Sometimes taking a chance can really pay off and that was the case for the team who purchased Miss OCD Robust Delicious as a five-month-old heifer calf. When Horacio Larrea and Tim Rauen invested in this heifer, little did they know the impact Miss OCD Robust Delicious would have on the global Holstein breed! Delicious was #1 GTPI when she was purchased and now has almost 100,000 granddaughters in the United States alone. She was also named Holstein International’s Global Cow of the Year in 2018.
Horacio Larrea was the first to invest in Delicious. Working with Marita Holsteins and partnering with Callum McKinven, Horacio had the opportunity to buy first choice heifers from genomic mating pregnancies. “At the time it was the beginning of the genomic era,” he says. Horacio chose families that caught his eye. “Windsor-Manor Rudolph Zip EX-95 is the origin of the Delicious family, a cow I always admired. The idea of trying to get something from that family, especially a Planet cross was why we purchased the Planet Danica option because it was a combination of a lot of production that came from Planet and health traits that were dominant through the family. That's why we ended up buying this choice, where we got Delicious,” Horacio adds.
A short time later, Tim Rauen and others approached Horacio about partnering on Delicious. Tim’s partnership consisted of Frank and Diane Borba, Mark Butz, Farnear Holsteins, and Tim and Bill Rauen. This group saw a lot of potential in Delicious. “She was the #1 GTPI heifer of the breed and was a significant outlier. She was a very unique animal for her time frame, extreme milk and production traits along with health traits, she checked all the boxes,” Tim says.
Tim felt that Delicious was ahead of her time and had everything good to go with it. Horacio agrees, “It was amazing how much higher she was than anything else in the breed, that’s why she was so unique. It was a very good decision to make the partnership bigger and to start multiplying her. That was the key for the success of that family and the impact that it’s having on the breed.”
As genomics began to take off and with the highest genomic heifer recently purchased, excitement for this unique individual began to build. “Genomics is a tool that helps identify young animals that have the potential to transmit and to find superior families and then use IVF to multiply them. These tools allow for the potential to create a new Delicious in each generation,” Horacio says.
Delicious was purchased and moved to Wisconsin, where she was placed in a carefully curated IVF program. Tim touches a bit on the bulls they chose to use on Delicious’ first two flushes. “Numero Uno and Mogul complemented Delicious nicely. Delicious had a little set to the leg and Mogul would straighten the leg out a little and add a little strength. Numero Uno was a great health trait bull and nice type, but could use more production and Delicious had that,” he says.
Many offspring came from these flushes, some of the most notable are DELTA, DENVER and a daughter named Night Out. “Delicious’ offspring were consistent, functional animals, where you could see the dairy strength that makes all her offspring functional,” Horacio says.
“Night Out was one of the first daughters genomic tested and she was a chart topper, so we decided to clone her,” Tim states. DELTA was a Mogul son that came from Delicious’ second flush. “DELTA was a top ten bull for his age, and we decided to only sell sexed semen, allowing for lots of daughters,” Tim adds, “He stamped a pattern from the udders to the body, legs, and production wise. That bull ranks in the top five of all bulls I’ve seen on how consistent and how good he can make them, from any environment, he just does it for everyone.”
Not only is DELTA an excellent commercial bull, he would also go on to sire Delta-LAMBDA, who would stamp his mark on daughters that enter show rings across the world.
More recently, Delicious has made a GARZA son, DURABLE, who is up and coming in the breed. Along with DURABLE, Tim adds, “She also made a GARZA daughter at 1181 Net Merit Dollars (NM$), you’re looking at a cow that’s eleven years old and almost making a chart-topping daughter, it is kind of unheard of.”
As Delicious grows older by the day, she is living out her life at TransOva in Iowa, where she is flushed once a month and her embryos are mated to breed-leading bulls such as THORSON and DOMINANCE. “Delicious is still leaving her mark on the Holstein breed, she adds the rare combination of production and health trait, with very functional type,” Horacio says. Tim adds, “No matter where you look in these pedigrees that rank towards the top of TPI charts, Delicious is having her impact.”
Looking back on taking the risk and making the investment in Delicious, Horacio, Tim, and their partners all agree she has done them proud and will continue to leave her mark on the Holstein breed for decades to come.
To listen to the entire podcast on the Influence of Delicious, visit the links below!
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3YaZNuW
Apple: https://apple.co/3KHWWqd