Check List

I've decided I'm going to go through my herd and write down a pretty detailed list of the faults and strengths of each animal I own.

I think that way, I'll what to keep, what to sell, what to work on in my herd, etc. If I have a doe with an undercut butt who produces only undercut babies when bred to bucks with nice butts- then obviously she needs to go b/c it's not fixable by my bucks-

I have a general idea of who is a nice showy animal and who produces well. I just think having it down on paper will REALLY help. Plus, I can cross reference with the offspring.

Sometimes just seeing it in black and white will drive home the point more than feeling it and trying to make excuses for an animal.

My plan is to set up a scale for evaluation- "Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent". I don't want to get in to "7.5 out of 10" or anything like that. I also feel like a number scale is going to vary a lot more than something like simply words.

I am then going to enumerate on faults or strengths- such as "HQ- Good. Needs more fullness in lower HQ, not bad." "Shoulders- Fair. Too much length, need slightly more width." "Ears- Excellent. Good length, thickeness, placement."

I suppose I should really evaluate the animals based on offspring produced too- "3 Show babies, 2 broods. Common faults: None. Best results when bred to _______"

This could get lengthy! Valuable information though :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry