Australia’s Princess Family Consistent for Type - Cowsmo

Australia’s Princess Family Consistent for Type

It’s a story of a different kind of royal family, proving type-leading success is about to take the Holstein world by storm.

Eclipse Milio is a Wilt Emilio son from Eclipse Octane Princess 13 VG-2YR Old (VG-86 MS) from a 2nd lactation VG-88 Atwood back to an EX-90 Damion, VG-89 Goldwyn and then EX-95 Outside Pledge.

He shot to the top in the April proofs with +4.59 PTAT along with the ability to produce breed-leading udders at +3.39 UDC and +4.96 Rear Attachment Height, +4.76 Fore Attachment and +4.56 Rear Width.

“To breed the number 1 type bull in the world, it’s just huge,” breeder Richard Hull of Eclipse Genetics said.

The world’s new number 1 type bull hails from the Windy-Knoll-View Princess family, tracing back to Windy-Knoll-View Pledge EX-95, Unanimous All-American 5-year-old 2007.  A family with top ranking females as well, a full sister to Milio’s dam, Eclipse Atwood Princess 7 VG-87 is the former #1 PTAT Cow @+3.82.

“It’s been exciting to see more than one number one out of this family on type,” Richard said.

Eclipse Damion G Princess-Imp-ET EX-90 is one of Eclipse Genetics most notable brood cows

Outcross to Doorman
The power of line breeding has proven a success with Eclipse Milio.  Born January 2018, Milio features both McCutchen sons from Ms Chassity OBS Claire with High Octane the maternal side and Capital Gain as the paternal grandsire.

Therefore, providing an ideal option for high type and udders, and as an outcross to Doorman.

“When I’ve spoken to people in America, they’re like… ‘What am I going to use on my Doormans?’ Well this bull answers the question,” he said.

“It’s a rare thing to have High Octane in the pedigree too… breeders are going back and using him now to breed their top end show cows. With Milio having no Doorman and having High Octane on the maternal side it is going to be quite appealing.”

And Richard believes another bonus will be Milio’s ability to add strength & width of chest.

“I think that he’s going to add quite a bit of strength; a lot of these modern-day bulls are taking a fair bit of middle out of the cows,” he said. Milo himself is a powerful good-looking weapon.

“On the maternal side you have Capital Gain, then you’ve got Emilio as the sire, then you have this bull.  Capital Gain adds a lot of strength and it’s apparent with this calf, he is a beautiful, beautiful strong calf.”

Another notable point on the young bull is how far he exceeded the parent average for type. His dam is +3.59 and his sire Emilio is at +3.87, resulting in a parent average of +3.73 compared to Eclipse Milio’s May proof sitting at +4.59 – number 1 in the world.

“So it’s actually lifted by 0.86 on parent average, I’ve never heard of that. Obviously there are some genetics there that’s got some black (and white) magic,” Richard said.

Top Rated Udders
Already attracting a contract with ST Genetics, Eclipse Milio is not the only young bull capturing attention from the Princess family.

ST Genetics also took on three sons from his dam’s full sister, Eclipse Octane Princess 9 – due on her first lactation and “looking incredible.”

And all three of these bulls – due to be available later this year – showcase some of the highest udder ratings in the April proofs.

Eclipse Royalcrush, by Maverick Crush, is also above +4 for type and paired with an extremely high udder composite. He came in at +4.16 PTAT and +3.75 UDC.

With the recent passing of Walnutlawn Solomon, Eclipse Blackwood is a Solomon son sure to turn heads with +4.25 PTAT, +3.64 UDC and +5.63 Fore Attachment.

“He’s the number one Solomon son for udders and he’s the number bull in the breed for fore udders too.”

Another impressive Maverick Crush son is Eclipse Firstcrush showcasing a balanced proof paired with a positive daughter pregnancy rate and the ability to lower pins. Firstcrush came in at 3.69 PTAT, +3.38 UDC, +0.4 DPR and an impressive +2.48 SCS.

Princesses Prove Consistency 
“Originally I bought into the Princess family before genomics came around,” Richard said.

Richard – a renowned embryo technician who does not own a farm – says the success of the family comes from picking a world-class family and continually flushing with the top bulls available to create optimal sire stacks.

“There was the great grand dam, the Outside cow (Windy-Knoll-View Pledge), and she was flushed to Goldwyn and these embryos went to Holland, and that’s where I contracted this Goldwyn cow to bring the embryos by Damion here,” he said.

Those embryos resulted in undoubtedly one of Eclipse Genetics’ best brood cows Eclipse Damion G Princess-Imp-ET EX-90.

“The success came around through using the number one type bull at the time which was Atwood, and getting nine daughters out of her,” he said.

Eclipse Atwood Princess-8-ET VG-88, is one of the most impressive Princess daughters

The most impressive Atwood daughter was Eclipse Atwood Princess 8 (VG-88 2nd lactation) who has gone on to breed the two impressive special High Octane daughters – set to become brood cows themselves.

“At the time when she was 6 months of age, she was the highest udder rated heifer in the breed as well.”

“It’s the best cow family I’ve ever come across,” he said. “I’ve got this branch down here (in Australia) and it’s just taken off, you flush them to balanced breed leading sires and it just produces breed leading females and males.”

When looking at success in the show ring, another full in blood sister to Eclipse Milio’s dam is Eclipse Octane Princess 5, who recently won the Junior 2-year-old in milk class at International Dairy Week 2018 after selling for $20,000 (AUD) to Avonlea Holsteins and Col Cowan.

While Richard has been fortunate to work with and breed from some of the biggest names in cow families, he says the Princess line continues to top them all.

“There’s been a couple of good ones, but none have hit the high tops of what this family is doing genomically. There’s been so many number 1’s on type out of this family it’s not funny,” he said.

And breeders across the world will be able to tap into this proven family when Milio becomes available early next year and Firstcrush, Royalcrush and Blackwood hit the market in the coming months.

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