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Defining and updating your breeding goal is a very important part of the potential success of your breeding program. It is important to keep in mind that decisions you make today will only start to show after the offspring is born and start to perform. And, depending on the species, that may be years from now. Real effect of your decisions will only show after a number of generations. The breeding goal is aimed at the future, and often defined for a period of 10 to 15 years.
Thus:
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Breeding is about predicting the future. All expected developments in the market and the production circumstances play a role in what the future will look like. All need to be anticipated when defining the breeding goal. |
Given the breeding goal, you will need to decide on the number of animals that you will need to select for breeding, and the number of offspring that these selected parents will produce. The selection strategy of your choice allows you to predict the performance of the offspring. Results may suggest some changes in the strategy. Therefore it is important to predict these results beforehand, so that adjustments can be made if necessary. That is what we will focus on in this chapter: how to predict the performance in the offspring, how can that prediction be improved, and what are consequences of selection decisions.