Datagene News

10 December 2018

Dairy farmers who love genetics will have the latest Australian Breeding Values (ABVs) to pour over during their Christmas break, with the December ABVs released by DataGene this week.

Herd '19 Proceedings are now on line. Access it here

(300 words, November 2018)

Dairy House is a joint office within the AgriBio building at La Trobe University, Victoria. Established in November 2018 it is home to DataGene, Holstein Australia, Jersey Australia and the National Herd Improvement Association of Australia (NHIA).

With Spring-calved heifers well settled into the dairy, now is the time for farmers to send in their workability reports.

Whether she’s a kicker, a slow milker or a delight to have in the dairy, DataGene wants to know.

With DataGene’s latest release of Australian Breeding Values (ABVs) out this week (13 August), dairy farmers have one more good reason – worth about $300 per cow – to focus on Balanced Performance Index (BPI) when selecting bulls.

The BPI is a blend of ABVs for the traits that influence a dairy cow’s contribution to the farm business: production, fertility, functional type, survival, cell count, workability and feed saved.

It’s official. Western Victoria has some of the best dairy genes in the country. And they were celebrated at the Great South West Dairy Awards earlier this month (11 July) with awards presented by DataGene.

For the third year running, Bryan and Jo Dickson (Emu Banks, Terang) took out the top Holstein herd. Their 1000-cow herd averages a BPI of 133, ranking equal fifth in Australia.

Mario Park Sid Alicia Ex-92-2, owned by Oxley Vale, NSW breeder, Murray Polson, has taken out the award for the top BPI Holstein at the 2018 Victorian Winter Fair. She also came third in the 6yo class, proving she’s a top performer on multiple fronts.

Of all the females entered in the Winter Fair, Sid Alicia had the top BPI calculated by DataGene in the April 2018 genetic evaluations.