Alta Genetics has bid farewell to Regancrest AltaIota, who was almost 13 years old and produced more than 1.1 million doses of semen. Iota, was a Ito from an Emory descendent from the great Dellia. He has 55,491 milking daughters in his most recent index. With 2156 TPI, AltaIota is one of the 5 highest O-Man sons world-wide.
His Breeder
At Regancrest Farms in Waukon, Iowa, they milk 550 cows. Since the purchase of Snow-N Denises Dellia EX-95, more than twenty years ago, the farm has developed one of the most influential breeding herds worldwide. Dellia became the dam of foundation bull Durham and of the type specialists Dundee, Derry, and Empire. Lots of proven sire successes followed, for instance with millionaire Die-Hard, or with Mac and Million, the son and grandson of Dellia’s Rudolph daughter Dena. In combination with a homebred cow family, Dellia’s son Durham produced Regancrest’s second supreme brood cow: Regancrest-PR Barbie EX-92 (see HI 02/2011). With the Barbies, Regancrest is in the center of the attention again at the beginning of the genomics era. ‘In our ET program we work with 10 cows that are flushed for one year and then bred back. Every month 70 to 100 ET calves are being born, depending on the number of IVFs that were carried out. A number of calves came out with high genomics. If we flush heifers, it is often those with high genomics. Hopefully genomics will help us find the right donors,’ says Sheri Regan.
His Sire
Besides production, fitness, and longevity, OBee Manfred Justice (O-Man) gave the Holstein breed the fertility impulse it needed. The number of sires of sons amongst his sons is large. Three of them have topped HI’s list of the worlds most used sires of sons: Man-O-Man, Gerard, and then AltaIota, twice.
His Family
In spite of the enormous interest in the Barbies, Sheri Regan unabatedly continues to appreciate the Dellias. ‘The Dellias just keep popping up. I guess the good type breeds through, no matter what bulls you use. Iota was a nice surprise. His dam, Regancrest Ito Isa VG-86, was flushed a lot – because she was a really good young cow – with bulls like Juror Ito, Emory, Mark and Bell, who were all impact bulls in a pedigree. We did not use much O-Man because of his udder traits, but he does transmit other things that the breed needs: health traits, strength and calving ease. Ito Isa was a tall dairy cow with a really nice quality udder. Her daughters have been very good-uddered cows as well. We have a Bolton granddaughter that has been a very popular cow here. She has been contracted for both embryos and bulls to almost every major bull stud. We bought a Planet that is just fresh, from one of Isa’s Shottle daughters before Iota was released. We have used Iota very heavily. Currently we have 4 females and 4 males on the ground and have over 150 pregnancies due to him. He is a tremendous settler.’ From Regancrest Ito Isa VG-86, herself a halfsister to the Canadian proven bull Regancrest Dolman, besides Iota there are two more sons that graduated to active sire service: Regancrest Oman Infinite (1875 TPI) for Genex CRI , and the Shottle son Regancrest S Isley (1719 TPI) for ABS Global. Isa has 13 registered daughters by O-Man, Shottle, Offroad, and Marion. Her (eight) Shottles stand out the most.
Regancrest Ito Isa VG-86, the dam of AltaIOTA, was a large, dairy
daughter of Barbee-M Juror Ito (Juror x Elton), one of Juror’s best sons
