Super sire Picston SHOTTLE has been retired after a stellar 15-year career.
SHOTTLE had a major influence over the Holstein breed as an icon for dairy farmers around the globe. He leaves behind a significant legacy after producing 1,174,948 units of semen.
SHOTTLE was born at Spot Acre Grange near Stafford, England, the home of the Pickford family and Picston Holsteins. He was the son of dam Condon Aero Sharon EX-91 and sire Carole Prelude Mtoto.
For seven straight sire summary releases — January 2008 to January 2010 — SHOTTLE sat at the peak of the Top 100 TPI® list. After those seven straight runs, he remained a top 15 sire for the next five sire summaries.
Even at age 15, SHOTTLE remains relevant, boasting a TPI above +1900. He continues to be a tremendous improver of health traits, and is over 1.2 for type. Today, he still impacts the Holstein USA Top 100 TPI list, with two sons and 28 maternal grandsons listed.
Currently, in his official Interbull proof, he has 100,000 daughters in 20,000 herds in 22 countries. Conservatively, those 100,000 SHOTTLE daughters have produced more than five billion pounds (over two billion litres) of milk to help nourish the world.
Not only was SHOTTLE popular in the dairy and AI industries, but he received enormous amounts of press coverage from all over the world early on in his career. In addition to dairy trade publications, stories about SHOTTLE appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Times of London and Daily Mail. Perhaps the most notable was his feature in Playboy magazine.
Throughout his retirement, SHOTTLE can expect superstar treatment including the enjoyment of a pen twice the size of his herd mates where he can bask under heat lamps and get regular exercise from the dedicated team of stockmen at the Ruthin stud in the United Kingdom.