Add Bulls to Your Plan

Alta BLUE LINK supports the manual addition of bulls to your genetic plan. This allows you to hand-select bulls that are not currently included in the Alta marketing list, or to make use of remaining inventory from another semen supplier.

NOTE: While you may add third-party bulls to your plan, the system will not allow you to activate a genetic plan comprised entirely of third-party bulls.

See the sections below for details on adding, setting inventory limits, and pricing for Additional Bulls: 

  • Set Pricing: To include price details for the doses of Additional Bulls in your plan, you can add it during Step 4: Create Your Strategy. See Set Third-Party Bull Prices for detailed instructions.
  • Manually Add or Edit Bulls: You can manually add bulls if you did not find them in Alta BLUE LINK, as well as edit existing bulls that you have manually added or view existing bulls that others have manually added.

    • Expand the sections below to learn more:

If you have management permissions, you can now add bulls that the genetic planning tool can't recognize or find:

  1. In PULSE, click on your user name in the top-right corner, then select Alta Management from the drop-down list to open the Alta BLUE LINK page.
  2. Open the Bull List tab, then click Add Bull in the upper right corner.
  3. Enter the bull's Sire Information, then select Continue. The following fields are required:
    • IntRegNum: Animal's identification number. An IntRegNum must consist of 18 characters in this order: a 2-digit breed code, a 3-digit country code, a 1-digit gender code, followed by an identification number. For example, HO840M000123456789 represents a Holstein (HO) from the United States (840) that is male (M) with an identification number of 000123456789.
    • NAAB Code(s): Animal's identification code assigned by the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB). Alta BLUE LINK can support up to 6 NAAB codes for a single animal.
    • Sire: Animal's sire.
    • Breed: Animal's breed. If you don't select a dam, you must select a breed from the drop-down list.
  4. Enter the bull's Genetic Values information, then select Continue. The genetic values are automatically populated based on the animal's parent averages, but you can edit the traits to be more accurate. Use the USA scale to configure trait values in this step.
    • Milk (lbs)
    • Protein (lbs)
    • Fat (lbs)
    • NM$: Net Merit Index
    • CM$: Cheese Merit Index
    • FM$: Fluid Merit Index
    • Productive Life
    • Daughter Pregnancy Rate
    • Somatic Cell Score
    • Sire Calving Ease
    • Daughter Calving Ease
    • Sire Still Birth
    • Daughter Still Birth
    • Cow Conception Rate
    • Heifer Conception Rate
    • Livability
    • DWP$: Dairy Wellness Profit
  5. Enter the bull's Genes & Haplotype information about its recessive genes and haplotypes, then select Continue. Although this information isn't required, adding any known information helps the genetic planning tool eliminate poor matches that could promote recessive genes and haplotypes.
  6. Review the bull's summary, then click Confirm at the bottom right side of the page to add the bull to your Bulls List.

Follow the steps below to edit bulls that you have manually added to the Bull List:

  1. In PULSE, click on your user name in the top-right corner, then select Alta Management from the drop-down list to open the Alta BLUE LINK page.
  2. Open the Bull List tab to view your added bulls. Note that the list only shows bulls added in the last 7 days by default. To view more bulls, clear or update the Filters.
  3. To edit a bull, click its IntRegNum to open the animal's information in a side panel.
  4. Select Edit Bull in the bottom right corner of the side panel.
  5. Make your edits, review the bull's summary, then click Confirm at the bottom right side of the page to save your changes.

To delete a bull that you have added, contact your Alta admin.

Follow the steps below to view bull details about a bull that someone else has manually added to the Bull List:

  1. In PULSE, click on your user name in the top-right corner, then select Alta Management from the drop-down list to open the Alta BLUE LINK page.
  2. Open the Bull List tab to view your added bulls. Note that the list only shows bulls added in the last 7 days by default. To view more bulls, clear or update the Filters.
  3. To view a bull's details, click its IntRegNum to open the animal's information in a side panel and click See More Info at the bottom right corner of the side panel.
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