"Despite all of the improvements made with dairy animal husbandry there continues to be worse health performance. When all else is equal, the thing that's going to differ between two cows on your dairy is, 'How strong is their immune system? How able are they going to be to respond to that challenge?' Because no matter how well-managed a dairy is, every cow is going to encounter both bacterial and viral pathogens almost every day," says Dr. Steven Larmer, Semex Geneticist & Business Analyst.

In 2012 we launched Immunity+® bulls, an industry first, dramatically changing the way dairymen developed breeding strategies and managed herd health. Easy to use, Immunity is highly heritable, with Immune Response being 30%, well above other individual health traits. And the results confirmed this new breeding strategy, and a study of Semex sired animals from 35 commercial dairies in 2017 showed improvements in a number of areas on about 30,000 cows and 75,000 heifers tested. The reductions were seen in eight health incidences, with the most significant being a 20% reduction in mortality and 17% reduction in persistent mastitis. The improvements in immune response would have resulted in $72,330 savings for herds milking 1,000 cows during one lactation period. But, we didn't stop there!

We put genomics to work, fighting herd health, and with the advent of genomic evaluations for Immune Response, we are now able to identify cows in the herd that resist disease through our Elevate® female genomic testing platform. By looking at genomically tested cows, instead of simply using the sire status, we can see that those cows with a stronger immune system resist disease even better.

In fact, these High Immune response cows have 30% less disease than their herdmates, that are either average or low immune response. And, the only way to get more high immune response animals in your herd is to utilize Immunity+ sires. In April we're proud to present 263 options with our Immunity+ lineup including:

Click here to look at the entire Immunity+ lineup!

• The most sires in Holstein USA's Top 200 TPI Genomic Young Bull Listing
• Five of top 10 LPI sires
• 11 of top 20 LPI sires including new releases:
  • #2 at +3416 LPI: 0200HO10366 Benner Bardo (Flame x Mogul x Baxter) a Calving Ease and A2A2 sire
  • #8 at +3287 LPI: 0200HO10372 Boldi V Aptitude (Davinci x Epic x Oman) an Immunity+, Calving Ease, RobotReadyâ"¢ and GrazingProâ"¢ sire
  • #12 at +3274 LPI: 0200HO010348 Claynook Denim (Flame x Snowman x Planet), a Calving Ease, ShowTimeâ"¢ and A2A2 sire
• #2 Conf Sire in Canada at +16: 0200HO10592 Stantons Expander (High Octane x Numero Uno x Super) an Immunity+, Genomax, RobotReady and ShowTimeâ"¢ sire
• Seven of the top 10 Jersey Pro$ Young Bulls and six of the top 10 Jersey GPA LPI Bulls including:
  • #3 Pro$ at $2482 and GPA LPI Sire at +2151 in Canada: 0200JE10034 JX River Valley Chief {6} (Checkmate {5} x Chrome x Fastrack) a River Valleyâ"¢, Genomaxâ"¢ and A2A2 sire
• Ten of top 20 proven UK Type Sires including:
  • #2 UK Type Sire: 0200HO07526 Toc-Farm Fitz a RobotReady and ShowTime sire
• #1 UK Bred Type Merit Bull: 0200HO07884 Willsbro Abbott, a Calving Ease and A2A2 sire
• Four of top 20 proven UK PLI sires
• Eight of top 20 UK genomic type sires including:
  • #1 UK Genomic Type Sire: 0200HO11127 OH-River-SYC Crushabull (Crush x Mogul x Meridian) a Genomax, RobotReady and ShowTime Sire
  • #3 UK Genomic Type Sire: 0200HO11379 Walnutlawn Skyhigh (Milehigh x Avalanche *RC x 5G) a Genomax and ShowTime sire
• #1 PP Red RZG Bull: 0200HO07937 Col Hah Stick PP Red (Lucky PP x Apollo P x Kanu P) a Polled, A2A2 and Red & White Sire at 151 RZG
• #3 Genomic RZG: 0200HO11189 Westcoast Soundcloud (Outlast x Delta x Sympatico) at 164 RZG