BABS PolledBlonde
|
Our vision is to make a superior breed even better by developing homozygotic polled animals on basis of the best and highest indexed breeding material available, and by use of modern breeding techniques.....
Establishing of BABS The breeding cooperation BABS was officially registered as a company in 2004 by the four well-known Danish Blonde d'Aquitaine breeders Erik Poulsen, Knud P. Jørgensen, Thorkild Hviid and Hans Oluf Juhl. They had all an interest in development of polled animals, and their attitude to breeding work is that it has to be enjoyable and successful, technically and economically, and they thought that the only way to reach these goals would bethrough cooperation rather than competition. The BABS part of the name of the cooperation is in fact created from the initials of the wives of the breeders, who actively participates in the breeding work along with their husbands and children, whether for meetings in the breeding society or at cattle shows.
GG Ninka is as mother of GG Ursus a major genetical foundation for the BABS project.
The first phase BABS can now look back at a successful first phase of their cooperation: 4 heterozygote polled heifers were selected from Anette & Thorkild Hviids herd as donors for egg transplantation after insemination with the heterozygote sire GG Ursus. The egg transplantations, which took place at Knud Jørgensens farm, gave 25 pregnancies - see Table 1. Table 1: Number of calves after egg transplantations, divided on genotypes for polled trait.
2 of the flushd heifers, namely VBQ Thiamin and VBQ Trikot, are mother of 24 of the 25 calves born after the egg transplantations. The genetic value of the polled trait for the offspring has been detected by DNA analyses carried out at Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Test of the bulls The heterozygote and homozygote bull calves are now inserted on the Ålestrup breeding performance testing station in order to have their breeding values documented. Results are published along with the progress of the tests and can be seen by clicking here. Breeding indexes for gain, ultrasonic measurement of LD, and for feed conversion rate is calculated and published by end of the tests. Except from giving the bulls themselves a documentation for their breeding value the tests will also give a considerable increase of the security of the breeding indexes of all animals involved in the project and family members to those animals, as the indexes are calculated by use of the Animal Model. |
