A long time ago in a galaxy far away……Who are we kidding the A.I. stud wars are now and the battleground is the USA, the most lucrative genetics market in the world. For years I have heard the debate from all sides about which stud has the best sire line-up. The problem is most of it has been anecdotal and no one has really backed it up with numbers. So, in true Bullvine fashion, we thought we would bring numbers to this galactic battle.
To settle this confrontation, we decided to let genomics and genetic evaluations determine exactly which stud rules the empire. Specifically we looked at top 50 proven and genomic sires for TPITM, NM$ and PTAT to determine who are the studs and who are the duds. The following is what we found. (Please note we deemed a sire to be available if the had an NAAB Code)
TPI
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It’s interesting to see how the percentages seem to be similar to market share, prior to the genomic era. The big five being ABS, Select Sires, Alta Genetics, Accelerated Genetics and Genex.
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The top gPA TPI sires tell a very different story than that of the proven sires. Studs like ABS Global and Alta Genetics do not have as large a portion of the top bulls whereas Semex and Select Sires have invested heavily in obtaining top gPA TPI sires.
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When it comes to strength of line-up from a TPI perspective, it’s interesting to see how Semex and some of the smaller studs have made a big push on getting the top genomic sires, in order to have that stronger line-up in the future. On the other hand, some of the established studs are resting on their proven laurels. (Please note for top list we used the top 50 genomic and top 50 proven sires.)
NM$
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It is interesting how the studs that are more milk producer focused as opposed to breeder focused rise up on this list. Specifically Genex, Alta Genetics and ABS have their best showings here.
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Even the studs who have not gone heavily into genomics, are at least sampling some high genomic sires for NM$. When it comes to selling volumes of semen, nothing compares to a high NM$ sire. Yes the top TPI sires will sell well, but the high NM$ will move in volume as they attractive the commercial market.
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The greatest spread of the top sires amongst the studs occurs in NM$. This is not surprising since this is such a lucrative market for so many studs. They all are trying to get the top sires.
PTAT
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When it comes to the top type bulls, it seems like everyone wants a shot at them. Type sires are a premium market delivering high margins to the units. This is certainly one area where type oriented countries and their respective studs excel (Example, Semenzoo and Semex).
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Similar to the proven bull list, this is an area where everyone wants to play. It is interesting to see that many of the type niche studs don’t have more on these lists. That could be due to the fact that they are focusing on show type and not necessarily on sires who have high genomic tests for PTAT.
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A subject of great debate on our Facebook page has been who has the better type sire lineup, Select Sires or Semex. If you go by the numbers, there is no question that Select Sires has the advantage. Looking deeper into this, we decided to take the top 5 proven and the top 5 genomic sires from each stud and see whose were better. Select Sires averaged 4.14 PTAT and Semex averaged 3.72. So Select not only has an advantage in numbers but also in quality.
The Bullvine Bottom Line
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It’s always interesting when you get into the debate about which studs have the best sire lineup to see the perceptions people have. Most look at it based on what their breeding goals are and state their opinion relative to that. Nevertheless there are many that are guilty of looking at things through rose colored glasses for the studs they prefer and hence discrediting other studs because of it. The one thing you cannot deny is that, when you look across the board, the US sire line up at Select Sires has the largest market share and are a player in each major market. Studs like Semex (type) and ABS, Alta Genetics, and Genex (NM$ and TPI) do well in niche segments.
For complete genetic evaluations from around the world click here.
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