“The trend to more all round sires is reflected in an increasing gap between the two financial indices, PIN that reflects production, and Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) that takes account of production as well as the other profit characteristics like conformation, longevity, cell count and fertility,” says MDC breeding+ director Marco Winters.

The new number one sire in the November figures, O-bee Manfred Justice, is not the highest ranking sire for production, but he tops the rankings with a PLI of £87, up £3 in the past three months thanks to the addition of a second crop of daughters.

“American bred Justice has never left the top 10 PLI listings since he first emerged in August 2003,” adds Mr Winters.

“Perhaps it is a sign that this older bull is leading the way in the trend towards more all round cows in our dairy herd that produce milk efficiently but combine this with good health, fertility and longevity.

Source: farmersguardian.com