Select Sires

Select Sires Delivers HealthMark: Just What Dairy Producers are Looking For

PLAIN CITY, Ohio, Feb. 16, 2007 — Dairy producers know that keeping cows healthy and in the herd is crucial to improving the bottom line. Because of this, considering genetic values for somatic cell score (SCS), daughter pregnancy rate (DPR) and productive life (PL) when choosing A.I. sires is becoming increasingly more important. But these traits haven’t always been easy to predict or sort for…until now.

Through advances in DNA technology and a synergistic partnership with IGENITY®, a business unit of Merial, Select Sires is proud to become the first A.I. organization to identify a category of sires, designated HealthMark™, that combines Predicted Transmitting Ability (PTA) data for health and fertility traits with genetic marker data.

“To help dairy producers zero in on balanced health trait bulls, Select Sires has developed HealthMark as an indicator of sires that transmit above average performance in SCS, DPR and PL,” said Chuck Sattler, vice president and manager of genetic programs for Select Sires.

Bulls that qualify for the HealthMark designation, including 27 Holstein sires and five Jersey bulls, have been identified in the February sire summary materials, available on the Select Web site at www.selectsires.com. HealthMark sires must score above average in all three health trait areas (SCS, DPR and PL) to qualify for this designation. Information from the bulls’ IGENITY profiles, which include DNA markers for productive life and dairy form, are also considered. The IGENITY profile provides extra information about each sire’s ability to transmit positive health traits.

Sires that carry the HealthMark designation include new releases 7HO7683 Laclar Mtoto ANANDO and 7JE707 MVF Maximus JUAN-ET, in addition to 7HO7536 COLDSPRINGs Kenyon 9118-ET, 7HO6417 O-Bee MANfred Justice-ET, 9HO2575 Peckenstein Form BRET-ET, 7JE712 BW AWARD, 7JE683 Jenks Paramount PROMISE-ET and more. Visit www.selectsires.com for more details about the HealthMark designation and for a complete list of sires.

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.

All average calculations based on Holstein Association USA’s Active A.I. Sire List. ™HealthMark, Select Mating Service and SMS are trademarks of Select Sires Inc.
®IGENITY is a registered trademark of Merial.

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