1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 January Voice RS | Page 18

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would include: (1) obtaining replacement females of
sufficient quality and (2) the maintenance of an aae-
quate record-keeping system to enable the bree er o
make the desired matings.
The initial limitation does not present a problem
with a class of livestock such as swine. Also, u a
criss-cross or rotational system is used, desirable re­
placements may be retained from the crossbreds
produced.
Crossbreeding has been used quite successfully lor
many years by the producer of market animals. It is
used mainly in an effort to maintain a level of heter­
osis which cannot be stabilized within a line or breed.
Crossbreeding is widely used throughout the country
for the production of market hogs. In some areas,
such as the gulf coast and the southeastern part of
the United States, a certain amount of crossbreeding
has been done with beef cattle. The major problem
that remains to be answ7ered with the crossbred fe­
male as a brood cow is related to efficiency. The
crossbred female is usually larger at maturity and
the question is raised, "does she produce an offspring
that is sufficiently large at weaning to compensate
for the extra feed necessary for maintenance?” Possi­
bly an answer to this question will be obtained in the
near future.
Crossbreeding has also been used in recent years
to establish a genetic base for the establishment of
several new breeds. The initial cross is followed by
inbreeding and selection to develop the characteristic
desired in a new breed. Examples of this system
would include: the development of the Santa Gertrudis
breed of cattle from crosses between the Brahman
and Shorthorn breeds of cattle at the King Ranch in
Texas; the Brangus, developed from the Brahman and
Angus; the Braford, from the Brahman and Hereford;
and several breeds of swine such as the Minnesota
No. 1, Hamprace, Palouse, in addition to several
other breeds. Fundamentally, such a procedure pos­
sesses a degree of merit, since any one particular
breed does not have all of the desired or favorable
characteristics.
Many breeders object to the use of crossbreeding for
various reasons. One disadvantage of crossbreeding
that has been reputed, is that the offspring lack uni­
formity of coat color. This argument no longer appears
to be valid since multicolored hogs within the same
grade and of equal quality sell at the same price as
hogs with a conventional color pattern. Some disad­
vantage in price may be encountered with cattle
where certain breeds are used as foundation stock.
In other cases where conventional breeds are used as
foundation stock, the offspring commands a premium
when marketed. Crossbred animals may be more near­
ly uniform for some traits of economic importance,
such as weaning weight, litter size and rate of gain!
than purebred or inbred animals. A lack of uniformity
in traits which are unimportant from an economical
standpoint should not be considered a fundamental
disadvantage of a crossbreeding system.
Crossbreeding is a system of mating that should be
used primarily by the commercial livestock producer
The class of livestock may be very important in se­
lecting a mating system. Crossbreeding has been shown
to be very useful in swine, but not of significant value
in dairy cattle breeding. The effects of crossbreeding
are the opposite of inbreeding in that desirable char­
acteristics are joined, however, the breeding worth of
the individual is usually lessened to a degree v
the amount of heterozygosity increases and the Cr e
bred does not breed as uniformly as the inbred
°Ss~
Many livestock producers become very enthusW
about the results of crossbreeding and forget th
some traits in farm animals do not exhibit hetero*
The breeder should make an effort to familiarize hi'
self with the traits in his class of livestock that *
hibit heterosis. In conclusion, it should be pointed out
that inferior animals, when used in a crossbreeding
program, will not produce superior offspring. Thereg
fore, only animals of superior quality should be used
in a crossbreeding program.
"Grading Up” is a system of mating where inferior
or grade females a re mated with superior purebred
sires. When such a system is used, the average merit
of the offspring should be approximately one-half 0f
the distance on the merit scale between the male and
the average merit of the female population. When us­
ing such a mating system, progress can be rather
rapid if the quality of the sire used is superior to that
of his predecessor. Within two or three generations
the female population may exceed the merit of the
initial sire, if in each generation a sire superior to the
sire used to produce the present generation is used.
If sires of the same level of merit are used each
generation, the amount of progress will be limited.
The maximum amount of progress that can be ex­
pected, excluding the possibility of a nick or epistasis,
would be one-half of the difference between the aver­
age merit of the female and the male used. Grading
up can be used to a great advantage in a commer­
cial operation.
EDITOR’S NOTE - We would like to point out that even though a lot of the
detail of this article deals with specifics of other animals such as swine and
cattle, the same basic principles of proven successful breeding apply to
horses. We would like to suggest that you study your own breeding stock
and, using the various systems of mating discussed in this article, determine
for yourself what cross will produce the type of colts you want. Remember
. . . "Breed the best you've got to the best you can find."
HOW WE HANDLE OUR STALLIONS
by
Sidney Huntley
Madera, California
Mr. Sidney Huntley is manager of the Madera Ranch on which some of the
greatest Quarter Horses have been produced and developed. The Huntleys
have a phenomenal record in producing colts that have won some of the
top honors in the Quarter Horse field. He is a recognized expert on breeding
and is a Trustee of the Agriservices Foundation. His article appeared in the
Stud Managers Handbook," Vol. 3, and it is with permission that we re­
print herewith his article on "How We Handle Our Stallions.'
Like all of our other horses, we want the stallions
to be in good flesh. Not fat, but healthy and strong.
We feed them lots of whole oats, vitamins, minerals,
sweet feed, and oat and alfalfa hay, or strong oat
hay.
‘y’
We keep the stallions very clean at all times. They
are brushed, and kept shining. In the winter, we
ianket them. They are wormed twice a year, once
beiore and once after the breeding season. Their
teeth are checked, and their hooves are trimmed
regularly.
4-v!nC* ^at about nine-tenths of the people who
visit the ranch want to see the stallions regardless
what °toer horses we have. The stallions are the
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Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse