Brian Behnke, together with St. Jacobs’ bull Brenland Denver: ‘With Lineair Choice, St. Jacobs offers high-quality Holstein bulls that, in combination with every cow, produce a well-built and productive, as well as healthy dairy cow.’
“Type without Compromise”: From this vision, St. Jacobs ABC developed internationally successful bulls such as Dundee, Destry-RC, Aftershock, Crush and Denver. Young “St. Jacobs Choice” bulls for the top type market include Fitters Choice, Showtime-RC and Dreambig. For the past year and a half, the ABS subsidiary has been developing a new product line, especially aimed at commercial dairy farming. Brian Behnke, the experienced St. Jacobs manager, speaks of a great challenge. ‘The creation of St. Jacobs Linear Choice is my Olympic Games.’
JORDEN STEGINK, HAN HOPMAN
In May, HI started a new interview series with sire analysts. After Carlos Ugarte, sire analyst for the Spanish Aberekin, we speak in Part II with Brian Behnke of St. Jacobs ABC. Behnke was born at Bur-Wall Holsteins, a two-time Holstein USA Herd of Excellence winner in Wisconsin. Also Glenn-Ann Holsteins, the farm of his in-laws, where Behnke made breeding decisions, received the Herd of Excellence award. After college, Behnke became a sire analyst for Landmark Genetics in Washington. Later, he held herd manager positions at Roylane Holsteins and Wilcoxview Farms, also in Washington. From 2003, Behnke was a sales representative, regional manager and sire analyst for Semex. Since 2016, Behnke has been responsible for product development and marketing on behalf of ABS at St. Jacobs ABC, which was established five decades ago in the Canadian province of Ontario. Oh yeah, Behnke is also an international judge.
DREAMBIG
Behnke sits behind his desk. A familiar scene for all those who have followed one of Behnke's webinars in which he explains young St. Jacobs Choice bulls who have been stringently selected for conformation, production, and health traits. A current example is Jacobs Showtime-RC (HI 11/21). However, the Excalibur son of World Champion Erbacres Snapple Shakira EX-97, whose snow-white daughters are being born in abundance, is not the most popular St. Jacobs Choice bull. ‘Our best-selling young bull at the moment is Kings-Ransom S Dreambig,’ says Behnke with a twinkle in his eye. Dreambig (HI 02/22) is bred out of Kings-Ransom Dandy (EX-92 Granite-EX-92 Delta-EX-94 Doorman-EX-94 Dorcy). Behnke's comments on the Parkhurst Samaritan son with 2753 gTPI, 2.98 gPTAT, as well as the milk protein variants A2/A2 and BB: 'Dreambig meets almost all requirements that dairy farmers set today. These requirements include: generous milk, positive components, not too much stature, slightly sloping rump, slightly sickled legs and somewhat longer teats. Dreambig is in many ways a model for St. Jacobs Linear Choice, our new and extremely stringently selected product group, aimed at commercial dairymen who want balanced cows.’
17 CRITERIA
Behnke takes his profession as a sire analyst very seriously. This applies to the implementation of the established bull category St. Jacobs Choice to which six new bulls will now be added every year. And that certainly also applies to the interpretation of Linear Choice, St. Jacobs' brand new bull category. ‘The very first two Linear Choice bulls have been on sale in France and Japan since May. As of August, the Linear Choice program will be rolled out in more countries. Our goal is to create a global supply consisting of 25 available bulls.’
Behnke's words arouse curiosity. When asked for further explanation, the St. Jacobs manager again refers to the breeding value profile of the sales hit Dreambig. ‘In recent years I have spoken intensively with international St. Jacobs representatives and asked them which type of Holstein bulls their customers need the most. From those conversations I have distilled seventeen criteria that a high-quality and easily deployable bull must meet. These include: >600 lb milk, positive components, between +0.4 and +2.0 height, <2.9 somatic cell count, no haplotypes and good daughter fertility. By good daughter fertility I mean not lower than -0.1 or -0.2 Cow Conception Rate. St. Jacobs deliberately opts for Conception Rate instead of Daughter Pregnancy Rate. This creates high producing cows that become pregnant when the farmer wishes. It is very difficult to meet all criteria at once. At the beginning of 2020, when we established the seventeen criteria, only 23 available bulls in the industry met them. Dreambig is not far from it. For example, with +2.78 he transmits a bit too much height. Developing bulls that meet all criteria is a huge challenge. I consider the implementation of the Linear Choice program to be my Olympic Games.'
PROGNOSIS
According to Behnke, behind the seventeen critical selection criteria, as a result of the intensive work with international sellers, lies a broader breeding story. ‘Dairy farmers all over the world are clamoring for powerful and well-built Holsteins that lactation after lactation give a lot of milk with high components and are also healthy. Lasting good type is the foundation. Dairy cows must be built sustainably year after year, have a strong and workable udder and, moreover, be able to walk smoothly. Then various other critical criteria are added, such as correct leg position, rump structure and teat length.’
Every month, Behnke searches through the lists of newly tested genomic bulls, looking for suitable candidates. ‘Meeting all seventeen criteria is extremely difficult. Then comes the question: how to deal with bulls that do not meet one or more criteria? This is also what I asked our international sellers. They made it clear to me that they can still work well with bulls that do not meet one criterion. There should be no more. Then St. Jacobs Linear Choice would lose its meaning.’
Behnke is highly motivated to find the right bulls for St. Jacobs Linear Choice. ‘The first prognosis, made eighteen months ago when the program was being designed, was for 100,000 conventional units plus more than 30,000 Sexcel (sexed) units. In the meantime, demand has grown to 300,000 conventional units and 200,000 units of Sexcel. St. Jacobs is traditionally focused on the top type segment. Linear Choice with its moderately sized cows with correct legs, rumps and teat length, is our entry into commercial dairy farming.’
INSURANCE
Behnke referred to the first Linear Choice bulls, introduced in France and Japan in May. Their names and pedigrees: Siemers Rockytop (2974 gTPI), a Cookiecutter Hilltop (<Challenger) son out of Siemers Roz 31076 (VG-88 Renegade-VG-86 Lincoln-EX-90 Kingboy) and Kings-Ransom Dozer (2908 gTPI/High Jump-Legacy-Imax). ‘We started in France because the demand from this country is huge. Japan is traditionally a good market for us. By starting with these two countries, Rockytop, Dozer and other Linear Choice bulls can continue to build inventory for global release in August.’
St. Jacobs now has ten young Linear Choice bulls. ‘In principle, they can come from anywhere; from breeders in North America to ABS Global's Denovo Nucleus Program. Together with the Dutch ABS Breeding Program Manager Hendrik Albada, we are also searching intensively in Europe.'
Behnke, a breeder through and through, is pleased to report that out of the first embryos specially purchased for Linear Choice, two bulls immediately meet all seventeen criteria. In the design and implementation of the Linear Choice program, Behnke's deep knowledge of dairy farming, breeding and marketing comes together. His knowledge was heavily influenced by Pete Blodgett around the 1990s, then Breeding Technical Manager for Landmark Genetics and before that responsible for the breeding at Diamond-S Ranch and Carnation Farms. ‘With relatively simple instruments, Blodgett bred large numbers of impressive commercial dairy cows on, for example, Carnation. He always looked for the three most important points for improvement and then searched for a matching bull. With Linear Choice, St. Jacobs offers high-quality Holstein bulls that, in combination with every cow, produce a well-built and productive, as well as healthy dairy cow. Linear Choice thus offers commercial dairy farmers insurance. That is not only based on genomic breeding values, but also based on knowledge of cow families and bull combinations, entirely in accordance with the St. Jacobs tradition.' l
