REMEMBER THE 1970's AND early 1980s when fat seemed to dominate the marketplace? Cows and cow families with 4.5% test arid higher were commanding top dollar. Dairy producers were paid a fat differential that could make a considerable impact on their milk check. Then gradually the emphasis placed on fat in domestic and international Holstein markets shifted to protein. Some breeders argue the industry totally disregarded fat for several years, launching a single-trait selection for protein. But now there seems to be renewed interest in butterfat - in milk marketing and in the genetics markets. 'The pendulum swings from one extreme to the other and I'm noticing fat is more crucial to buying decisions now than it has been in the past five years, says sale manager Dave Rama of The Cattle Exchange, Delhi, NY 'Buyers have always shied a way from cows testing under 3.0%, but now I'm noticing that if a cow is under 3.5% buyers deduct for it." 'I just returned from a round of sire meetings where I was 'bloodied' by producers who were pointing to top bulls with low PTAs for percent fat and pounds fat and saying, 'Nobody in the Al industry is paying attention to fat and here are the results," said one sire analyst early this spring. "Producers are not necessarily selecting for high fat, but they are no longer ignoring it,' says Steve Neeley sire analyst for Sire Power, who has observed this trend over the past year and a half. 'With TPl and CTPI often being used for selection, fat automatically gets attention because it does make a difference in these formulas. But there is still way more emphasis on protein. Mike Osmundson, whose Genex distributorship in California markets about 130,000 units of semen per year to dairies ranging in size from 100 to 15,000 cows, says he has definitely noticed customers are paying more attention to fat in their semen purchases. Many customers are looking for break-even PTA percent fat or better and he describes a bull that is high for PTA protein pounds and low for PTA fat pounds as "practically non-salable." Roger Paddock, an independent semen distributor in western New York, also confirms producers in his area are again paying attention to butterfat. Like Osmundson's. his customers aren't necessarily selecting for high fat, but they are avoiding thc bulls very low for PTA fat percent or pounds. He has three trucks on the road and a customer base representing herd sizes from 40 to 2000 cows, with an average herd size of 400 cows. "For the longest time everybody wanted protein, protein, protein, but nobody was getting paid for it," says Paddock, whose customers primarily ship to fluid markets. 'Now producers are paying attention to fat again." Although some international markets, including Japan, never let down their guard on fat, Robert Heilman of AMS Genetics, Richmond, VA, says many European countries have found their single-trait selection for protein has rapidly reduced fat. "Yes, butterfat is definitely an issue again. Recently we could get cows with 3.1%> or 3.2% fat test contracted if their protein was high enough. Now my European customers are no longer contracting cows with records under 3.5% fat) Heilman says. "The entire industry has single-traited protein way too heavy and now it is starting to haunt us,' believes Don Mayer, Mayerlane Hoisteins, Bloomer, WI, 'Now we have some really high milk and protein bulls who are very low for fat Mayer says he has always kept an eve on fat in his breeding program because he believes it is important and because the Japanese and German markets are important to his merchandising program. 'Except for Luke, I stay away from low fat bulls unless I have a contract mating for them. I like to see a bull's PTAs for pounds fat and pounds protein be close," he adds. Many believe the single most important factor influencing the attention fat is getting is the shift to multiple component pricing in many parts of the country Seventy-one percent of the cows in the U.S. are in markets now affected by component pricing, according to Dr Gene Freeman, Iowa State University Al Kuck, vice president of genetics at 2lst Century Genetics, agrees that changes in milk pricing over the last couple years has driven the fat trend. He believes fat is always going to be worth something because it is important in cheese-making, but protein will continue to be the most important of the two components. His A1 organization is addressing the issue by establishing donor dam minimum selection criteria not only for protein pounds, but also for protein plus fat pounds. ABS now includes minimum requirements for percent fat and pounds fat in heifer contracts and they are paying more attention to fat when choosing mating sires, according to ABS sire analyst Tim Abbott. How much emphasis should producers put on butterfat? Freeman believes that depends on your milk market, 'In areas were milk goes for fluid use, fat really doesn't matter. But if milk goes for cheese or manufactured products, fat is more important.

         

 

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