The Ehrhardt family of Baldwin, MD, sadly announces that Ehrhardt Astro Jody-ET (EX-94) was put to sleep earlier this month. Jody would have been 17 years old in September. She had an amazing list of accomplishments, including five lactations over 30,000M and lifetime totals of 327,000M and 15,330F. Kevin Ehrhardt reports that Jody was still milking 35 lbs. on their test day in June…and that was on a lactation of 3,054 days. Jody has 25 daughters to date, with two more pregnancies coming in September by Outside. Those two are her last offspring to be born. Of the 25 on the ground, nine are EX (3 at 93, 3 at 91 and 3 at 90) and 10 are VG.

Jody spent a month at New Bolton’’s Veterinary Hospital as a 5-year-old, suffering from a heart murmur. The staff sent her home and recommended that the family dry her off and let her rest for the remainder of the lactation. They didn”t think she”d milk any more that year. It turns out, that was 1996…the year Jody completed a record of over 40,000M, was Res. Grand Champion in the Junior Show at Harrisburg and 1st 5-year-old in the Junior Show at Madison. She went on to become Junior All-American that year as well.

Jody is buried on the farm right next to the farm sign, and incidentally, is the cow that’’s painted on their farm sign.

You don”t often run across cows like this - that have such a strong will to survive, succeed in the showring and at home, and fuel a passion for Registered Holsteins in four young men at Ehrhardt Farms. She’’s known on a one-name basis by many across the state and country, and she can most likely be connected to part of the success that Ehrhardt Farms continues to have today. You can read more about Jody, her offspring and the entire Ehrhardt family by visiting their website at www.ehrhardtfarms.net.

What could be better than picture-perfect weather, a visit to one of Wisconsin”””’’s premier Norwegian towns (which is important to Scandinavians!!) and a day spent with the top journalists of the industry…all hosted by an extremely fun and hospitable group of A.I. people? Not much! This time last week, I was enjoying just such a day when Accelerated Genetics opened their doors for a special media tour. The group of journalists were treated to an opening reception at the Main Production Facility in Westby, WI, site, with opening remarks made by Roger Ripley, President and CEO of Accelerated Genetics.

Some brief history for you — Accelerated Genetics was formed in March 1941 as Tri-State Breeders, a cooperative offering high quality genetics and choices for dairy producers. The membership area covers Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and parts of northern Illinois, and includes a group of dynamic producers that are very involved in the evolution of product development at Accelerated Genetics. The last three years of business have been the best in history, with a 10% increase in sales last year over the previous year (37.6 million). This year is right on target to exceed those figures and Ripley credits three main reasons for their growth 1. they are at their highest genetic levels ever, giving their sales reps a great lineup to work with; 2. innovative technologies stressing fertility first are now available; 3. PEOPLE!

The Accelerated Genetics team then gave us a tour of their West Farm Production Facility, which is just west of town and is the site of where the most recent facilities have been built. The Main Facility continues to be in use for bull housing and collection. The West Farm Facility houses the largest EU qualified population of bulls in the US and is also home to the largest collection facility in the country. Roger Hanson, Vice President of Farm & Barn Operations explained that there are 750 bulls housed on three different farms on Accelerated Genetics 750 acres. They raise all their own feed and the biggest management issue they face is nutrition, ensuring proper weight management of the bulls. Young bulls are brought into the facility early (3-5 mos.), so that Accelerated Genetics personnel can properly manage nutrition from an early age. Currently they are sampling 150 Holstein and 25-30 protein breed bulls a year.

Hanson also let us see the collection area from a special viewing window, explaining that they collect five days a week, starting at 6:30 in the morning. Each bull is collected three times a week, and while we were there, Walhowdon Marshall Harry-ET, an EX-93 BW Marshall son, was in the collection ring. Bulls stand on a lime/shavings mix during collection, not rubber matting. They average 70 bulls/day in the collection arena, with 35 people working in the barns, 7 people processing semen and 5 people in the semen distribution center. A brand new 10,000-sq. foot semen distribution center and new EU semen processing laboratory are adjacent to the collection facility, the Accel Inn bull barn and the Palace bull barn, and they are spotlessly clean, right down the windows and doorways!

Probably the biggest news coming from Accelerated Genetics these days is the introduction of two new technologies — Affirm™ and Bovatel™.

AFFIRM™is an innovative new technology that enhances the fertility of semen to improve conception rates in both cows and heifers. Affirm semen uses the same breeding protocols as conventional semen and is available on virtually all Accelerated Genetics bulls. This semen lives longer than conventional semen and that means an average of 6% more conceptions (based on field trial data).

BOVATEL™ is gender-bias semen that will yield more heifer calves without compromising fertility. Research has shown that Bovatel provides an additional 10 heifer calves for every 100 pregnancies. Bovatel is the only product of its kind that uses a gender-bias processing procedure which is proprietary to and available exclusively from Accelerated Genetics. Other sexed semen technologies have lower fertility because of their processing, while Bovatel”””’’s processing procedure does not lower fertility. The key advantages of Bovatel is it can be used on both cows and heifers, requires no special equipment or handling and is available on virtually all proven sires in the lineup and is now also available on PACE young sires.

Accelerated Genetics sales representatives carry both conventional (014 stud code) and Bovatel (514 stud code) semen.

Plans for the future
Accelerated Genetics is continuing to build barns at their West Farm site, with a specialty bull barn in progress for both dairy and beef sires. It will will contain 24 stalls with some having outside runs for their beef bulls. And another barn is almost completed that will house 54 bulls individually and this new barn along with 2 other similarly built barns will all be qualified for EU status, adding another 150 bulls to their already large population EU qualified sires.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to downtown Baraboo and dinner with my good friends Joe & Kari Stanek and their daughter Sykora. Joe & Kari both work at Accelerated Genetics (Joe is in charge of the Accelerated Genetics GEMpc mating program and also covers south central Wisconsin as a Herd Analyst while Kari is the Communications & Public Relations Coordinator with numerous responsibilities that include being Young Producer Program leader). We had a great dinner while Joe shared some fun cultural experiences he”””’’s had while mating cows for Accelerated Genetics in Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico to name just a few places! We also went to the opening night of the Sauk County Fair and I got to attend one of my favorite summertime events — the tractor pull! They pulled conventional tractors, modified tractors and even semi trucks!

The next day I spent riding with Joe as he visited several herds on the Accelerated Genetics GEMpc Mating Program. There are some herds he visits four times a year (usually the larger 1,000+ cow dairies) and others that he goes to just once a year, depending on producer preferences. One of our stops was to a 100-cow Holstein & Jersey organic dairy. There was quite an improvement in the younger 2-year-olds in the herd that were a result of the mating program, and the producer was more than a little excited about the visual progress he was seeing. We hopped in his gator and took off for the pastures to evaluate cows. I haven””””t laughed (or bounced) that hard in a long time. This was the first time I had been to an organic farm, and was interested to hear how this producer felt about the marketing of organic versus conventional milk. It was refreshing to hear him say that he wished there wasn””””t so much competition between the two. He feels that misleading labeling has confused most consumers to believe that there”””’’s a huge difference between the two types of milk. His hope is that both “sides” can come together to market milk in a unified effort — making it better for all producers involved.

Joe said he enjoys working with the GEMpc mating program for the sole reason of seeing improvements in his customers”””” herds. “The program is so flexible that it can really meet every producers”””” needs and it interfaces with all farm software.” Any bull that”””’’s had a USDA proof and/or has been frozen/sold in the U.S. is available to use on the program, and all studs are included, even some herd bulls.

We went to a few more stops that day, listening to what producers biggest concerns were and what results they””””ve been happy with and walking through numerous cows to inspect and evaluate them. We went to large dairies, smaller dairies, farms that dock tails, farms that use pasture and farms that don””””t…you name it and we saw it…even some of the original “Big Ass” fans that truly were just that! It is impressive to see how uniform and consistent the resulting generations of cows are and it”””’’s always a good reminder to see how varied and diverse the industry is.

For more information on any bulls, products or services offered by Accelerated Genetics, please visit their website at www.accelgen.com. There, you””””ll find special sections on Affirm and Bovatel as well. And if you get a chance to stop by Westby, WI, be sure stop for lunch at the Westby House Bed & Breakfast in town…you””””ll eat some of the best desserts in the world!

A couple weeks ago we posted the results from the MN State Show that was held June 20 & 21 in Hutchinson, MN. I was lucky enough to be at the show and even had the fun task of serving as emcee. If any of you were there, I think you will agree, it was a wonderful display of MN Holsteins with 274 head competing! For your viewing pleasure, I have assembled some of the photos I took at the show, along with a little background info on each of the winners. For a larger view of the pictures, just click on them. Enjoy!

Junior Champions

From left to right: Junior Champion, Stillmore Dundee Sydney, 1st Fall Yearling; Res. Junior Champion, Xcaret Dundee Koral, 1st Fall Calf

There were 136 animals that competed in the heifer show, the largest classes were Summer Yearling (28) and Spring Yearling (28). Sydney was exhibited by Steve & Vicki Searles of Stillmore Cattle Company. She is a Dundee daughter of Dusty-Hollow Raider Shari EX-90. Koral, also sired by Dundee, was exhibited by Tim Hoese & Kate Dahlinger of Xcaret Holsteins. She was also the 1st Fall Calf at the 2007 Midwest Spring National. Her dam is a EX-92 Raider that placed 3rd in the Aged Cow class.

Intermediate Champions

From left to right: Intermediate Champion, Lida-Acres Cousteau April, 1st Sr. 3-Year-Old; Res. Intermediate Champion, C-Hill Paris, 2nd Sr. 3-Year-Old

Representing a very strong class of 15 Sr. 3-Year-Olds, Judge Phend named April & Paris as his Intermediate Champions. April was exhibited by Dana Johnson and is an EX-90 Cousteau daughter from an EX-91 Juror. Earlier this year she placed 2nd & 1st B&O at the Midwest Spring National. Paris is a VG-87 Mr Montana (Durham x Mark Maui) daughter from an EX-90 Prelude. She was exhibited by C-Hill Farms, Jason & Katy Lang Family.

Senior & Grand Champions

From left to right in the first picture: Senior & Grand Champion, Xcaret Milo Audyssie, 1st 4-Year-Old; Res. Senior & Res. Grand Champion, Ms Do-N-Joy Encor Onasis-ET, 1st 125,000 Lb Cow

In total, 130 cows competed in this year’’s show. Winning the Grand Champion honors for the day, Audyssie looked every bit the part of a champion. She was exhibited by Xcaret Holsteins. Fresh just a few weeks, Audyssie is an EX-91 Milo (Integrity x Skychief Mila) daughter of a VG-88 Lee who has always been a herd favorite at Xcaret. Reserve honors went to Onasis, the EX-91 Encore daughter of Viking-Prairie Orion EX-91. She was exhibited by Jeff Kohls & Jill Miller.

Premier Breeder & Exhibitor

Having the Grand Champion & Res. Junior Champion be homebred and come from your string certainly does help when it comes to Premier Breeder & Exhibitor points. Congrats to the crew at Xcaret for a wonderful state show! Pictured left to right: Tim Hoese; Erin Wacker; Marilee, Mark & Molly Vacek; Pat Heeren; Kate Dahlinger on the halter of Koral; Matt Templeton on the halter of Audyssie; Sue Hoese; Zach Heeren; Melissa Vacek; and Perry Phend, Judge.

The Brown Swiss National Convention is approaching its last day of activities in Syracuse, NY. Breeders gathered at the Double Tree Hotel, just around the corner from the Holstein World offices, beginning Tuesday of this week. Two hundred adults and juniors have experienced true New York Swiss hospitality and enjoyed a week of seminars, award presentations and guest speakers. Last night, Jenna Smith was crowned the National Swiss Ambassador and also the recipient of the Youth Achievement Award. Today, buses departed the Double Tree for farm tours to Towpath Farm (Kathy & Gordon DeMay) and Vine Valley Farm (Leon & Karen Button), before heading to Captain Bill’’s Columbia for a lunch cruise on Seneca Lake. This afternoon, convention attendees will either participate in a winery tour through the Finger Lakes region or come back to Syracuse early to preview the sale cattle. Tonight’’s main banquet begins at 7:00pm.

Tomorrow’’s the last day to be part of this year’’s convention. A continental breakfast will be served at the NY State Fairgrounds beginning at 9:00am, with the National Sale following at 11:30am.

Be sure to check www.allbreedaccess.com next week for official news and sales results from the convention!

World staffer Frank Putman recently visited Pencroft Holsteins, the home of Paul Neer and family. Read about the stars of this Belleville, PA, herd here!
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Pencroft Holsteins sure get it right on cow care. Sandy Thomas, Sandy McCauley and the Ammons, to name a few, already know what a great bovine hotel the Neer’s run, as they all have cows housed at the Belleville, PA, dairy. Roomy, well-bedded stalls and the watchful eye of Paul Neer and herdsperson Carrie Miller, are evident as anyone walks the barn. Miss Classy (Dundee x Blue Top Classy Jethro) has developed nicely since the PA Spring Show and you can see why she wears a new score of VG-88,VG-88-MS, 2y. Members of the New-Vision Rubens Tory (EX-92) family are part of the Pencroft herd. Peachey Lee Tina (EX-90) was dry at the time of my visit, but you can see how that frame and feet and legs would figure well into her score. She is due in August to Kite. Other family members here are Ms Tina Colby Taz-ET RC (VG-88) and Tori’s Paradox Tracy-ET RC (VG-87) have been joined by Peachy Talent Taylor-ET (from the ”07 PA Convention Sale). Taylor has been flushed to Kite, with embryos available and now will be flushed to Advent.

Paul has been working with other club members on next year’’s State Convention and you will, no doubt, enjoy some of the plans that they are formulating that will include a stop at Pencroft with a different twist! (The 2008 PA State Convention will be held Feb. 28-29 through March. 1, 2008 at the Ramada Inn, State College, PA).

Visit the Pencroft site to see some of the cattle they are working with, until you can head up that long drive to enjoy your own visit!

Lynchburg Candied Apples (or Apples with Jack!)

I am posting here for anyone interested a recipe that we enjoyed at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg on the pre-convention Tour prior to the National Convention in Knoxville, TN. “Fried” or “Candied” apples are an often served dish in this area of the nation, and we often have them at home in Missouri….but here’s a twist I hadn’t tried yet! And by the way, to have actual authentic fried apples you need to use real BUTTER. I don’t want to hear any reports of any other such thing…..don’t corrupt them like that!

LYNCHBURG CANDIED APPLES

3 TBS BUTTER
6 CUPS PEELED AND SLICED GREEN APPLES
¼ TO ½ CUP SUGAR
1/3 CUP Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook apples in butter until just tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in sugar and Jack Daniel’s. Continue to cook until juice has thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve warm. Makes six servings.

If you just want to try fried apples, and prefer not to use the Jack-leave it out-and you’ll have the basic dish then!

Did you wish you could have attended the convention in Tennessee? Think you’d like to go there someday and would like to know something about the area? Here is a little information and some interesting links for you to try.

Tennessee is such a historic venue, from the settling of the United States to its role and involvement in the Civil War to the economic development of Eastern Tennessee through the installation of dams by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Many old homes and other historic buildings have been or are being preserved or restored. I was amazed at the number of structures that are nearly or even over 200 years old. Following are a few links and a little “starter information” if you’d like to read about the area, and see what it has to offer.

Tennessee’s Antebellum Trail is a good place to start for a feel of Civil War History. Civil war buffs know that more battles were fought in Tennessee than any other state except Virginia and in 1864, the bloody battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville proved to be the final death knell for the confederacy. Every site along the Antebellum Trail was touched by the war as both Union and Confederate forces commandeered housing and provisions. Trail sites tell poignant stories of lives that were touched forever by this bloody conflict. Aside from 7 Antebellum Trail designated sites open to the public, there are 50 other historic sites marked with the Antebellum Trail symbol. Antique shops and Bed and Breakfast accommodations also will enhance the visitor’s experience. Find out more at www.antebellumtrail.com You’ll also want to go to www.visitplantations.com if you enjoy learning about antebellum home sites. Historic Maury County describes itself as the “antebellum homes capitol of Tennessee”.

In Knoxville proper, www.downtownknoxville.org it’s easy to take an inexpensive tour of several very important sites. Just hop one of the air-conditioned trolleys and take a free ride. That’s right, free of charge you can take the Knoxville Trolley Lines www.katbus.com to such historic venues as James White’s Fort, www.discoveret.org/jwf and www.tennesseehistory.com built in 1786 by General James White, Knoxville’s founder. There you can get a taste for the frontier life as it was in the original house, restored stockade, loom house, smokehouse and blacksmith shop.
Be sure you see Blount Mansion, www.blountmansion.org the “little house with big stories” was built between 1792 and (added onto) 1830 by William Blount, a signer of the U.S. Constitution. Blount was also the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory and this mansion (said to be the first frame house west of the Alleghenies) served as the territorial capital.
The University of Tennessee area, Historic Fort Sanders neighborhood, Market Square, Old City, and World’s fair park are just a few of the locales you can visit using this method. The Trolley system has three routes and buses continually drive all three. It’s amazing to think you can go all over the city, visit, shop and learn just by hopping on!

South Central Tennessee Tourism Association can be visited at www.sctta.com where it is said “Sounds of joy and discovery await you in the hills, hollows, rivers and streams of South Central Tennessee”. State Parks found in this region include David Crockett State Park at Lawrenceburg, Henry Horton State Park, Chapel Hill, Mousetail Landing State Park, Linden, Old Stone Fort State Park, Manchester, Ross Creek Landing State Park, Clifton, and Tims Ford State Park, Winchester, are all located in this region.

Tennessee is the origin of the Tennessee Walking Horse, and you will see this reflected in many ways all around the state. To find out about this interesting horse, it’s breeders, and other information, visit www.twhbea.com . You can find out that there is even a Historic Tennessee Walking Horse trail aroung Tennesse on this same site.

This is just a tiny start of what you can find out about what’s to see in Tennessee! Enjoy your browsing journey!

Hot Weather… Hotter Prices at RMH Sale!

A beautiful summer day in the Calgary area – hot temperatures with the sun deciding not to take a break even once – provided the setting for the Rocky Mountain High ’07 Sale on July 5th. Spectacular quality lead to stellar prices with the accumulated total sale proceeds reaching $1,277,300 (CAN$).

Lot #1 kicked off the sale with a bang. Irwindale Leduc Macy EX-95-2E, fresh since May and milking 130 lbs/day, the consignment of Rocky Mountain Holsteins (RMH), Continental Holsteins and R&F Livestock, made a splash fetching $260,000 and dissolving the three-way partnership making way for the dual ownership of RMH and Continental Holsteins. Macy’s daughters were also prominent lots in the sale, with her May ’06 Dundee daughter achieving a $32,000 bid, going north but staying in the same province, the acquisition of Morsan Farms of Ponoks, AB; and a January 2007 Damion daughter selling for $22,000 to RMH.

Other notable sellers included RF Cousteau Destiny VG-89-3y who attracted a $60,000 bid and heads East to Futurecrest Holsteins, Aylmer, ON. A March ’07 Jenny-Lou Marshall out of the #1 LPI cow Comestar Lautamie Titanic was another strategic purchase by Morsan, struck off at $53,000 and they paid $46,000 for a smart looking red-carrier Durham from Scientific Raes Hope-Red EX-92. Meanwhile a December ’06 Toystory out of Gillette Blitz 2nd Wind VG-88-3y sold for $47,000 to Jean Francois Richmond, of Quebec.

The sale sets a high bar for sales to follow with 122 lots achieving a magnificent sale average of $10,470. Rocky Mountain Holsteins were the sale hosts, with numerous guest consignments from the breed’’s top families. Rocky Mountain is a partnership, between Doug Blair, Dr. David Chalack and Glenn Hockley. Farm Manager Ron Churchill ensured all consignments were in top form, while the duo of auctioneer John Copithorne and Norm Nabholz on pedigrees provided a capacity crowd under the tent with plenty of entertainment and extremely competent salesmanship.

In addition to the live sale 20 embryo lots offered online and simultaneously in a silent auction format also generated spirited bidding. ~PM

Again this year, the PA All-American Show will be holding a White Show Pants Exchange for Junior (Youth) Exhibitors on Friday, September 14th from 10am - 6pm in the Northwest Barn (Barn B). Donate those white show pants that are no longer needed and pick up a pair that fits for the 2007 season! This service is provided to help youth exhibitors maintain proper dress in the show ring at minimal cost. For more informationn, call Patty McMurray at 724.239.2759.

Holstein World guest writer David Selner answers questions that many of you asked following the release of the May Sire Summaries. If you””d like to read more about this, or have questions that are yet unanswered, email kknutsen@dairybusiness.com and we””ll keep this blogging session open as long as there is interest.

Genetic Evaluations – The Rest of the Story
By David Selner

As reported in the June Holstein World, adjustments made by the USDA and the Holstein Association could have created real confusion in the ranking of sires. However this writer and others did not see any major changes or problems in the sire listings.

But upon hearing from breeders and others, a real confusion over cow indexes has been noted by many in the industry. This difference is caused by the fact that a cow index focuses solely on one individual, where a sire evaluation encompasses many individual cow evaluations. The differences in cow indices were not noticed as much because they are averaged out over many daughters in a sire evaluation. So unless a sire was used to create bias across one group of lower animals versus another with higher values, you would not notice the difference.

What happened to the cow indices on those cows that dropped significantly? The USDA Animal Improvement Laboratory is always doing research to fine-tune and evaluate the accuracy and predictability of the genetic information they publish. This has lead to numerous improvements to genetic evaluations over the last 30 years. Because of a growing awareness of a certain segment of the industry utilizing crossbreeding and the continual effort to provide more accurate evaluations for the genetics industry, the primary focus of USDA scientists lately has been in those two areas.

In the May evaluations a major shift to the use of an all-breed animal model instead of a separate animal model for each breed, was implemented. This allowed the inclusion of many more crossbred animal records and did increase the accuracy of evaluation over previous techniques. Because the predominant breed is Holstein, the new all-breed base is made up of mostly Holstein data, so you did not see any real impact on Holstein sires. Several of the other breeds did notice changes in their sire rankings because of this new base and the additional data being used.

So the change in Holstein cow indices is not due primarily to the model change. However if you were a herd that is actively utilizing crossbreeding or purchasing animals from herds like that, you could have been affected by a model change. The reason is that certain groupings of contemporaries could be altered because of the additional daughter data now being utilized. So who certain cows are compared with could have changed. This is probably not a large segment of the cows whose indices changed dramatically.
The USDA also changed the genetic trends for DPR, calving ease and stillbirths. This might have changed the values of these traits some but would not change the rankings very much.

Another less publicized enhancement applied this time was a revision to the herd variance adjustment used in the animal model. Animals that came with extremely high yield deviations or from herds with unusually high or low herd variances were affected by the change. These are the type of records that offer the least accuracy or predictability of genetic superiority in the current animal model. So adjustments were made to allow these records to be utilized but with different amounts of emphasis because the true genetic effect of deviation is the that which can be transmitted and not the absolute amount of the deviation. There are numerous herds that, by their level of management, experience normally high variation or low variation. You can go into one herd and find animals that are +10,000 pounds of milk over herdmates while other herds you never see a cow over +5000. So the absolute size of the deviation within any given herd can be mostly attributed to management and not transmittable genetics. Therefore these records are now adjusted to a more average variance found in herds to eliminate the upward bias some records could have on the entire system. This is a continuation of improvements that were first starting to be implemented over 15 years ago.

Now those adjustments would have a fairly major impact on the new cow index for that individual animal. So if you had a cow under those conditions her index obviously dropped and you wondered why. This small adjustment affected you but in reality did not impact a larger number of breeders to create a universal concern.

Is this change only temporary or will something alter it for August? I believe that this adjustment is a permanent change to the system and will remain in effect for the future. Remember the accuracy of the genetic values to predict the genetic value of an offspring is what the ultimate goal. These changes help improve that accuracy.

What is going to happen next and how will I be affected? That is the question that is being asked by many of these breeders affected by this variance change. Now I do not know what improvements will happen and when. However the USDA has already given an indication that it is moving towards a test day model. These same scientists are continuously looking at the accuracy of international genetic evaluations and their predictability globally. If either of these areas create a change which of my cows is going to be affected the most? Again this is nearly impossible to predict until you see all of the things that will be impacted by such a model change.

So the big question some breeders pose is how can I stay a supplier of elite genetics if I do not know how to predict who is going to be affected? The simple answer can be expressed in three key areas. First, you should just utilize the most accurate of current genetic rankings to select for the future. Next, provide an environment where every animal gets an equal chance to demonstrate her genetic superiority. Finally, realize that future genetic rankings are going to include many different traits and not just the old standbys of milk, component test and type.

No matter what system we utilize in the future, the goal will be to identify those cows and bulls that perform most profitably in the management systems and cost structures being utilized in this country.