World Dairy Expo – the meeting place for the world of genetics

In early October the world's biggest dairy show took place in Madison, USA. Over 1000 animals were presented to the global attendees. Daughters of Swissgenetics and NGG bulls were once again in the spotlight.

Urs Spescha, Export Sales Manager

There are several reasons for Swissgenetics staff to fly to the World Dairy Expo. It absolutely is the meeting place for the genetics industry. Many meetings with important genetics and technology players are held over a short period. These enable new trends to be identified which in turn will become opportunities for Swissgenetics and for Swiss cattle breeding overall. Existing partners can be met in person and partnerships are discussed. Furthermore, it is very efficient to meet the worldwide distribution partners who market semen from Swissgenetics in their respective countries all in one location. North America is also an important supplier of interesting bulls for Swiss breeders. And last but not least, there are always interesting things to see, such as how daughters of Swiss bulls present themselves and compete in the colourful show ring.

Strong Brown Swiss Show

This year’s Brown Swiss Show was not only big with 406 animals registered (over 50 heifers in one category!), but the quality of the cows was the highest seen over the last 20 years. Famous cows (including last year's winner) with Swiss sires were not present this year. Therefore, we Swiss were hoping for a good heifer performance. Many good animals can be traced back to the famous Swiss bulls GLENN and BIVER, mainly through the paternal line, but also through the maternal line.

COLLAPS makes his mark

Bulls COLLAPS and NORWIN were category winners. Some strong cows from bulls NORWIN, GRISCHA STAR and GLENWOOD were presented. Collaps TALISTE was then designated Supreme Heifer Champion across all breeds from young breeders and in the Open Show was voted Reserve Champion by the superior judge. Several COLLAPS heifers entered the ring with some achieving top podium positions. Next year the first calved Collaps-daughters will probably take their places in the ring, alongside ALPIN, RAY and HALANO heifers, who as calves have already been noticed on farms.

New Generation Genetics is going well

This year's show was also a success for our subsidiary NGG. Whereas DAREDEVIL blazed a trail amongst the young cows becoming Intermediate Champion and Reserve Intermediate Champion, CARTER impressed in the Seniors and won the Reserve Grand Champion title. The best bull in show was DAREDEVIL.

Conversations with American breeders indicated the extent to which they appreciate Swiss bulls which are distributed in the USA via NGG and Semex. The best young bulls in the USA are with NGG. The current NGG offer that is available in Europe can be viewed on the Swissgenetics website.

SHAKIRA in the play-off

The famous O Kaliber-daughter SHAKIRA, already a two-time winner in Madison, was only beaten in the lifetime yield category this year by FOOTLOOSE. However, SHAKIRA did ultimately stand on the podium of the biggest Holstein Show with a "Honorable Mention". To conclude, two animals with Swissgenetics sires won big honorary awards in North America. This demonstrates the quality of our genetics programmes.