Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
- Registering your stud animals requires meticulous breeding, selection, record-keeping and management practices.
- Stud breeders have a great responsibility on their shoulders.
- Through the transfer of desirable and undesirable traits from farm animals to their offspring, stud breeders can contribute to either the successes or failures of commercial meat, dairy or fibre producers who purchase bulls, rams or semen from them.
- Modern selection and breeding technology combines all the know-how available in respect of heritability, relationships, measurement, and even genomic information relating to traits of economic relevance, in order to accurately predict the value of breeding animals.
- Most breeds allow new breeders or breeders who want to upgrade their herds, to make use of an upgrading programme using stud rams or bulls on selected females for a set number of generations, until the desired degree of breed purity is achieved.
Committed commercial beef cattle breeders are those who continually use the best bulls they can afford to improve their cow herds genetically. Using the same bulls on a regular basis means the cow herd they’ll end up with will be more uniform in terms of performance and appearance. It is during this process that many of them decide to embark on the stud animal route.
Registering your stud animals requires meticulous breeding, selection, record-keeping and management practices. All these aspects must meet the requirements of the breeders’ society in question. It is also in the best interest of potential stud breeders to set a breeding goal.
Not only was Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) the first recognised stud breeder in history, but he was also the first agronomist in England to use selection for improving cattle’s performance and carcass traits. Dr Japie van der Westhuizen of SA Stud Book says Bakewell realised that improving farm animals’ desirable traits can be achieved through selection, since related animals tend to breed offspring that differ from the offspring of unrelated animals.
Read more about cattle selection decisions based on objectives, resources and environment.
Measure to know
Blakewell was responsible for coining the principle ‘like begets like’ (offspring possess the same traits as that of similar parents). With the advancement of modern genetics, Prof Jay Lush (1896-1982) demonstrated that, although Bakewell was generally correct, differences between offspring do exist within a family context.
Bakewell did not have modern measuring and processing methods at his disposal, relying on good observation to perform the task at hand. In South Africa, our own pioneer, Prof Jan Bonsma (1909-1991), defined the relationship between the function and physical appearance of farm animals. Accurate measurement, he emphasised, is what the distinction between a superior and a cull animal must be based on. His motto ‘to measure is to know’ is testament to this.
Stud breeders have a great responsibility on their shoulders. Through the transfer of desirable and undesirable traits from farm animals to their offspring, stud breeders can contribute to either the successes or failures of commercial meat, dairy or fibre producers who purchase bulls, rams or semen from them.
Modern selection and breeding technology combines all the know-how available in respect of heritability, relationships, measurement, and even genomic information relating to traits of economic relevance, in order to accurately predict the value of breeding animals. South African stud breeders have access to this pioneering technology for several beef, dairy, and small-stock breeds.
A top stud breeder, says Dr Van der Westhuizen:
- Invests in the best bulls and rams he can afford.
- Understands that selection for functional animals will determine what an animal will look like.
- Applies selection in a bid to eliminate undesirable traits in his breeding stock. This includes visual selection and the use of modern techniques, such as genomic testing.
- Meticulously measures all economically important traits, and ensures that each animal has an equal opportunity of being selected as a breeding animal. He understands the principle of accurate measurement and comparison within contemporary groups, and that the physical measurement or physical appearance of animals, without comparing it to their contemporaries, is no guarantee of better offspring.
- Ensures that his breeding goals are clearly defined and that his herd selection is modelled on these goals. These breeding goals are in harmony with the production goals of his bull or ram buyers.
- Does not manipulate environmental conditions in order for his animals to perform unrealistically, but ensures a baseline production that challenges animals sufficiently for genetic differences to be measured.
- Uses breeding to maintain future genetic variation.
- Does not hesitate to cull subpar animals, even if they were expensive.
- Draws a clear distinction between good genetic and selection principles versus marketing.
Most breeds allow new breeders or breeders who want to upgrade their herds, to make use of an upgrading programme using stud rams or bulls on selected females for a set number of generations, until the desired degree of breed purity is achieved. These pure animals are known as SP (stud book proper) animals. Only pure male animals must be mated with each generation of female animals.
Read more about bull selection, the smart way.
Process after joining
Once the prospective stud breeder has joined the relevant breeders’ society, breed judges will inspect his or her female animals. Animals that meet the breed standards based on appearance will be known as base animals or ‘first acceptance’ females. A stud bull (SP animal) is mated to these females and the first-generation offspring then enjoy A-generation status. All females that pass the breed selection process qualify as breeding animals. All male animals must be slaughtered.
The offspring of A-generation females and SP males are known as the B-generation. As in the case of A-animals, all female animals qualify as breeding animals and male animals are usually slaughtered. Some breeds do allow the sale of B-bulls or -rams as breeding animals to commercial producers. The offspring of B-animals mated to male SP-animals are fully registered and can be sold as stud animals, provided they are also approved. – Andries Gouws, Stockfarm
For more information, contact Dr Van der Westhuizen on 082 331 9923 or email japie@studbook.co.za.
