The Global Sires team recently met at WWS’ US office in Visalia California. Pictured (left to right) is Brian Albertoni (WWS marketing director), Dr Ray Johnson (GA’s chief executive officer), John Schouten (WWS chief executive officer), Colin Gardner (GA’s chairman), Tom Garcia (WWS financial director) and Simon Bennett (GA’s deputy chairman).

The two businesses have blended their Australian and United States resources, business models and staff within the extension of a third business arm in Australia, Global Sires Pty Ltd.

Global Sires will be jointly owned by the two, with the majority holding in GA’s court. The alliance offers Australian producers unprecedented access to the best home-grown and North American genetics within a single business that promises to rock the artificial breeding industry on its axis and re-align the balance of power.

While GA currently supplies 60% of Australia’s artificial dairy breeding needs with a strong focus on Australian pedigrees for the Australian environment, WWS represents the majority of the US artificial insemination co-operatives (with strong European alliances) and it brings depth, power and international credibility to the union.

WWS also brings an already strong international beef portfolio to Global Sires, which (to this point) GA has not had.

GA adds additional people to the mix, which will give Global Sires the geographical reach WWS has not enjoyed within the beef industry. The result will also give Global Sires’ clients a potent choice, including access to the extensive work both companies have completed within genomics*.

Both GA and WWS (US) are farmer-owned co-operatives at their core and GAs expanding retail network has highlighted the need to offer a wide product range to meet its customers diverse breeding needs.

GA chairman Colin Gardner expects the partnership will take both companies to the next level.

“We now have more geographical reach with more people on the ground, greater expertise and a greater sire range for all breeder needs,” Mr Gardner said.

“No-one has a mortgage on the best genetics, but this combination, we believe, is unmatched.”

Mr Gardner said the decision also signified a quite different paradigm from the initial trial business model which Global Sires had operated under during the last two years within the dairy industry as the two companies learned more about one another.

During that time GA marketed a limited number of US dairy bulls from the WWS team that had to either have a baseline APR (Australian Profit Ranking) and type minimum or sexed semen availability. Bulls with higher converted breeding values will continue to be offered in the GA product line-up.

The new joint venture will fully reflect WWS’ extensive dairy and beef bull team with a formal blending of staff and resources.

“Meeting the market is the hallmark of a successful business and the market has emphatically said that this is the product range that it wants,” Mr Gardner said.

“GA has responded and while the transition will not be without its challenges we have been thrilled by the positive feedback from our staff and customers. It is a very exciting time for both companies.”

In addition to WWS’ US bull team the European contacts that it brings to the mix include Masterrind (Germany’s biggest AB co-operative), Semenzoo (which represents all Italian AB co-operatives) and Xentica Fontao and Aberekin (Spains two biggest AB companies).

World Wide Sires chief executive officer in the US John Schouten said combining the businesses in Australia made sense.

“We’re very pleased to be able to cooperate with GA to give better services and contact to Australian dairy farmers,” he said. “To be able to continue on with most of the staff from both businesses will give Global Sires a very high profile in the Australian dairy and beef markets.
 
“WWS here in the US is the collaboration of two co-operatives (Select Sires and Accelerated Genetics) and when you look at the globalisation of genetics around the world, it is great news that co-operatives are working together. I think the collaboration and the spirit of co-operation within the industry is at the highest level that I’ve seen in my 20 years at WWS and I think you will see more of these alliances in the future.”

One ideal GA and WWS have always been in step with is genomic research.

Most experts in the field believe genomic values will not replace progeny testing in the short to medium term because its 70% reliability so far lines up against the more solid 85% to 95% progeny testing offers.

However, genomics delivers results faster and more inexpensively than progeny testing and everyone knows that life today is all about the fast lane.
GA is Australia’s co-licensee for genomic technology together with Dairy Australia and ADHIS (Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme) and was the first artificial breeding company to use the marker technology for profit improvement (APR). It also holds the Gene Marker license for the beef industry within Australia.

WWS, in turn, is part of a powerful US industry syndication that holds critical mass information on thousands of dairy and beef bulls.
“Genomics is sweeping the world and there are something like 10,000 bulls listed in the US database that WWS is part of. We are very pleased to gain access to that information for our clients because it will strengthen our predictors,” Mr Gardner said.

GA will continue to also operate as its own entity within Australia and while WWS’ international brand will be acknowledged, its bull team will now be available exclusively through the Global Sires network.

For more information, please contact:
Global Sires Managing Director - Dr Ray Johnston
Mobile: 0419 012 841. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

WWS chief executive officer - John Schouten
on (as dialled from Australia): 00 111 559 280 1269. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

*Genomics = the study of genes on an animal’s chromosome, which influences how traits are expressed in individuals.