Select Sires

A Record Day for Gold Medal Sires at Select

PLAIN CITY, Ohio, April 25, 2005 — The Holstein Association USA Inc., Brattleboro, Vt., has named eight Select Sires bulls as Gold Medal Sires for the first half of the year, which is more than any other stud and the most ever received at Select.

The Gold Medal Sire designation was given to these bulls in recognition of their superior type and production of their officially tested and classified offspring. To qualify, bulls must exceed a specified level for Type-Production Index (TPI™), must have a minimum reliability of 90 percent for their Predicted Transmitting Ability for Fat (PTAF) and Predicted Transmitting Ability for Type (PTAT) genetic evaluations and must be free of any recognized undesirable genetic defect.

DURHAM Sons Make the List

The extremely popular 7HO5157 Regancrest Elton DURHAM-ET*CV sons, 7HO6758 Regancrest-MR Drham SAM-ET*TV and 7HO6782 Ocean-View ZENITH-TW-ET*TV easily made the Gold Medal list. They are high-type specialists with top udder composites, positive fat and protein percentages, and both are calving ease. MR SAM is a Herdlife Builder™ and ZENITH is a SUPERIOR SETTLER™.

Second-Crop Success Sires Still Extremely Popular

7HO5708 Fustead Emory BLITZ-ET*TV recently made history as the only bull ever to rank No. 1 for milk yield, type and LPI in Canada. He also is No. 3 in the United States for milk and the highest production sire in the breed at 99% Rel. 7HO5605 Ladys-Manor WARRIOR-ET*TV, 7HO5710 Pagen-Ernwood DANE-ET*TV and 7HO5851 Sikkema-Star Air MAGNA-ET*TV also were given Gold Medal status and each has thousands of daughters in their current evaluations.

Health Traits Combined with Pleasing Type

7HO6745 Sandy-Valley ONYX-ET*TV and 7HO6759 Regancrest-Be Mto MORGAN-ET*TV both are Herdlife Builders that excel in health traits like productive life, somatic cell score and daughter pregnancy rate. These calving ease bulls also sire functional daughters with positive scores for udders and feet and legs.

All eight bulls graduated from the Program for Genetic Advancement™ (PGA™) and qualify for all semen markets.

Based in Plain City, Ohio, Select Sires Inc. is North America's largest A.I. organization and is comprised of 10 farmer-owned and -controlled cooperatives. As the industry leader, it provides highly fertile semen as well as excellence in service and programs to achieve its basic objective of supplying dairy and beef producers with North America's best genetics at a reasonable price.

™TPI is a trademark of Holstein Association USA.
™Herdlife Builder, Program for Genetic Advancement, PGA and SUPER SAMPLER are trademarks of Select Sires Inc. Inc.

To order product contact:
Select Sires Inc., 11740 U.S. 42 North, Plain City, Ohio 43064 / Phone: (614) 873-4683 Fax: (614) 873-5751