Norwegian Red global proof run April 2022

Time to read: ca 2 min

The new official proofs for Norwegian Red sires in Australia, United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), and other key countries were published on April 5, 2022.

Photo of Norwegian Red bull 11919 Ofstad.
Daughter proven 11919 Ofstad-P continues to shine in the UK and Australia. Photo: Jan Arve Kristiansen

Norwegian Red sires continue to lead the way in many countries.

The US

Norwegian Red daughter proven sires performed excellently in the US with the 1st and 4th place bulls on both the US Available Ayrshire Net Merit list and US Available Ayrshire Cheese Merit list.  Roen (252NR11690) ranks 1st and Onstad-P (252NR11819) ranks 4th on both lists.  Norwegian Red sires excel at many traits but especially for milk solids yields and daughter fertility.  Norwegian Red sires rank 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for protein yield in the US, and Norwegian Red sires take all the top 10 spots for daughter pregnancy rate.  Overall Norwegian Red sires occupy 86 out of the top 100 places for daughter pregnancy rate on the US Ayrshire base.

INTERBULL does not provide proofs for genomic selected sires (GS) from the Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) and Ayrshire populations on local bases like the US.  This creates challenges to making good comparisons of imported GS sires from RDC and Ayrshire populations on the US Ayrshire base. However, daughter-proven RDC and Ayrshire sires can provide good information on the likely quality of GS sires available in the US.

The UK PLI

Norwegian Red sires performed excellent in the UK on the April proof run.  Ofstad-P (252NR11919)  who is daughter proven continues to shine in the UK as he takes the top spot overall on the UK PLI ranking. Norwegian Red sires are also the top Ayrshires bull on the UK Spring Calving Index and Autumn Calving Index.

Many Norwegian Red GS sires now have official proofs in the UK because genotypes have been supplied to the UK for the calculation of PTAs on GS sires.  Sausvatn-PP (252NR12116) and Hagemoen-P (252NR12114) take 2nd and 3rd places on the Available Ayrshire Genomic sire list sorted by PLI.

Australia

Norwegian Red daughter proven sires also ranked very well in the Australia Good Bulls Guide for Red Breeds.  Norwegian Red sires took 1st and 2nd on the Balanced Performance Index rankings with Ofstad-P (252NR11919) taking the top spot and Onstad-P (252NR11819) taking 2nd place.  In addition, Norwegian Red sires dominate the Health Weighted Index rankings in the Australia Good Bulls Guide as Norwegian Red sires were 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th on the Health Weighted Index rankings. Ofstad-P (252NR11919) and Roen (252NR11690) are the top 2 bulls on this Australian list.