some of those same bulls are also used in other countries. (Aaron has more UK daughters in his proof than US daughters). Genomics may help here in the future by giving better predictions of breeding worth and aiding selection.

Ted Burnside in his opening remarks to the Conference suggested that using just 100 straws per bull then 100 bulls a year could be used, but did not have an answer to the question posed by me at the coffee break as to how could it be afforded!

One hundred bulls at UK collection costs would cost £300,000 annually, that cost spread over the 20,000 cows could be met by an annual charge of £15 per cow or 0.27 pence per litre for the 5500 litre cow.

Is it likely to happen I don't think so, but you may not agree.

Comments (2)

Genomics continues to crop up as the big posh word in the world of breeding but i believe the powers that be are missing the real problem and the continual decline in numbers is the biggest threat to the Guernsey breed, and hence total numbers of bulls attaining proofs. On our side of the pond there has been a hugh move on the coloured breeds in the past ten years and what is noticeable is that while the whole dairy industry contracts in the last 12 mths all the red breeds have increased the numbers of cows recorded EXCEPT the Guernsey Rolling Eyes Advertising pays and i would be interested to know if the other countries represented at the conference have an active policy of promoting the breed to their wider dairy industrys,in the UK apart from your site we have a policy of meeting up twice a yr patting each other on the back discussing what great strides the breeds making, yet these big improvements are kept secret. Little point in taking the breed to new levels of achievement and then letting it go extinct.

I agree with a lot of what Mike Cox has said. I use the best bulls available, proven or unproven, and I was always taught to get your fastest genetic gain breed your heifers to test bulls. As for genomics, it needs to be used as another piece of the puzzle. There are AI units in Canada and the USA that have gone too far. If there are 3 full brothers and the ugliest one comes up with the highest genomics guess which one they are taking. Another stud has signed a contract with a large, GRADE (no reg papers), free stall herd to genomic test bulls from their highest producing cows and sell semen from them!!!Red breeds are increasing in Canada as well but only due to cross breeding. Semex being our largest AI signed a deal to bring over Swedish Red semen. Possibly their advertising as being the top breed for health traits paid off for them. In Canada we do some breed promotion outside of our own newsletters, web site and magazine. We have 2 all breeds magazines in Canada that will give us free space to promote top records, top classifications and up coming events a couple times a year. One (Cowsmopolitan)will even print reports from our national show and annual meeting with pictures, if we send them in, for free. We have just started up a promotion committee this year as well. So far they have purchased 2 verticle banner displays that were at the conference and are soon to start making a brochure together with the American assoc. I would like to see a couple of our best Guernseys on display at some of the Holstein shows in the area and a on-farm show. Basically the same thing Digby was doing during the conference, farmers send in their enteries and then the assoc pays a judge to drive around for a couple days. Then get a report written up about the winner to provide the magazines.

Comments (1)