Select Sires

Select’s Evaluators Gather for Advanced Training

PLAIN CITY, Ohio, June 10, 2008 — Nearly 100 Select Sires’ professional Select Mating Service™ (SMS™) evaluators from eight different countries recently met for the annual Evaluators’ Conference, which was held in Wisconsin and hosted by East Central/Select Sires, Waupun, Wis. They discussed new technologies and recent trends and viewed progeny of Select’s current lineup sires and potential graduates, all with the customer in mind.

SMS is the most widely accepted mating program in the world with more than 1.2 million new animals mated in 2007. SMS is a genetic business plan for which professional evaluators use research, computerized analysis, cow knowledge and good relationships with dairy producers to make the correct selection of sires to meet breeding goals, one corrective mating at a time.

“This year’s conference was a four-day display of outstanding Select Sires genetics on each and every dairy farm we visited and a perfect testimonial for the value of the SMS program in herds of all sizes,” said Lon Peters, vice president dairy sire products and services for Select Sires. “Select’s evaluator staff will be able to take the knowledge they learned during this conference and apply it to each of their customer’s herds throughout the United States and the world.”

The first day of the conference included educational seminars presented by Select’s sire department and marketing staff. Attendees discussed the Program for Genetic Advancement™ (PGA™) parentage verification project, new genomic technology and how it’s being used by Select Sires, and how the job of the SMS evaluator is changing to meet the needs of today’s dairy producers.

The following three days involved sessions focused on discussing specific linear traits as well as unity within traits. During the farm tour, nearly 100 SMS evaluators and Select Sires staff viewed Select-sired daughters on 16 different Wisconsin dairies, which included Krull Farms, Lake Mills; Dettmans Dairy Farm, Johnson Creek; Nehls Brothers Farms, Juneau; Jerome and Karen Sterr Family Farm, Mayville; LeMar Farms, Lomira; Vir-Clar Farms, Fond du Lac; Abel Dairy Farms, Eden; Redtail Ridge Dairy, Malone; Dan and Lori Deidrichs, Fond du Lac; Weidland Dairy, Columbus; Double S Dairy, Markesan; So-Fine Bovines, Westfield; Rosedale, Oxford; Mystic Valley Dairy, Sauk City; Kemper Dairy, Dane; and Berryridge Farm, Waunakee.

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.

^TMSelect Mating Service, SMS, Program for Genetic Advancement and PGA are trademarks of Select Sires 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