Wednesday, November 22, 2006
When To Cull
First, let me say that I use the term "cull" in the broadest possible sense. Anything that I remove from my herd is culled. It doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the rabbit. After all, I removed BBF's Yankee Doodle Dandy from my herd and he has well over 40 legs!
I saw a post today asking to buy a Holland Lop at 8 to 12 weeks old. I wanted to write and say, NO! don't get one that young. You'll get a pig in a poke.
And why would I say that? It's because the only things you can tell for certain about a Holland that young are bad things. You can tell if it's a fuzzy, a non-showable color, is a false dwarf (on the 12-week end of the scale), and whether it has a bad hindquarter, on the good-tracking vs. cow-hocked scale. That's pretty much it.
So the pre-junior is hollow in the loin. What does that tell you? Nothing. Many pre-juniors are that way and many fill in nicely. So the pre-junior has a golf-ball sized head. So what. Heads haven't started popping yet. So the top line is awful. I have rabbits with beautiful top lines now that had horrible ones at that age. Forget flesh and fullness. The pre-junior with great flesh could turn into a 5-lb. giant and the one with so-so flesh could really fill out for you.
So if you must cull at 8 to 12 weeks (choose 12, please!), then just cull for those things that are obvious at that point - DQs, false dwarfness, poor structure to the hindquarter, fuzzy coat, or non-showable color.
At four to five months, you may catch some more false dwarfs. Some sprout just a little later than others. Check for DQ's again. And now you might be able to see which will be able to show at an earlier age. I've only had a very few rabbits to show at the age of 3 1/2 months and actually do well. And that, I'm sure, is the combination of a precocious junior and a judge that is willing to give a young junior a chance.
At this point, I will pet out the ones still showing absolutely no promise, sell the false dwarf does as brood potential, and I might sell the bottom of the show-worthy ones if I have a lot of one class in the group. For example, if I end up with eight solid junior bucks, I might sell the bottom four and keep the rest.
The next time I look at my rabbits is just after they turn senior. For does, I determine whether I think they have a good chance to grand within the next three months. If they do, they stay. If not, they go. That's where my personal all-grand-champion breeding project can really benefit those who want to buy a young senior doe from me. It's a quirk of my particular rabbitry.
Most breeders will look hard at that young senior doe and ask themselves whether she's worthy of breeding in the herd and whether she contributes some attributes that are needed by the breeding program. That's a great time to evaluate your older does, by the way. Make sure you are bringing in young blood on a consistent basis or one day you'll look up to find that besides making no forward progress, your does are now all too old to produce.
A good doe who is beginning her life as a producer may be more valuable to you than a great doe who is at the very end of hers, especially if you already have offspring from the older doe.
Does will be evaluated later on their ability to produce and their ability to work well with the particular bucks I have. How that goes varies from bunny to bunny. My plan is to then sell them at 2 1/2 years old. Let's see if I can really stick to that. The test will come up next year when Mercedes, Roxie, Markie, May, Purdy, and Hilary all turn 2 1/2!
For my young junior bucks, I have to make the decision about whether a buck has any chance of unseating one of my herd bucks. If he doesn't, it's time for him to go. If he has even a reasonable chance of one day getting one of those top spots, he stays.
At one year of age, it's time to look at the bucks again. Are they beginning to be competitive with the big boys? If so, they stay, if not, I have to ask myself whether another six months is really going to make the difference.
If the buck has granded, then I have probably started using him in my breeding program. Even if he's not taking the world by storm, his place in the barn may be saved by his ability to produce the next generation of show bunnies. It's great when then show buck is the great producer, too. But it only takes one of these abilities to stay in the barn.
A buck may stay in my barn for life. Or, he may produce better than himself and work himself out of a job. However, I generally want to see nice grandchildren before I let a buck go. I've let them go too soon before and wished I could back up or do some line breeding with grandpapa.
As you know, I recently let Franz go before I got nice grandchildren. I keep thinking about whether that was the ideal decision. I think the thing that makes that easier to handle is that I have his half sister Jo-Jo and ten offspring in the barn, including a grand champion son. I feel pretty confident that within that group, I'll be able to develop a really strong line.
But I like the situation I have with Boris much better. Boris has produced some outstanding offspring for me: Zeppo, Java, and Leo are still in my barn. Now Java and Leo are producing show bunnies of their own. And each of these boys has done well at a national level show (12th, 1st, and 3rd, respectively). Java's daughter April placed 16th out of 100 at this past Convention. So, I'm starting to think about selling Boris in the not-too-distant future (please don't email me about him yet). When I do, I'll sell him with confidence that I have nice sons who can produce to work with. I won't be second guessing my decision like I have with Franz.
Sure, I make mistakes when I decide who leaves and who stays. There are a couple of rabbits I wish I could have back. But my basic philosophy is that it is better to let a few good ones get away than it is to keep even one bad one and make it part of your breeding program.
Another principle I believe is that you should delay your decision if you are having a hard time making it. I know we all have the reality of cage space to deal with. But if you are deciding between two sisters and going back and forth, keep them both. If they are truly of equal value, then you'll be glad you did. If they aren't, the difference will be obvious later on.
You have to develop a culling plan that makes sense to you and works with the lines you work with. It has to fit your cage space and your personality. If you would suffer immensely by letting one get away, then be more conservative. If you have plenty of space, don't let it seduce you into keeping more rabbits than you should.
They say you can't argue with what works. All you need to do is find what works for you.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 9:59 AM
I saw a post today asking to buy a Holland Lop at 8 to 12 weeks old. I wanted to write and say, NO! don't get one that young. You'll get a pig in a poke.
And why would I say that? It's because the only things you can tell for certain about a Holland that young are bad things. You can tell if it's a fuzzy, a non-showable color, is a false dwarf (on the 12-week end of the scale), and whether it has a bad hindquarter, on the good-tracking vs. cow-hocked scale. That's pretty much it.
So the pre-junior is hollow in the loin. What does that tell you? Nothing. Many pre-juniors are that way and many fill in nicely. So the pre-junior has a golf-ball sized head. So what. Heads haven't started popping yet. So the top line is awful. I have rabbits with beautiful top lines now that had horrible ones at that age. Forget flesh and fullness. The pre-junior with great flesh could turn into a 5-lb. giant and the one with so-so flesh could really fill out for you.
So if you must cull at 8 to 12 weeks (choose 12, please!), then just cull for those things that are obvious at that point - DQs, false dwarfness, poor structure to the hindquarter, fuzzy coat, or non-showable color.
At four to five months, you may catch some more false dwarfs. Some sprout just a little later than others. Check for DQ's again. And now you might be able to see which will be able to show at an earlier age. I've only had a very few rabbits to show at the age of 3 1/2 months and actually do well. And that, I'm sure, is the combination of a precocious junior and a judge that is willing to give a young junior a chance.
At this point, I will pet out the ones still showing absolutely no promise, sell the false dwarf does as brood potential, and I might sell the bottom of the show-worthy ones if I have a lot of one class in the group. For example, if I end up with eight solid junior bucks, I might sell the bottom four and keep the rest.
The next time I look at my rabbits is just after they turn senior. For does, I determine whether I think they have a good chance to grand within the next three months. If they do, they stay. If not, they go. That's where my personal all-grand-champion breeding project can really benefit those who want to buy a young senior doe from me. It's a quirk of my particular rabbitry.
Most breeders will look hard at that young senior doe and ask themselves whether she's worthy of breeding in the herd and whether she contributes some attributes that are needed by the breeding program. That's a great time to evaluate your older does, by the way. Make sure you are bringing in young blood on a consistent basis or one day you'll look up to find that besides making no forward progress, your does are now all too old to produce.
A good doe who is beginning her life as a producer may be more valuable to you than a great doe who is at the very end of hers, especially if you already have offspring from the older doe.
Does will be evaluated later on their ability to produce and their ability to work well with the particular bucks I have. How that goes varies from bunny to bunny. My plan is to then sell them at 2 1/2 years old. Let's see if I can really stick to that. The test will come up next year when Mercedes, Roxie, Markie, May, Purdy, and Hilary all turn 2 1/2!
For my young junior bucks, I have to make the decision about whether a buck has any chance of unseating one of my herd bucks. If he doesn't, it's time for him to go. If he has even a reasonable chance of one day getting one of those top spots, he stays.
At one year of age, it's time to look at the bucks again. Are they beginning to be competitive with the big boys? If so, they stay, if not, I have to ask myself whether another six months is really going to make the difference.
If the buck has granded, then I have probably started using him in my breeding program. Even if he's not taking the world by storm, his place in the barn may be saved by his ability to produce the next generation of show bunnies. It's great when then show buck is the great producer, too. But it only takes one of these abilities to stay in the barn.
A buck may stay in my barn for life. Or, he may produce better than himself and work himself out of a job. However, I generally want to see nice grandchildren before I let a buck go. I've let them go too soon before and wished I could back up or do some line breeding with grandpapa.
As you know, I recently let Franz go before I got nice grandchildren. I keep thinking about whether that was the ideal decision. I think the thing that makes that easier to handle is that I have his half sister Jo-Jo and ten offspring in the barn, including a grand champion son. I feel pretty confident that within that group, I'll be able to develop a really strong line.
But I like the situation I have with Boris much better. Boris has produced some outstanding offspring for me: Zeppo, Java, and Leo are still in my barn. Now Java and Leo are producing show bunnies of their own. And each of these boys has done well at a national level show (12th, 1st, and 3rd, respectively). Java's daughter April placed 16th out of 100 at this past Convention. So, I'm starting to think about selling Boris in the not-too-distant future (please don't email me about him yet). When I do, I'll sell him with confidence that I have nice sons who can produce to work with. I won't be second guessing my decision like I have with Franz.
Sure, I make mistakes when I decide who leaves and who stays. There are a couple of rabbits I wish I could have back. But my basic philosophy is that it is better to let a few good ones get away than it is to keep even one bad one and make it part of your breeding program.
Another principle I believe is that you should delay your decision if you are having a hard time making it. I know we all have the reality of cage space to deal with. But if you are deciding between two sisters and going back and forth, keep them both. If they are truly of equal value, then you'll be glad you did. If they aren't, the difference will be obvious later on.
You have to develop a culling plan that makes sense to you and works with the lines you work with. It has to fit your cage space and your personality. If you would suffer immensely by letting one get away, then be more conservative. If you have plenty of space, don't let it seduce you into keeping more rabbits than you should.
They say you can't argue with what works. All you need to do is find what works for you.
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design
¶ 9:59 AM
