Reference Sire: Dulverton Medaglia M028

Dulverton Medaglia M028 must rank in the top handful of Homebred bulls used in the herd.

Dulverton Medaglia M028 Background

• M028 was most definitely the result of a planned mating, being by Carabar Gun Smoke J134 out of a maiden heifer D. Mittagong K204 who is by Booroomooka Frankel F510. Both J134 and F510 have the imported embryo B. Tracy T4 in their pedigree, T4’s pedigree is stacked with some of the great Marbling performers including Scotchcap and Premiere Independence. M028 carries some of these favourable marbling genes.
• M028 was born early in the drop and was unassisted from the maiden heifer K204. The fact he was born early is very much a positive from our perspective we believe this will help assure Traits like Fertility are automatically locked into that individual. Had M028 been assisted neither he, nor his dam K204 would be here today, it’s automatic dismal for both dam and calf should an assist have to be implemented.
• M028 exhibited explosive growth from birth to 14 months a trait we have been so keen to promote since 1981. You might hear us refer to this period as The Set-up interval
  • Set-up the steer progeny to hit, feeder target weights; Establishing the platform for the steer progeny to hit Pasture finished slaughter weights.
  • Set-up the heifer progeny to hit their minimum joining weights and laying the platform for them to continue on to hit their recommended Calving weights.

• M028 was definitely one of the most structurally sound individuals of the Male “M” drop. We have always been particularly impressed by his feet note the depth of heel exhibited by his progeny represented here, his body capacity, his Pelvic capacity and shape have always endeared us to him, so too his mobility and bone shape/content.
• M028’s -:
  • Pedigree
  • Individual Performance including his Structural Soundness
  • Plus our wish to Benchmark him and have carcass marbling recorded, prompted us to enter him in the 9^th Cohort of the Angus Young Sire Benchmark Program.

M028’s Cohort 9 Performance

• Birth Weight: The M028 calves as recorded in the Benchmark Program were heavy, no argument, we most definitely concede he is not Heifer Safe. However, we cannot live with the fact that he is a genetic “Cow Killer” further his shoulder set and angle and his pelvic shape and capacity support the fact that his female progeny calve easily. We did calve 12 M028 maiden heifers last year for no reported issues. Without going to extremes heavier calves do have increased survival rates and faster early (birth to weaning) growth. Suggest using his sons in this catalogue over second and subsequent year Calvers.

• Growth: M028’s progeny grew amazingly well from birth to 400 days, note he is ranked 2^nd in the Cohort group for both 200 and 400 day growth, it’s a trait these progeny represented in the Sale Draft have excelled in. It has been one of our goals to promote genetic growth from birth to 400 days so as to ensure the heifer progeny reach their target joining weight, 320 kg by 13 months and the steer siblings achieve their respective weaner and feeder steer target weights to optimise Sale earnings. We are pleased that his growth from 400 to 600 tapers off, note he is ranked 7^th for 600-day growth. We are very keen to keep a lid on Mature growth thereby ensuring the retained cows don’t get too big and so require too much Feed to run. Sal and I are really satisfied with his Genetic Growth Pattern- fast early and tapering.
• Fertility: M028’s daughters performed middle of the pack for Days to Calving, very happy with that result. M28’s 17 sons in this catalogue recorded an average Scrotal Circumference of 41cm at Scanning on the 22/03/2022, the range being 38cm to 45cm.

• Eating Quality: we are genuinely excited by the fact that M028 ranked 4^th in his Cohort for Carcass Marbling and MSA Index, how good is that, we set out to extract the Marbling/Eating Quality attributes from the pedigree of the B.Tracy family and have been duly rewarded. Must add such outcomes don’t happen very often. I guess it is worth noting that the average Marble Score for M028 was 606 on the MSA Scale which is one point less than that of Dulverton Quantum Leap Q016, when we ran a progeny test of a number of Industry bulls in the late 1990’s versus B/R New Design 036- The Benchmark. Quantum Leap was himself an imported embryo from Summitcrest with background pedigrees not dissimilar to that of B. Tracy T4. M028’s progeny including the 17 sons offered in this Sale are equipped as well as we can have them, given the current state of Genetic Measurement development, to assist you improve Carcass Marbling, MSA Index and therefore Eating Quality outcomes.

• Feed Efficiency: M028’s progeny have performed exceptionally well for the NFI-F trait through the 9^th Cohort, he is ranked 3^rd. For those who are sceptical of including Feed Efficiency in their trait list because of what appears a “directional correlation” of negative fatness with improved Feed Efficiency then don’t be, there are plenty of Sires who perform adequately for both traits. M028 ranked 3^rd for NFI-F and 10^th for rib fatness in the Cohort Group 9. M028’s progeny’s rib fat measure definitely indicates they wouldn’t want to be any fatter otherwise the fatness will impact on Saleable Beef Yield, he measured 18.5 mm at the Rib site.

General Comment

Longevity has long been one of our selection criteria and in the absence of a genetic measure for longevity we have simply kept cows in the herd producing calves. The cow must have delivered a calf to weaning each year to maintain a position in the Herd, no room for passengers. The result of this procedure is that our genetic progress for the traits measured by Models like Breedplan is below what it might be had we have opted to reduce the Generation Interval by culling cows with lesser “Figures”. The selection theory suggests that by applying selection pressure to a set of traits,  that the subsequent generation will be superior for those traits,  than the preceding generations. Fine in theory but not always true in practice.

There is no doubting the fact that Bull Longevity is a major issue re the Industries ability to deliver “Price Competitiveness”. Consider the lost revenue resulting from an Angus Bull’s inability to fulfil a targeted 4 year working life. It’s our goal to improve the Angus Bulls current working life of 2.3 years to 4 years. Agreed not all Bull attrition can be attributed to his Genetic makeup much is the result of environment, behaviour etc. However, a significant percentage of failures must be considered as owing their expression to the Genetic makeup of the Bull.

Thankfully we are now able to commence selecting for this valuable trait if only via  the cowherd, by utilising the IGS/Igenity Beef Profile Trait STAYABILITY. “Stay is defined as the probability daughters entering the herd will Stay in production through six (6) years of age. See article in Chap’s Chatter “Why we use the Igenity Beef Profile to assist us with the Genetic Analysis of the Dulverton Herd”. While Stay is as yet a Maternal Trait there is sufficient logic suggesting that if the cow is remaining in the herd for a period of six (6) years then this should direct the bull progeny to being more likely to fulfil a four (4) year working life than should no pressure be brought to bear on the trait.

M028 is an above average performer in the Dulverton Herd for Stayability, his seventeen sons represented in this sale have an average Stay score of 5.1, 292 “R’s” sampled (male and female) for an average score of 4.7.  M028’s  progeny group has a very creditable spread the range being 4-6. Note the range for the 81 two (2) year old’s in the sale is 2-7, interestingly Angus doesn’t rank highly amongst the seven (7) Taurus breeds analysed in the IGS/Igenity database.

Perhaps our commitment to keeping the older cows may have paid some small dividend with respect improving Stayability/Longevity even though we had no measure for the trait. How so? Well, the average age of the set of seventeen (17) cows M028 was bred to was 7.1 years when they all calved in the Spring of 2020, the birth year of this set of Sale Bulls. The range in their ages was six (6) to sixteen (16). The youngest cows in the group were in fact six (6) at their time of calving, they had reached the Target set by the definition of “STAYABILITY”. This would suggest the cow has certainly played her role in promoting this most valuable Trait. I guess we should never underestimate the contribution of the cow in the production of each individual Bull, it’s a 50:50 contribution toward the expression of almost all traits in each individual Sale Bull.

The 16 year old Z127 by B/R New Frontier 095 when she calved D. Rogan Josh R039 Lot 45, will calve again this year, her “S” calf weaned in the top 45% of the “S” Bulls. Note Z127’s sale bull R039 Lot 45, was born early in the drop.

For final proof of his all around ability (save from being heifer safe) M028 worked successfully here at Shannon Vale in the two driest years recorded and will commence his third season for his current owners Terry and Michael Slowman this Spring.

Summary

Please enjoy working through the consignment of 17 D. Medaglia M028 sons, Team Dulverton recommend them, his progeny performance in Cohort 9 certainly indicates M028 can pass on favourable sets of genes for-:

• Improved “early growth” to 400 days tapering at 600 days to assist reduce mature cow maintenance.
• Improved fertility, note these 17 sons averaged 41cm scrotal circumference in March.
• Improved Eating Quality, his progeny have him ranking 4^th for both MSA Index and the all important carcass Marbling.
• Feed Efficiency, his progeny have him ranking 2^nd for NFI-F and for those concerned about the negative fatness issue with improved NFI-F the progeny have him ranked 10/21 for Rib Fat.
• Stayability, this hugely important trait is measured by the Igenity Beef Profile the M028 sons average score 5.1 for the trait with a very satisfying range of 4-6. In addition all his dams fulfilled the Stayability requirement- still in the herd aged 6 years, and they will all calve again this Spring.