High components sire is top proven Holstein 

A new number one sire takes top spot in the proven Holstein rankings, published today (10 August) by AHDB Dairy. Westcoast Yamaska moves up from sixth position as some 159 daughters are added to his genetic evaluation, earning him a Profitable Lifetime Index of £776. Yamaska is a high components sire, with Predicted Transmitting Abilities for fat of +0.22% and protein of +0.16%. He also boasts the best Lameness Advantage of the top 20 proven sires at 3.7.

Climbing to second position is Welcome Silver Griff, with phenomenal PTAs for fat (60.1kg, +0.25%) and a high score for the newly launched EnviroCow, at 3.8. His PLI is £760.

Graduating from his young sire days and into the proven list is Peak AltaZarek, a strong udder health bull with good lifespan figures who earns at PLI of £756 and EnviroCow of 3.7.

Aurora AltaAntonio makes significant gains to move into fifth position, and transmits the highest Type Merit of 2.17. He has a PLI of £731.

Sixth and seventh position are taken by two sons of Cogent Supershot, with PLIs of £730 and £729. In sixth position is ABS Moonglow, a bull which transmits extreme milk production, at 1,296kg and high protein, at 45.1kg. With a score of -5 for Gestation Length, he’ll also reduce the gestation period for his calves. 

The second Supershot son is Bomaz AltaTopshot, who similarly shortens gestations (GL -5 days) and offers good cell count transmission (SCC -18). A former number one proven sire and previously high ranking in the genomic rankings, he now reaffirms his position with 895 daughters milking in 146 UK herds.

In equal eighth position are De-Su 14222 Kenobi and ABS Crimson. Both of these bulls are successful sires of sons in the August genomic rankings, and continue to fare well on £PLI themselves, Kenobi as an all-rounder while Crimson is of particular note for Calf Survival (3.3) and HealthyCow (207).

A new entrant in ninth position is ABS Outback, a truly modern bull who ranks strongly for HealthyCow and the newly launched Feed Advantage, as well as EnviroCow, at 3.7.

Completing the top 10 is another newcomer, VH Bosman Bahrain, whose PLI of £707 is close to that he earned as a young genomic sire and features the best udder health in the top 10 with a Mastitis Index of -3 and SCC of -19.

“Proven sires continue to appeal to producers who like the assurance of daughters on the ground and this ranking will provide exactly that,” says Marco Winters, head of animal genetics for AHDB. “They should also feel reassured by the consistency of proven sire performance, as some five of the top 10 bulls featured in the previous, April rankings, three are newcomers which have graduated from the genomic rankings and two have moved up from outside the top 20.”

A table of the top 20 available Holstein bulls with a daughter proof ranked on the latest PLI (August  2021) appears below.

Type Merit is supplied by Holstein UK.

Rank	£PLI	Bull name	£PLI Rel%	Milk kg	Fat kg	Ptn kg	Fat %	Ptn %	SCC	Mast	LA	CS	LS	FI	GL	TB Adv	£HC	Feed Adv	Env Cow	TM	Sire	Supplier GB/NI
1	776	WESTCOAST YAMASKA	90	630	45.1	34.8	0.22	0.16	-7	1	3.7	1.6	95	6.4	-1	1.2	167	26	3.5	1.85	Afterburner	SMX
2	760	WELCOME SILVER GRIFF	88	932	60.1	37.8	0.25	0.08	4	2	1.8	1.3	61	5	-1	1.5	83	56	3.8	1.36	Silver	WWS
3	756	PEAK ALTAZAREK	67	950	44.5	32	0.07	0.01	-19	-2	3.2	1.3	137	2.5	-4	1.3	198	96	3.7	1.27	AltaTopshot	ALT/AIS
4	731	AURORA ALTAANTONIO	85	858	41.5	33.5	0.08	0.06	-12	-1	1.7	1.5	95	4	1	1.1	165	90	3.5	2.17	Yoder	ALT
5	730	ABS MOONGLOW	91	1296	43.5	45.1	-0.09	0.03	-7	-1	-1.7	-1.4	88	2.1	-5	-1.5	66	36	3.6	0.45	Supershot	GEN
6	729	BOMAZ ALTATOPSHOT	96	957	47	35.3	0.09	0.04	-18	-1	2.1	1.5	79	0.1	-5	-0.3	110	83	3.5	0.06	Supershot	ALT/AIS
7	724	DE-SU 14222 KENOBI	75	893	33.8	35.6	-0.02	0.07	-15	-2	1.3	2.2	70	6.2	-2	0.7	172	107	3.3	0.52	Jedi	GEN
7	724	ABS CRIMSON	75	771	47.4	28.2	0.18	0.03	-13	-1	1.2	3.3	125	7.8	-1	2.2	207	62	3.5	0.66	Spectre	GEN
9	711	ABS OUTBACK	75	518	36.9	22.3	0.18	0.06	-12	-1	2.7	-2	149	12.8	-1	0.9	235	175	3.7	1.27	Spectre	GEN
10	707	VH BOSMAN BAHRAIN	79	600	30.6	30.6	0.07	0.12	-14	-3	0.5	1.5	113	3.6	0	0.7	157	116	3.4	-0.33	Balisto	VIK
11	706	HURTGENLEA RICHARD CHARL	78	1130	47.1	33	0.02	-0.04	-11	-1	2.2	0.4	76	3.2	-2	1.1	142	185	3.7	1.53	Charley	CBL
12	703	STOWEY MAGICIAN	77	309	34.8	20.4	0.26	0.12	-11	-1	2.1	1.8	119	17.9	-1	-0.4	290	79	3.1	1.43	Mardi	GSU/UKD
13	698	ABS SASSAFRAS	69	510	51.4	23.5	0.35	0.08	-1	0	2	0.2	104	8	-2	1.5	170	80	3.4	2.35	Spectre	GEN
14	697	SANDY-VALLEY AFTERBURNER	96	483	29.8	27.1	0.12	0.13	-25	-2	3.6	1.4	76	12.6	-2	4.9	266	-45	2.4	1.22	Flame	SMX
15	691	SANDY-VALLEY CHALLENGER	76	679	41.2	23.4	0.16	0.01	-26	-1	2.4	-0.5	82	9	1	2.7	225	39	2.7	2.21	Superhero	SMX
16	690	DE-SU 13050 SPECTRE	96	932	58.9	30.2	0.23	-0.01	-1	1	2.3	0.8	43	6.4	-1	0.1	106	74	3.2	1.13	Yoder	GEN
17	689	BOMAZ SKYWALKER	81	866	28.7	35.5	-0.07	0.08	-1	-1	1.8	4.6	88	5.5	-1	1.1	179	59	3.1	1.73	Jedi	GEN
18	688	WESTCOAST BACARDI	77	859	39.9	34.7	0.06	0.07	-13	-2	2.5	1.8	27	3.9	-1	2.9	146	56	2.9	1.22	Afterburner	SMX
19	687	VIEW-HOME LITTLEROCK	94	733	28.7	28.3	-0.01	0.05	-18	-2	1.8	1.3	101	9.8	2	-1.8	214	136	3.2	0.28	Cashcoin	SMX
20	684	AOT SILVER HELIX	95	1316	60.4	41.9	0.08	-0.01	-4	2	0.5	0.4	-6	-3.5	-2	0.1	-13	87	3.4	0.94	Silver	WWS

Source: AHDB Dairy. AIS = AI Services; ALT = Alta; CBL = Cogent Breeding; GEN = Genus ABS; GSU = Gene Source UK; SMX = Semex; UKD = UK Sires Direct; VIK= Viking Genetics; WWS = World Wide Sires.
£PLI = Profitable Lifetime Index; SCC = Somatic Cell Count; Mast = Mastitis; LA = Lameness Advantage; CS = Calf Survival; LS = Lifespan; FI = Fertility Index; dCE% = direct Calving Ease; DCI = Dairy Carcase Index; Maint = Maintenance; TB Adv = TB Advantage; £HC = HealthyCow; GL = Gestation Length; TM = Type Merit.