#ThursdayThoughts How do I breed longer lasting cows? Productive Life, or PL, is used to give an indication of how long a bull’s daughters will be productive and remain in the herd. PL is based on calving dates, culling or death dates, and days in milk in each lactation for bull daughters. Cows receive credit for each month in milk, including time beyond 305 days of lactation, starting with their first calf and continuing until they die or are culled from the herd, regardless of age. The credit that the cow receives is weighted, with higher credit given for months milked around peak lactation. For bulls that have daughters that are too young to obtain their own PL figure, it is predicted through genomics using other traits that a linked to a longer, more productive life. These traits include yield traits, fertility, somatic cell score, the calving difficulty traits, and the three type composite indexes. The productive life figure is given as a number, and that number means how many months the bull’s progeny will stay in the herd when compared with their herd mates. For example, JEDI has a PL of 7.5, meaning that his daughters are likely to remain productive for 7.5 months more than the average. For more information on bulls that have a high PL figure, contact your local breeding advisor today, or call us on 021 324 9691.

Congratulations to Kings-Ransom! Their superb MOGUL daughter Kings-Ransom Mg Cleavage-ET, is now classified EX-95!

#mammaryMonday This freshly calved BRADNICK daughter hails from Co. Monaghan! With an Udder Composite Score of 2.62, BRADNICK is breeding daughters with well attached udders and strong ligaments. Call us today on 021 324 9691 to find out more!

#Thursdaythoughts How can I prevent mastitis through breeding? Each of our bulls has a mastitis score. The score is shown as a breeding value, where 100 is the average. Bulls with a mastitis score of above 100 will breed daughters that are less likely to get mastitis. The score combines both clinical and sub-clinical mastitis into a single genetic selection index. The mastitis score includes data on clinical mastitis in first lactation cows, clinical mastitis in later lactations and somatic cell score across the first three lactations. The maximum score a bull can have for mastitis is 115. One of our new bulls, GOLDTOP, has a mastitis score of 110. If you’d like to start breeding healthier cows, give us a call on 021 324 9161!

Hear what Leo Collins, Co. Meath, has to say about our World Wide Mating Service (WMS). "We started using WMS 3 years ago to help manage inbreeding and reach our breeding goals. We find that the info that WMS provides is always there for you to refer to, and it does the thinking for you" "The first crop of calves that were born from WMS were much stronger and healthier, and more consistent as a group" "Our breeding focused towards increasing fertility and milk solids, while holding our herd’s type. We aim to breed a hard working functional type of cow that’s not too big, and has a will to milk". "WMS is helping us achieve that!" We’d like to wish the Collins family the very best of luck as they prepare to host the IHFA National Open Day on July 4th. We’re looking forward to seeing you all there! For more info on WMS, call us on 021 234 9691.

Check out this SHAMROCK (S1160) daughter from Moorcastle Holsteins!

#mammaryMonday Mr D Apple DIAMONDBACK Talent x Doorman x Regiment Red Check out these pictures of a DIAMONDBACK (FR2208) daughter in Wisconsin, USA! DIAMONDBACK had a UDC of 2.53, and is breeding daughters with excellent udders and a strong will to milk. Call us today on 021 234 9691 to place your order.

S-S-I Shil STCLF GOLDTOP Sutcliff x Jackman x Mogul 🇮🇪 €233 EBI €67 Milk Sub Index €84 Fertility Sub Index -2.4 Days CI 🇺🇸 6.3 DPR 0.07 % protein 26lbs protein GOLDTOP is an exciting new genomic bull with superb fertility figures. Pictured is Fustead Oman Sammy, one of Goldtop's maternal family members. Contact 021-2349691 or info@wwsireland.com to place your order today!

#Thursdaythoughts How do I breed cows that don't get mastitis? Somatic Cell Score, or SCS, is a figure used to gauge how likely a bull’s daughters are to get mastitis. The PTA for SCS is used to improve mastitis resistance. Bulls with low SCS (less than 3.0) are expected to have daughters with lower mastitis than bulls with high for SCS (greater than 3.5). Health management and parlour routine has the biggest effect on SCS, but just the same way that some people inherit a higher chance of getting high cholesterol, cows can inherit traits which cause higher mastitis. So, choose bulls with a lower SCS to help combat mastitis!

S-S-I Mogul DEFENDER-ET (S1655) Mogul X Man-O-Man X Durham DEFENDER has an UDC of 2.75, and as the picture shows, he’s breeding cows with superb udders!

You might remember our post last week about installing CowManager in Fortune Farms in Co. Wexford. CowManager has already started paying for itself, helping to identify a cow that had developed milk fever! You can see how her not active measure (yellow) increased on January 31st before becoming completely inactive when she went down on Feb 1st. At the same time, her rumination was decreasing, alerting the farmer to the fact that something was wrong. If you'd like to learn more about CowManager, call us on 021 234 9691

#mammaryMonday River Valley Cece CHROME Something for our jersey enthusiasts this week! Check out the udder on this CHROME daughter! CHROME has a Jersey Udder Index of 28.9. Contact us on 021 234 9691 to place your order today!