2020 All Quarters – Qualifiers
The future genetic success of each of ADGA’s breeds will be determined primarily by the quality of the young sires selected for use in your breeding program.
A successful young sire program relies on:
- Selection of bucks with high pedigree merit
- Early use or distribution of semen
- Use in production tested and linear appraised herds
- Pedigreed and/or accurately identified daughters kept until production and appraisal
- Balanced selection program (production and type)
Most members underestimate the value of performance pedigree-indexed young sires. The higher the percentage bred to carefully selected young sires, the greater the genetic improvement will be made within the breed.
Registrations reveal that upwards of 80% of does are sired by bucks less than 2½ years of age. These young sires are also responsible for the majority of bucks registered. ADGA breeders are relying heavily on young sires. If you breed a large percentage of the herd to young sires, the proven bucks may not be used widely, but have been used to sire the next generation of young sires, so using available tools becomes critical.
Risk is also a factor in young sire use. Pedigree information is not as accurate as performance information on offspring. It indicates what genes a buckling MIGHT have inherited from its parents. Young sire screening is a method to reduce that risk by selecting bucks meeting rigorous qualifying criteria.
ADGA’s Young Sire Development Program relies on the above mentioned philosophy and defined stringent qualifications with regard to production and type and screens bucks as they are registered. Each quarter, recently registered bucks are listed on the adga.org website. The bucks are ranked based on the Estimated Transmitting Ability (ETA) value and it is a within breed ranking.
Siblings registered in the 1st and 2nd quarter may have had a different qualifying ETA than one registered in the 3rd and 4th quarters due to the new production evaluation and new animals are included in the 4th quarter regardless of registration date as the annual type evaluation is available. The PTIs listed are those at the time of the qualification quarter and will change when new evaluations are completed.
There are milking daughters from bucks that have previously qualified with information. On average, final scores on those daughters are 1 point higher than daughters from their counterparts not found on the YDSP list. Mature equivalent milk show an even more dramatic difference with daughters from the YSDP bucks coming much higher than their contemporaries.
Bucks are ranked in two ways, emphasizing either production or type. It’s your responsibility to match the bucks to your breeding objectives. The astute use of proven sires combined with young sire selection guarantees optimum genetic gains for the years to come. Also, by collaborating in the performance programs and the use of these bucks, breeders can benefit in increasing the reliability with regard to genetic improvement.
Consider one or more in your breeding program!