ABS Global, Inc.

ABS & Dairy News

Australasian sale record smashed

3rd May 2012

ABS progeny excelled at the highest level on Monday 30th April 2012. The Bluechip Invitational Sale at Zeerust, near Shepparton, Victoria, saw the previous Australasian record smashed by a red DESTRY daughter, Bluechip Apple Spice, for $101,000.

The success bidder was Apple Investments, headed by Keith Peterson from Mt Scobie. This DESTRY daughter was from arguably the most famous red cow worldwide in the Million Dollar, KHW Regiment Apple EX-95.

The three highest selling lots at the Sale were all sired by ABS sires and eleven ABS progeny averaged an outstanding $18,509.

"This backs up ABS's results at this year’s IDW & April proof rounds. ABS is the source for the best results! The facts tell the story!" said Tim Weller, Dairy Product Manager.

Pictured right: Di Malcolm with Bluechip Apple Spice

ABS progeny sold

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Three times a charm!

1st May 2012

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Long time partnership shines at Camden Show in 2012

Leppington Pastoral Company is a very large commercial herd operated on the edge of Sydney. Kolombo Holsteins is owned and operated by the Perich Family and the dairy operation is only one part of this large family business. Michael Perich oversees the dairy operation and has worked closely with ABS staff over the years, particularly since the inception of the Genetic Management System (GMS), which started in 1995.

Many thousands of cows have been evaluated and bred using the GMS over those years. The breeding goal for the herd isn’t dissimilar to many other herds across Australia; to breed functional cows that last and produce large volumes of milk over many lactations. This has become a reality as the herd, at present, is over 2,000 head and is averaging 37lts/cow/day.

The main point of difference is that all cows in the herd are bred to produce A2 milk. Ten years ago, Leppington Pastoral Company saw the market for A2 milk within the community. A2 milk has grown from strength to strength with some large operations recently coming on board to help keep up with demand.

The Perich family is very involved in the community and great cows have been a passion of theirs. In recent years, Kolombo Holsteins have exhibited at the local Camden show, the pioneer agricultural region of Australia. Many famous and successful studs of All Breeds exhibit at the show each year. In the past, Kolombo Holsteins have received Intermediate Champion awards and class wins.

This year’s Camden Show was held on Friday 23rd March and, it is safe to say, Kolombo Holsteins had a very successful day. Five cows and three calves were exhibited and were all bred using the GMS program.

Kolombo Malin 4132 Champion Holstein & Supreme Champion Dairy Cow		Kolombo Malin 4132 with from L to R: Camden Showgirl, Michael Perich & Kaye Williams

Kolombo Malin 4132 won Champion Holstein & Supreme Champion Dairy Cow.
Kolombo Zadok 1559 was Best Udder Holstein, Reserve Champion Holstein Cow & Reserve Supreme Udder.
Kolombo Malin 5336 was Intermediate Holstein & Supreme Intermediate Champion at only a few weeks fresh.
Kolombo Dondee 5626 was 2nd in the junior 2 in milk class to Malin 5336 and Reserve Intermediate Champion.
Kolombo Homestead 4893 was 1st senior 2 in milk and Honorable Mention Intermediate Champion.
Kolombo Garret 7965, lead by Michael’s nephew, Samuel, was 2nd in the All Australian & Yearling class and Honorable Mention Junior Champion. She was closely followed by heifers lead by niece, Victoria, and Michael and Fiona’s son, Ethan, in 3rd and 4th, with two daughters of the SHOTTLE son, JANUARY.

From L to R: Kolombo Dondee 5626, Kolombo Malin 5336, Kolombo Homestead 4893, Kolombo Malin 4132 & Kolombo Zadok 1559		Ethan, Samuel & Victoria Perich taking good care of the animals in the shed

Many show cows across the country are broken to lead months before the show and separated and fed special rations to get them to their best on show day. The Kolombo cows were drafted after the morning milking on Monday 19th which was the first they knew anything about going to the show. Broken to lead, prepared within four days and to look in outstanding form is a real credit to the team on the farm, lead by Gary Bivens. Kaye Williams, helped by ABS Dairy Product Manager, Tim Weller, who runs the GMS program for Leppington Pastoral Co, prepared the cows.

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JEEVES - The Holstein breed has a new longevity king

30th March 2012

Which is the best Outside son?

Now that many of them have second-crop proofs, we find JEEVES ahead of the pack.

Read more here.

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Star sire reaches a million-unit milestone

21st February 2012

ABS Australia’s world-renowned sire Picston SHOTTLE has joined an elite club – dairy bulls who have produced over one million doses of semen.

The UK-based millionaire sire, owned by ABS’ parent company Genus plc, is an international sensation and, at 12 years of age, is still hard at work.

ABS Australia Product Development Manager Russell Manton said SHOTTLE was, quite literally, ‘one in a million’.

“A bull like this usually only comes along once in a lifetime,” he said. “SHOTTLE has truly changed the face of the Holstein breed globally.”

SHOTTLE boasts 7 sons in the USA Top 100 TPI list including the industry’s highest, TRIGGER. SHOTTLE himself remains over +2000 TPI points with over 47,000 milking daughters in his proof.

With a classification of EX96 points, SHOTTLE is also the joint highest classified bull in the UK.

SHOTTLE daughters are in high demand and achieve consistently high prices. SHOTTLE is also widely used as a sire of sons, as he is renowned for his ability to produce daughters combining outstanding production, type and management traits.

These sons include the Australian sire THROTTLE as well as TRIGGER, SHOUT and TOPSHOT.

"When SHOTTLE first graduated with a full proof in Australia, he came in at No.3 and at the same time he was No.1 in the US and Canada,” Manton said.

“He now has proven sons in Australia and remains at more than 200 APR points out here.

“His son THROTTLE, who graduated as a proven sire last April, has shot up the rankings after more daughters have been added to his proof.”

Since entering the Genus ABS proven sire stud in the UK in 2004, SHOTTLE has consistently set new standards and been a repeated world beater.

SHOTTLE was born in July, 1999, at the Pickford family’s Picston Holsteins stud and was sired by Carole Prelude Mtoto. His acclaimed dam, Condon Aero Sharon EX-91, was voted Global Cow of the Year by Holstein International in 2007.

SHOTTLE was purchased by Genus ABS and, after testing through the Cornerstone™ progeny test program, entered the main UK stud in 2004.

As befits a millionaire, SHOTTLE has his own special quarters at the Genus stud, and is famed for his love of the music of Mozart, which is played as he relaxes in his pen.

And it must be working … SHOTTLE’s semen has now been exported to more than 30 countries and he has tens of thousands of daughters around the globe.

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National All Breeds Youth Camp 2012

20th February 2012

ABS Australia is a proud Team Sponsor of the National All Breeds Dairy Youth Camp held at the Melbourne Showgrounds in the first week of January each year. Numurkah area salesperson, Brenton Sessions, who is a past participant in the Youth Camp, attended the 2012 camp as one of ten leaders. Tim Weller, Dairy Product Manager, also helped out in a judging session and was MC on show day.

As part of our sponsorship, we have a team named after us which was headed up by Team Leader, Brenton Sessions. The ABS Australia team was very successful, with some of the major award winners coming from it.

Participants in the ABS team this year were:

The camp is about young people in the dairy community coming together to further their skills and is also a great way for them to network. Both Brenton & Tim are past Youth Camp participants and agree they learned many skills at the Youth Camp that have helped them get to where they are today in the industry.

ABS Australia employs many past Youth Camp participants that have pivotal roles in the company including Tahnee King and Declan Patten (Product Development department), Jason Collins (based at the Kyabram branch) & Ben Warnett (Kyabram District Sales Manager).

ABS sponsors many youth projects over the year, including the Youth Show at IDW, and we see it as our responsibility to see that events like this happen to help foster our youth!

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ABS Australia/St Jacob's embryo promotion winners

20th January 2012

Four lucky winners have taken home embryo packages from some of the world's best show cows, thanks to the ABS Australia/St Jacobs Express To Success promotion drawn at IDW.

Customers who purchased 25 units or more from the sires featured in the Express to Success brochure were eligible for the draw, performed by St Jacobs General Manager, Tim Abbott, on the final day of IDW.

The lucky four were:

Eugene Rea, western Victoria: 2 embryos sired by ATTITUDE-Red out of Talent Molly, a daughter of Harvue Roy Frosty EX-96, two-time WDE grand champion;

Red Cow Farms, northern Victoria: 2 embryos sired by DESTRY*RC out of an AFTERSHOCK daughter of legendary show and brood cow Tri-Day Ashlyn EX-96;

Steve Spokes, western Victoria: 2 embryos sired by ATTITUDE-Red out of Goldwyn Dawn, a daughter of the world-famous Apple-Red EX-95. Apple was a Junior Champion of the WDE Holstein show & 2011 Grand Champion of WDE Red & White show. At auction she was sold for more than $1 million; and

Dave Louden, northern Victoria: 2 embryos sired by Colt P out of Destry Bianca, a daughter of Rainyridge Talent Barbara EX-95, 2011 WDE 5YO in milk class winner.

ABS Australia & St Jacobs thank all the entrants of this highly successful promotion.

Congratulations to all the winners, we wish you well in your future breeding endeavours!

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ABS super sire Shottle dominates IDW

19th January 2012

ABS Australia sires came up trumps at IDW’s national Holstein show, with their progeny being named Intermediate, Senior & Grand Champions.

Eclipse Shottle Lotto, owned by Richard Hull of Eclipse Holsteins, won the Senior 3YO class and then backed it up by being named Intermediate Champion of the show.

Lotto had been on display all week in ABS Australia’s inaugural Showcase marquee, representing the progeny of ABS’s champion sire Picston SHOTTLE EX-96.

Another SHOTTLE daughter, Page House Shottle Noni, owned by Roger & Helen Perrett, later won the 6YO in milk class.

When it came to the Champion cow contest, Shottle Noni took the honors.

Noni then continued on her winning way, competing against the junior, intermediate and senior Holsteins for the title of Grand Champion Holstein Exhibit.

Two Planet sons of Noni have already gone through ABS Australia’s Cornerstone progeny test program and in 2012 three grandsons of Noni will enter the program.

Also at the Holstein show, Regancrest DUNDEE EX-95 daughter Dryfield Dundee Paradise Imp won the 7YO & over in milk class.

Both Noni and Paradise have been champions at the IDW Holstein show in previous years and, as the results show, they are only getting better with age.

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German December Proof Updates

22nd December 2011

In recent weeks we have seen proof releases in Germany for both the Holsteins and the Brown Swiss with remarkable results for the bulls we market here in Australia.

Red Holstein News (RBV table)
GGTABLEAU remains in the number one position of the breed, increasing his overall margin by another two points.  GGTABLEAU has also increased his ABV(i) score to 241 APR.  This puts him so far in front of any other Red and White bull on APR you can not see the second one!!!

Holstein News (RBV table)
Our two Goldwyn sons, GGGUNNER and GGGUARINI, also increased their information even further, firming as absolute stand outs in the German system.

GGGUARINI ranks number three on the proof index, GGMASCOL number four and GGGUNNER number five. They are the numbers 1, 2 and 3 available bulls from Germany in Australia.

GGGUARINI (Goldwyn x O Man) now ranks as the number one bull in the industry on ABV(I) coming in at 271 points, with 112 overall type and 113 overall udders.  Having O Man in the pedigree, take a look at his score for ligament at 118 and 127 on udder depth!

GGGUNNER (Goldwyn x Juror Ford) climbed even higher on production.  He now ranks at 250 APR on ABV(i) with 114 for overall type and 115 overall udders.

As we explained when we returned from the trip to Germany earlier this year, the daughters on these bulls looked outstanding and their information has only continued to increase with more daughters being added.  Truly world class bulls that we have available.

Brown Swiss News (Proof table)
We could not offer any better in the Brown Swiss world.  GGHURAY & GGPROSSLI are number one and two in Germany with GGPAYSSLI not far behind in number 7.

GGHURAY, with almost 2500 second crop daughters, has climbed to the top of the German rankings and hasn’t been out of the top 10 since his release in November 2007. GGHURAY climbed about 50kg of milk and improved all conformation traits. Like the occasional red wine you might enjoy in the festive season, he gets better with age!

GGPROSSLI who also added some second crop daughters with gains especially for cell count to 118.  Many great results have been seen with crossbreeding to Holsteins with GGPROSSLI.

GGPAYSSLI sits at number seven on the German list but is very comfortably the number one type sire in Germany. At 137, the next closest bull is GGHURAY at 129. The oldest daughters have finished their second lactation with great results, especially in the area of persistency.

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ABS Australia's IDW Showcase

19th December 2011

ABS is the leader and dominant genetics and breeding company in Australia and has been at the forefront of animal genetics and technology since its founding in 1941. Innovation has always been a key factor in the company’s success over the years and ABS Australia is excited to announce another ground-breaking initiative.

At International Dairy Week in 2012, to be held in January in Tatura, ABS Australia is proud to bring you our ABS Showcase as part of the show. Daughters from a variety of bulls in our current proven sire lineup will be on site for viewing in a marquee near the main building from Monday 16th to Thursday 19th. ABS is thrilled to be able to display progeny examples from the Holsteins SHOTTLE, JEEVES, TENNYSON, THROTTLE and DESTRY, together with the exciting, possible new graduate VINDICATE and the Jerseys, ELTON and NEKEY.

The ABS Showcase will give all visitors to IDW the opportunity to view daughters of ABS sires on site and we invite you to visit us at the Showcase or at our site in the main judging arena during the show, at a time convenient to you.

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Cryogenic Tank Sale

MVE 47/11-10 tanks
with 10 x 11" deep x 2.81" wide canisters
Holds 47 litres with a holding time of up to 11 weeks

MVE 34/18 tanks
with 6 x 11" deep x 2.81" wide canisters
Holds 34 litres with a holding time of up to 18 weeks

Taylor Wharton 35HCB tanks
with 10 x 11" deep x 2.64" wide canisters
Holds 35 litres with a holding time of up to 18 weeks

These tanks all have been used only once for importing semen to Australia from overseas and are excess to our domestic requirements. They are in excellent condition and suitable for long term, on-farm semen storage. All prices are excluding GST & freight. Available while stocks last.

For more information, please contact Rowen Robinson on (02) 6049 9240 or your local ABS representative.

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