First, line breeding is breeding daughter to sire or son to dam. I would also use the term for granddaughter to grandsire and grandson to granddam. Inbreeding is sibling breeding. Outcrossing is breeding unrelated rabbits.
In my barn, outcrossing usually isn't total outcrossing. According to my computer, most or all of my Hollands share dozens or hundreds of ancestors. But if they don't show up in three generations, then I consider the breeding to be an outcross.
Hollands are a relatively new breed, compared to some of those that count their histories in centuries instead of decades. It's also a created breed, with several "ingredient" breeds. I believe that the gene pool for Hollands is still very scattered.
Tex Thomas once told me that he raised Hollands for a while. He commented that it was a breed where you never knew what you'd be getting in the nest box. I agree. The genes are all over the place and nearly anything is possible.
So, our breed is definitely still in the stage of trying to collect up some good and consistent genes, and eliminate some faulty ones. How do we do that? By breeding tightly, of course.
It would be great if every Holland breeder were working to strengthen and tighten our gene pools. But, as long as there are folks out there who just spin the wheel of fortune, it will be quite some time - if ever - before scattered and random genes are no longer a problem in Hollands. The breed is just too big and there are far too many breeders working with them to have some sort of unified plan.
To rise above the average in Hollands, tighten up your gene pool.
I breed for conformity AND consistency. So, to that end, I try to follow a program of tight breeding. When it comes time to breed a rabbit , this is the process I go through.
- Determine if the rabbit is worthy to breed
- Check out the sire/dam as a possible match, if not, go on
- Check out the litter for a possible match, if not, go on
- Check out the half-siblings for a possible match, if not, go on
- Check out the rest of the family tree for a possible match, if not, go on
- Make a match based of the results of previous, similar matches
- Make a match purely based on complementary conformation
As I mentioned yesterday, when you first get started, step 7 is all you have. Once you have a population to deal with, more and more of the options become available to you.
Now, you may ask, why wouldn't I just automatically go back to the sire or dam? The most obvious reason is that the sire and/or dam may have been sold during the six months it took for the rabbit to mature enough to be bred. I used to wonder why people did not repeat the breedings over and over again that created great bunnies. Now I know. The sire is sold, the dam aged out, the sire died, or perhaps one of the parents was never owned in the first place. Or maybe they did repeat it and got two peanuts and a false dwarf.
Second, the sire or dam may not be a specimen rabbit - that is, one that I am trying to replicate. When I bred GC Camelot's Merlin and Styles Stella together, he was the specimen that I wanted to mostly replicate. She was a nice, solid, good doe, but not showy enough to set fire to the show table. She definitely added a great hindquarter in the deal, but I'm not out to replicate her as a total package (although getting more of her as a by-product of trying produce show quality rabbits would not be a bad thing - it's just not the main thing).
So, in this case, I would consider breeding daughters back to Merlin, but sons would be considered for inbreeding and not line breeding, unless and until they proved themselves to be specimens themselves, worthy of breeding with their own daughters.
Next, the sire and daughter should have complementary faults and strengths. If they both have light bone, the chances are that their offspring will AND that they will have it from both sides of the family, making it harder to breed out down the line.
Over time, you may find that a pair appears to be complementary, but your experience with the sire (or dam) is that, even though he has huge bone, he doesn't throw it, so you come to be able to look beyond the physical evidence when you are making matches.
When deciding whether to make a match, it's nice if one is broken and the other is solid, but I wouldn't let the fact that both are broken keep me from making the match. Again, I wouldn't let the fact that they are both fuzzy carriers deter me either. I admit that breeding two rabbits that are both fuzzy carriers and broken did give me pause, but thankfully I've done it, or I wouldn't have Padme. Usually, though, that would be enough to cause me to look for other, better matches elsewhere.
Here's a bit of a sideline note: I do not believe in covering up bad genes. I believe in forcing them out into the sunshine where I can identify them and get rid of them. It's not possible to do that with every possible faulty gene, of course, but for really bad ones that cause automatic DQs, I want to know what I'm dealing with. I suppose that has given me the confidence to breed away as close as possible.
When I first started making matches in my barn, I tended to breed my best to my worst, using the good rabbits to compensate for the faults of the lesser rabbits. I found that I was always breeding towards the middle - bringing my best rabbits down and my worst rabbits up. So, I decided to get rid of the bottom and much of the middle to just breed the best to the best.
I believe that just keeping the very best and breeding it closely together will create a herd that not only conforms to standards, but also can produce more winners on a consistent basis with fewer pets. I think that I can be nationally competitive with just 16 breeding does if I stick to the program. Time will tell if I am right.
Laurie Stroupe
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