1. GC The Nature Trail's Boris
2. GC The Nature Trail's Hilary
3. GC The Nature Trail's Purdy
4. GC The Nature Trail's May
5. The Nature Trail's Jewel
6. GC The Nature Trail's Markie
7. GC The Nature Trail's Roxie
8. The Nature Trail's Piccolo*
9. GC The Nature Trail's Franz*
10. The Nature Trail's Spice*
11. The Nature Trail's Oracle*
12. The Nature Trail's Estella*
13. GC The Nature Trail's Jo-Jo
14. The Nature Trail's Antony*
15. The Nature Trail's Brent*
16. The Nature Trail's Stubby*
17. The Nature Trail's Chox*
18. GC The Nature Trail's Lexus
19. The Nature Trail's Gina*
20. The Nature Trail's Tina*
21. The Nature Trail's Nino*
22. The Nature Trail's Jupiter*
23. The Nature Trail's Mars*
24. GC The Nature Trail's Wizard
25. The Nature Trail's Baron*
26. The Nature Trail's Duckie*
27. The Nature Trail's Pandora*
28. The Nature Trail's Electra*
29. GC The Nature Trail's Gypsy
30. The Nature Trail's Latifa*
31. GC The Nature Trail's Java
32. GC The Nature Trail's Leo
33. The Nature Trail's Kathryn*
34. The Nature Trail's Sinbad*
35. The Nature Trail's Kimmie*
36. The Nature Trail's Navaro*
37. The Nature Trail's Charade*
38. The Nature Trail's Piazza*
39. The Nature Trail's Cleome*
40. GC The Nature Trail's Lord
41. GC The Nature Trail's Panache
42. GC The Nature Trail's Padme
43. GC The Nature Trail's Quincy
44. GC The Nature Trail's Quinn
45. The Nature Trail's Myrddin

*No longer in my herd.

I noticed several more rabbits that I liked, but not quite enough to put in my favorites list. Anyway, 45 out of 345 is 13.0%. You may recall that I consider 10% good Hollands a reasonable goal.

So far this year, these are the rabbits I've produced that are my favorites.

1. The Nature Trail's MLK
2. GC The Nature Trail's Imagination
3. The Nature Trail's Fiddlesticks
4. The Nature Trail's Prince William
5. GC The Nature Trail's Francesca
6. The Nature Trail's Sweet Pea*
7. The Nature Trail's Zeppo
8. GC The Nature Trail's Glynis*
9. The Nature Trail's McCartney
10. The Nature Trail's Miss Muffet*
11. The Nature Trail's Millicent
12. The Nature Trail's Mistoffelees
13. GC The Nature Trail's Quinten
14. The Nature Trail's Demetrius
15. The Nature Trail's Bustopher*
16. The Nature Trail's Prescott*
17. The Nature Trail's April
18. The Nature Trail's Aziza
19. The Nature Trail's Isolde
20. The Nature Trail's Leila
21. The Nature Trail's Danica
22. The Nature Trail's Mushka
23. The Nature Trail's Meeko
24. The Nature Trail's Oktober

*No longer in my herd.

Yesterday, I was feeling like I was headed in the wrong direction. My production rates were awful. But as a percentage of good production to overall production, it's looking pretty good. At least 21.2% of my rabbits fell into my "favorites" list and that doesn't include the kits I have now that are too young to evaluate. I don't have a ton of them, but two or three more could end up in the favorites list.

It will be next year before I can compare grand champion rates. I'm thinking that 13 of these are either grand champions or destined to be grand champions, not including the ones I've sold who may grand or have granded elsewhere.

I do not know whether I can keep the same "favorites" rate if I increase my breeding program a little in 2007. Sometimes more is just more and not better. But I will only increase my program as I have does that are really worthy to be in it.

I have to acknowledge that a lot of the success I've had on the show table this year is the result of my breeding program last year. So maybe I've set my goals a bit high for 2007, since my lower production this year will have an effect. However, I will continue to benefit from the 2005 breeding year in one important way - my senior bucks will finally be hitting full maturity in this coming year. Where I've had most of my success with juniors, senior does, and the occasional senior buck, I've often had no solid senior bucks on the table at all.

This coming year should see the following on the table, at least some of the time:

1. GC The Nature Trail's Boris, if he can get his coat into shape
2. GC The Nature Trail's Java
3. GC The Nature Trail's Leo
4. GC The Nature Trail's Lord
5. The Nature Trail's Myrddin
6. GC The Nature Trail's Quincy
7. GC The Nature Trail's Wizard

And, while MLK was technically born at the beginning of this year, he'll be hitting his stride before 2007 is over, as well as Imagination and Prince William.

So, I have some work to do getting my production up a bit. I need babies to play with! But I do seem to be on the right track in terms of producing good Hollands as a percentage of my overall production. I do seem to be making progress in one of my goal areas: to produce more good Hollands and fewer pets.

It's easy to get discouraged with rabbits. Yes, their life cycle is shorter than most any other animal we could raise. But when it takes a year and a half to get a fully matured senior buck or it takes two or three years to have enough data to see a trend, we can get impatient or discouraged along the way. I know I do. We might feel like we're going nowhere when, in fact, we are making progress.

I find that looking at the real numbers rather than going by just my gut has always been worth the time and effort. I encourage you to keep good records and take time on a regular basis to review them.

Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design

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