From a breeding perspective, nothing provides more of a buzz than seeing a top line of great new heifers with good udders and conformation walking to the shed.
Last year, LIC saw a tremendous team of 2018 Sire Proving Scheme graduates, and although it’s early days, there are great signs this season of some exciting 2019 graduates out of good cow families.
It’s my privilege to profile three proven 19-code bulls, together with the top-ranked Jersey bull:
319035 Careys CM Lexicon S2J: Lexicon’s dam was farmed by Okura but owned by Gavin and Kathryne Carey. Sired by Monopoly, his dam is out of the LIC Hall Of Fame bull Integrity. By adding a good number of herd test daughters, Lexicon has had a significant improvement in BW, mainly increasing his Protein and Fat gBVs.
With a well-balanced TOP profile, he is surely a great allrounder with big production, and good stature, capacity, and udder overall BVs. His maternal line exhibits high production with PWs consistently greater than 400. Available as a spring bull in Premier Sires Forward Pack.
319037 Okura Tironui BT Marco ET: Lyna Beehre from the Okura stud was spot-on in selecting Triplestar as the ET sire when she flushed the wellproven, high profile cow Tironui Integ Meg, owned by the Tironui stud of Murray and Janet Gibb.
Meg is also the dam of Montage (profiled below), and she is currently one of the most prominent cows in the Jersey breed.
Big production and good liveweight are standouts for Marco. Production in this pedigree is phenomenal, with PWs exceeding 600. Marco features in Premier Sires Forward Pack.
319066 Tironui GB Montage ET: The legacy of Tironui Integ Meg continues with another of her sons from the Tironui stud, Montage, sired by the great bull Glanton SS Bastille.
Montage’s pedigree is a combination of two of the very best cow families in the industry, from Tironui and Glanton.
He’s also a good allrounder, with high production, and excellent liveweight, capacity, dairy conformation and udder overall gBVs. Montage is available in Premier Sires Forward Pack.
318021 Glanton Desi Banff: The highest-ranking proven Jersey sire at LIC, Banff is well-liked by farmers. Out of the well-proven B family from the Glanton Stud of Rob and Alison Thwaites, Banff added 649 herd testing daughters in October (for a total of 1025).
Many farmers comment that Banff daughters are the standout production twoyear-old daughters in their herds; this comes as no surprise with his combined protein and fat gBV of more than 70kgs. Banff is available in Premier Sires Forward Pack and Daughter Proven.
Some of the best cow families are behind these bulls, and many genomic young sires of these cows are currently being used in contract mating and LIC’s embryo transfer programme.
The legacy of these great cows will continue, we await with excitement the proofs of their future sons over the next few years.
These bulls graduating emphasise the importance of generations of great cow families.
