Sire Selection

Since there is no direct measure of a sire’s individual performance, his evaluation is done on the basis of the performance of his daughters. The animal model currently used for such evaluations includes records from all identified relatives in the evaluation. The selection of a sire is really important because he becomes the parent of many more offspring than does an individual cow. A superior sire may be responsible for 90% or more of the genetic improvement in a herd.

A dairy producer has three sources of herd sire:

• Artificial insemination service

• Purchase of herd sires

• Raising herd sires

The dairy farmer must also decide between using proven sires or young sires. A young sire is a sire without recorded daughters, whereas proven sire has records of progeny. The challenge is to select herd sires that will ensure genetic improvement in the herd. The most reliable source of superior genetics for the breeding program of a herd is bulls that have been accurately evaluated from a large number of traits, including yield, conformation, and calving ease. This approach strongly favours bulls available through bull studs.

  Copyrights © Dr. M Jassar Aftab, All Rights Reserved