PLAIN CITY, Ohio, May 30, 2007 — With several systems for measuring sire fertility available in the industry, it’s difficult to decide which system to trust. Different regions throughout the country lean more towards different sources. Across these different systems, bulls may be ranked high on one system, but rank average or below average on another. So which system should you trust?

Select Sires is proud to introduce the Composite Fertility Index™ (CFI™), which includes information from all available U.S. sources, including Relative Breeding Efficiency (RBE), Estimated Relative Conception Rate (ERCR) and AgriTech Analytics data (ATA). Combining data from each of these systems into CFI, and then weighting data based on the number of inseminations associated with each bull, creates a composite that strengthens the power and accuracy of each bull’s fertility estimate.

"All systems that measure semen fertility do the best job they can with the data they have. At Select Sires, we believe accuracy resides in greater numbers," said Mel DeJarnette, senior reproduction specialist for Select Sires. "CFI provides the strength in numbers that will help dairy producers see accurate, unbiased semen fertility measures."

ERCR is first service, 70-day, non-return data calculated by USDA-AIPL with a three-year rolling average. ERCR currently includes 649,000 first services from 232 Select sires with 300 or more first services per sire and includes Eastern, Midwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern herds. ATA utilizes palpated pregnancy data and is a continuous database that represents large herds located in the West. It includes 421,250 total services on 130 Select bulls with 10 or more services in 10 or more herds. RBE is calculated by Select Sires from Program for Genetic Advancement™ (PGA™) data processed by Dairy Records Management Systems (DRMS) and includes multiple service non-return rate data. With a one-year rolling herd average, RBE contains 491 Select sires with 200 or more services for a total of 436,000 services, including Eastern, Midwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern herds.

"Select Sires is pleased to make the Composite Fertility Index available to our customers," said David Thorbahn, general manager for Select Sires. "Sire fertility estimates are of the most value to the producer when they are used as secondary selection criteria after a group of bulls that meets the genetic goals of the herd have been selected. When all other things are equal, the producer can select the sire with a higher fertility estimate."

To view the Composite Fertility Indexes of Select’s lineup sires, visit www.selectsires.com or contact your Select Sires representative today.

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.

™Composite Fertility Index, CFI, Program for Genetic Advancement and PGA are trademarks of Select Sires Inc.