Benchmark Benefits & Requirements

Benefits for Bull Owners

Nominating a bull for this project should have the following benefits for the bull owner or breeder:

- The opportunity to conduct a comparison of your bull against some of the top bulls available in the Angus breed throughout Australia, and identify potential areas in which your bull excels.

- Progeny information will be generated on calving ease, growth performance, heifer conception and calving performance, and steer feed efficiency and carcase performance. This will be incorporated into the EBVs of your nominated bull/s, resulting in high accuracies earlier for these traits.

- The inclusion of your bull into in a highly publicised, nation wide sire benchmarking program. This will create an excellent promotional opportunity for each participant, as the results of the program will be publicised to large base, including all Australian cattle breeders via the Angus website and various publications.

- You will be supplied with regular updates on the program and the results as they become available. It is important to remember that it will be at least three years before the heifer fertility and steer and carcase results are compiled from progeny bred in the project.
 

Requirements

Nominating one to two bulls in any one of the three years of the project:

- There is no age restriction on the bulls.

- They must be registered in the Angus HBR, RAR or APR.

- There are no requirements for EBVs or $Index range, just that the breeder considered that the bull/s are worthy of testing in a large scale benchmarking project.

- In selecting bulls for the program preference will be given to young Australian bred bulls with favourable EBVs and $Index Values, representing a diversity of Angus genetics.The bulls would need to be AM, NH and CA free or free untested for entry.

- A fee of $2,500 (plus GST) per bull is payable for all Australian bred bulls accepted into the program, and $4,000 (plus GST) for international bulls. This fee is a contribution to the costs of the AI program and for collection of progeny performance information, including feed efficiency and carcase data on steer progeny (this fee represents less than 10% of the total cost per sire tested in the program).

- Collecting semen from the nominated bull/s and providing 100 doses of fertile viable semen to the project at your cost. It is strongly suggested that additional semen be collected and stored for future use. The amount and type of semen collection is your choice as the project is able to use custom collected semen.

- Samples of semen from all bulls nominated will be tested for motility and suitability for use after thawing.

- Semen not up to acceptable standards cannot be accepted and will be returned to the bull owner.If time permits, further collections or samples from different batches can be provided but it is essential that only high grade semen be used.This may place limitations on young bulls, especially yearlings.

- All bulls will be inspected by a veterinarian and be tested negative for BVD. Bulls will also need to be double vaccinated for Campylobacter and Leptospirosis and older bulls need to receive annual boosters. The veterinarian will alsoassess the bull to ensure that they are structurally sound, of quiet temperament and with acceptable scrotal size.

For further information or to nominate a bull/s contact:

Bob Dent
Angus Sire Benchmarking Program Coordinator
Mobile 0457 457 141
Email - click here