A Holstein bull raised in Australia after being imported as an embryo from Canada has become the first bull from this country to produce and sell one million doses of semen around the world.
Marketed through the Semex Alliance, Ladino Park Talent-Imp*RC, known in this country as HOLadio, joins a very small group of elite sires to have achieved this milestone.
HOLadio was one of a number of embryos, sired by Maughlin Storm from Markwell Leader Rose-ET, produced at the Shore Holsteins operation in Canada.
Semex Australia general manager Jim Conroy labelled HOLadio’s success as...“without doubt the most significant thing to happen in Australia in my time with Semex.”
Progeny tested in both Canada and Australia, its Interbull proof data shows it now has daughters in 19 countries but that increased to about 60 countries when smaller countries not included in the Interbull database were included.
In Australia it is conservatively believed to have 25,000 milking daughters with breeders attracted to its ability to sire both red and white offspring that routinely exhibit extreme fertility and tremendous udders passed to female offspring.
That extends its appeal to both commercial and elite dairy breeders.
Now 10 years old, this bull continues to stand at the Total Livestock Genetics facility near Terang in south-west Victoria and Semex Australia now has 10 to 12 of its sons in current progeny test programs.
Mr Conroy said this bull’s long-term influence will be via great daughters from the leading cow families of the world. “We haven’t seen the half of it yet because most of its daughters are still under 2.5 years of age.
“But maybe its biggest impact will be to infuse milk volume, udder quality and dairy character into the red breeds of the world.”
