Dear CMSS members,
On March 18th, the CMSS office was informed that the Milking Shorthorn sire Oceanbrae Generator ET (MSCANM40011851), marketed by Semex under the CMSS Syndicates program, was not in fact sired by Ovensdale Jenny’s Tribute after receiving results of microsatellite DNA testing. The true sire of Generator is the Australian sire Treeton Pingerly. This will change the purity for Generator to 75.5%.
In investigating the reasons for the mix-up, it appears that there was an error in records that corresponded with the time that cows from Oceanbrae Farms were being housed by another dairy herd after losing their barn in Hurricane Fiona in 2022. Generator’s confirmed dam (Oceanbrae Ironman Ginger) was flushed to both Tribute and Pingerly within a few months. This enabled a quick resolution to the true sire of Generator.
It is unfortunate that this mistake was made and only discovered after the release of semen on the bull. The CMSS has only recently adopted genomic testing, and there was a failure of genomic parentage verification due to the originally listed sire (Tribute) not having a genomic profile. The CMSS Board will be discussing procedures to ensure that future parentage verification defaults to microsatellite testing if both sire and dam do not have genomic profiles available, as was the case here.
Revisions to the pedigree have been communicated to Holstein Canada, Lactanet, and Semex to ensure that all databases and documentation relating to this bull are updated. International Milking Shorthorn societies are also being informed of this pedigree update. As semen has only recently been released and since no progeny have been born, the efforts to update databases should be minimal.
Thank you for your understanding on this matter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the CMSS office for further clarification.
Sincerely,
Ryan Barrett
Secretary-Manager
Canadian Milking Shorthorn Society