What to expect on paper when you have extreme longevity performance

From the Dec 2013-Jan 2014 Conceptions Dairy Newsletter

When I was first breeding Holsteins and seeking “Red” color I used an older bull Agro Acres Marquis Ned from Canada, who was pegged a “show type” bull (he had four EX 95 daughters in the USA) and was minus for milk on progeny data, but what intrigued me was this:

His dam had 267,000 pounds lifetime not on test until she was five years old—and—

Her dam had 211,000 pounds lifetime not on test until she was eight years old!!

Not even Lakefield Fobes Delight (311,000 lb) and her dam Minnow Creek Eden Delight (278,000 lb) would have bettered these two by much, and they are the most productive dtr-dam pair ever recorded.

Our “Ned’s” were growthy, average milking heifers, got better as they got older—but what was more remarkable was their ability to produce high lifetime daughters (we bred eight known cows who passed 200,000m lifetime in our first seven years with Holsteins, and over half of them had Ned in the dam’s pedigree—the others had a sire with a 200,000 lb momma).     Thus in our experience, the best way to breed longevity into cows is to use bulls from longevity mommas and don’t expect them to be +2000m.

A couple current examples of easily overlooked sires from exceptional longevity cow lines are:

76HO 590   Wabash Way Thunder       aAa 534162       (+2.07 type, +484m, 1686 TPI, +0.1 DPR)

Sired by “Toystory” (his dam actually got over 150,000 lb lifetime on extended ET lactations)

His “Outside” dam is now 3E 94 with over 200,000 lb, her “Highlight” dam is 5E 96 over 300,000 lb.

This bull’s dam has a rump so wide I only recall Tora Triple Threat Lulu EX 96 as being wider.

6HO 1170   Karona Gold Luster          aAa 612543        (+2.56 type, +611m, 1713 TPI, +0.1 DPR)

Sired by “Goldwyn” (his “Storm” dam is the one Braedale cow to make a creditable lifetime total)

His “Morty” dam is EX 91 over 100,000m, next “Rudolph” dam is EX Can at 125,000m, and she is maternal sister to Idee Lustre EX 95 3E who has 359,879m  5.0% 18099bf 3.5% 12587pr lifetime.

(Members of the “Lustre” cow family can be viewed at Bott’s “Winterfield Farm” near Wheeler, MI)