54HO 480 No Fla Legend (aAa 156324)
and 54HO 509 No Fla Perpetual (aAa 342156) are two of the sires we offer through International
Protein Sires bred in the “North Florida” dairy of Don Bennick.
Don worked closely with the late Pete
Blodgett (formerly of Landmark Genetics, then DMS) in devising large herd
selection programs to improve cow fertility, health and fitness traits
while gaining production.
Pete worked in recent years with Green
Meadow Farms in Elsie, MI to address these issues, and visitors to this 3600
cow herd are impressed by the higher level of uniformity compared to most large
scale dairy herds. The year of Pete’s
passing they hosted a very successful 250 cow “production” sale that showed the
multiple income stream possibilities from multi-trait sire selections and
individual cow matings.
Pete encouraged use of some No-Fla
young sires at GMF. They recently
calved three heifers sired by No Fla Perpetual that are catching
the eye of visitors, raising our confidence in this newer sire. He is a bull who sires “clean” thighs, bone
and rib-- yet puts strong front ends, wide rumps, soft textured udders and deep
feet fairly consistently on his daughters.
Another successful experiment at Green
Meadow (used on a few “Red” cows) appears to be
6H1124 Fitz Hill Tycoon Red (aAa 456321)
who is our highest ranking “Red” sire for fertility/health/fitness traits, and offers significant outcross to
both B&W or R&W Holsteins.
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