Saturday, August 26, 2006
Statistics
Someone once commented that they were surprised that I keep so many statistics on my rabbitry. To me, it's just the natural way to do things. After all, I spent years conducting research for a living. But even if it's not second nature to you, it still might be a good idea.
Think about all of the does in your barn that are producing. Then, without looking at the data, decide which does are doing your barn the most good. Now go back and see how many bunnies worth pedigreeing each has produced. Did you find any surprises?
When I took The Nature Trail's Spice out of the cage to photograph her, I wasn't so impressed with her. It made me wonder why I had even kept her in the first place! Of course, she was much cuter before having several litters. Her body was much more filled out. She's been in breeding cages with babies most of her adult life and not on the show table, so it's no wonder she refused to pose for me.
But let's look at the data for a minute. Spice is just under 1 1/2 years old. She has been in production for almost a year. She has produced 12 surviving offspring old enough to pedigree and has a litter in the box now. Of the 12 older offspring, she produced five that I showed with success: Picante, Suzy Q, Quinn, Quincy, and Navaro. She has two more show quality bucks that will be shown soon. That means she's producing over 50% keepers!
On the other hand, I have GC The Nature Trail's Brook. She is nearly two years old. She has produced one surviving kit and has two kits in the nest box. I love this doe. She has an awesome body and granded quite easily, with 6 BOSs and 1 BOGs.
Now since Brook only recently started producing, it may be that in the next 8 months before I sell her, she'll produce something that is really worthwhile. But it is more likely that Spice was the more valuable doe to my breeding program. Spice has worked her way out of a job; Brook still needs to produce a replacement.
The thing is, I was very surprised at the findings. I keep a list of does, in order of their value to my breeding program. I've talked about that before, how I move them up if they conform highly to the standards, produce live young, are good mothers, are young themselves, and produce good offspring. I move them down if they have stronger faults, have trouble kindling, don't care for their young well, are older, or have failed to produce worthy offspring.
I find that I had Spice well undervalued. It's only the statistics that help me see the error of my reasoning.
Just decide whether you want to run your rabbitry and breeding program on your gut reactions, impressions, and judgment, or whether you want to run it based on information. There are benefits to both. But if you want to run it on information, you'll need to collect the facts, organize the information, and evaluate it. You'll know what to do from there.
Laurie Stroupe T
he Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 7:58 AM
Think about all of the does in your barn that are producing. Then, without looking at the data, decide which does are doing your barn the most good. Now go back and see how many bunnies worth pedigreeing each has produced. Did you find any surprises?
When I took The Nature Trail's Spice out of the cage to photograph her, I wasn't so impressed with her. It made me wonder why I had even kept her in the first place! Of course, she was much cuter before having several litters. Her body was much more filled out. She's been in breeding cages with babies most of her adult life and not on the show table, so it's no wonder she refused to pose for me.
But let's look at the data for a minute. Spice is just under 1 1/2 years old. She has been in production for almost a year. She has produced 12 surviving offspring old enough to pedigree and has a litter in the box now. Of the 12 older offspring, she produced five that I showed with success: Picante, Suzy Q, Quinn, Quincy, and Navaro. She has two more show quality bucks that will be shown soon. That means she's producing over 50% keepers!
On the other hand, I have GC The Nature Trail's Brook. She is nearly two years old. She has produced one surviving kit and has two kits in the nest box. I love this doe. She has an awesome body and granded quite easily, with 6 BOSs and 1 BOGs.
Now since Brook only recently started producing, it may be that in the next 8 months before I sell her, she'll produce something that is really worthwhile. But it is more likely that Spice was the more valuable doe to my breeding program. Spice has worked her way out of a job; Brook still needs to produce a replacement.
The thing is, I was very surprised at the findings. I keep a list of does, in order of their value to my breeding program. I've talked about that before, how I move them up if they conform highly to the standards, produce live young, are good mothers, are young themselves, and produce good offspring. I move them down if they have stronger faults, have trouble kindling, don't care for their young well, are older, or have failed to produce worthy offspring.
I find that I had Spice well undervalued. It's only the statistics that help me see the error of my reasoning.
Just decide whether you want to run your rabbitry and breeding program on your gut reactions, impressions, and judgment, or whether you want to run it based on information. There are benefits to both. But if you want to run it on information, you'll need to collect the facts, organize the information, and evaluate it. You'll know what to do from there.
Laurie Stroupe T
he Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 7:58 AM
