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Many new
Holland Lop breeders start out as we did: buy a few excellent
Holland Lops and show them - the instant success at the showtables makes
one believe that simply breeding those winners together will produce a
winning line of rabbits.
We
clearly remember the first few litters of Holland Lops our rabbitry
produced- of course, we were certain we had some winners out the the
bunch! In fact, we did win a few junior legs with some of these
youngsters, which only heightened our excitement......but as these nice
juniors grew into adulthood, our disappointment soared as we realized they
did not look like the compact and blocky Hollands that were winning on the
showtables.
Thus we
learned one of the most important aspects of raising Hollands; culling
What
Culling Means to Us
Now,
before you get into a huff about that nasty word 'cull', let me explain
what culling means to us; culling does not necessarily mean 'kill' which
seems to be the common definition, it means selecting and
removing rabbits from our herd.
What do we do
with our culled rabbits?
When we
'cull' rabbits from our herd, the rabbits that may have something to
contribute to another breeder's herd are sold to other breeders. The
Holland bucks we identify as 'normal, or non-dwarf' are sold as pets.
Since it
is a common practice to use 'normal' Holland Lop does in breeding
programs, we do sell these larger does to other breeders, and identify them as such.
The
New Holland Lop Breeder and Learning To Cull
Learning
to cull can be a difficult step to take for the new Holland Lop breeder -
the babies are so darn cute and personable that it is hard to imagine
getting rid of any of them! I think it is even tougher for youth
breeders to realize the importance of culling - I know that for the first
year or so, Jody could find some good points in every Holland he produced, even the 'normals', so he wanted to keep
them all. Even a severely-faulted Holland always seems to have such
an endearing personality that it is difficult to get rid of the animal.
But if culling is not done, or is done erratically, the
new breeder will undoubtedly end up with a barn full of pet-quality
rabbits!
Your Foundation
Stock is Important
The
beginning breeder needs good Holland Lop stock to begin with - it is
difficult and disappointing to breed rabbits that are already poor
representatives of their breed. Your foundation
rabbits must have enough good or excellent qualities from the start or you
won't get anywhere.
Have clear
goals for your herd
The new
breeder must develop clear goals for their Holland Lop herd. You
need to identify faults your herd has and what you want your Hollands to
look like. Every Holland line has some faults, don't let anyone tell
you otherwise - and a big part of your plan should be breeding to
eliminate those faults over time.
We looked
at all the animals in our herd and decided to work on one major fault
to begin with instead of
trying to eliminate several faults all at once-this way we learned which
rabbit carries each fault (some are not apparent until bred with other
rabbits) and which breeding combinations work -
The first fault we chose
to work on was the shoulder quality-since low or long shoulders
immediately affect that desired topline and the whole look of the Holland. This took us
a while, especially since our plan was not to add outside lines to
our existing stock. We had to do many test breedings to learn with
rabbits carried this fault and produced it. We have consistently culled every single rabbit
with poor shoulders, and those who produce poor shoulders, and are finally
obtaining uniformity in our offspring - most with excellent depth to their
shoulders. Soon we'll be ready to begin improvement on another fault
in our lines.
Now if
you choose to concentrate on improving one particular fault, this doesn't
mean you shouldn't cull regularly for other faults - it just means that
you are placing a higher importance on the one fault. Sometimes
you'll produce a rabbit with a good correction of the fault you are trying
to improve, but that rabbit may have some other fault. You must
decide if you want to keep that rabbit in your herd or cull it.
Oftentimes we'll decide to cull that rabbit, but it really depends upon
the fault. If it is a mild fault or a fault already common in our herd, especially
one that we plan to work on soon, we might keep that rabbit, but if it is a
new fault or something we feel will move us backwards, then we'll cull the
rabbit.
When
To Cull
When you
cull your litters should be dictated by the growth pattern of your
particular line of Holland Lops - some lines develop their type quickly,
others take much longer- almost all Holland Lops go through a rather
'ugly' stage at some point. For the most part, the schedule below is
what we have developed based upon how long our lines take to develop.
We don't breed a tremendous amount of rabbits so we are never
pushed to cull just to make cage space. Because of this, our culling
schedule may seem delayed to
some breeders, but this has been working for us based upon our experience:
2 to 3
Months-what we cull for at this age
Normals: usually - by this age, many of the normal, non-dwarfs
can be identified by their very long ears, longer legs, long torso and
long face (from the eyes to the muzzle). Does that exhibit these
'normal' characteristics are usually allowed to mature to evaluate their
brood potential (to see if they might make good breeding does when they
mature)
We
have one bloodline of Hollands that has longer ears to begin with, even
the true dwarfs - so litters from this line are usually not evaluated
until they mature, as it can be very difficult to choose the normal
rabbits out of very young stock, but if these rabbits do not have good
shape and good thickness of ears, they are culled early unless the does
have brood potential.
General DQs: At this young age we also look for general
disqualifications; and check for any 'missing body parts' such as
hunks of flesh from tails or ears, or missing toes- all possible from a
strained birth or overzealous cleaning by mom. Rabbits missing body
parts due to an injury or accident, but still exhibiting excellent type,
are kept for later evaluation; as they may end up being useful for
breeding.
Shoulders: The area we cull hard for at this age is the depth
of shoulders- low or long shoulders do not improve as the
rabbit matures so rabbits that have this fault are culled early-even
potential brood does with this fault are culled as we do not want this
fault to carry on in our herd or anyone else's herd. Width of
shoulders develops as the rabbit matures so width is not considered at
this point.
Head: We don't put much emphasis on the head at this stage.
If the youngster has a good basic shape to their head (round), chances
are, this rabbit will end up with a good Holland type head later on.
Ears and crown do not concern us that much at this stage either - if the
rabbit has small, round and thick ears at this stage, most likely they
will stay that way approaching adulthood. Folded or thin eared
rabbits are usually culled from our herd, but we rarely have this fault.
Crowns seem to take a long time to develop in several of our lines - this
is an area we've been trying to improve on, but right now, we simply wait
until the rabbit is older, giving the crown a chance to develop fully.
Rabbits with the longer faces and long long ears fall into the
'normal' category and are culled early if bucks, does are looked at later
for possible brood usage. We also always look at each rabbit's
teeth, but have never had a problem in this area as of yet.
Eye spots are another thing to check for - I was warned by other
breeders that our line of Hollands (Wardlow line) has had eye spots in the
past, but if this is true, apparently someone has already bred this out of them as
we've
never had a Holland with an eye spot yet, but we do still check.
Body Type: This to us, is the most important feature of the Holland
Lop - their body type. Although potential body type is apparent at
this age, we usually wait till the youngster is older
before we fully evaluate the body type (other than culling for the low or long
shoulders). We are first looking for the short, cobby body and good
topline at this age. If a buck has an
obviously long body type at this age, he will most likely be culled early,
but a longer body on a breeding doe is not necessarily bad.
6 to 7
months-what we cull for at this age
We go
through our Holland Lops again when they are about 6 or 7 months old.
By this time they should all show their true type and characteristics,
although some may take longer to fully mature.
Body Type: by this age, the rabbit's body type is clearly defined
although some continue to develop in the width area over the next 6 months
or so. We are looking for the short, cobby body type, full loin area,
solid flesh, and that nice level topline with the smooth drop down the
hindquarters to a full bottom. We have rabbits that possess all
these traits and are working to combine them successfully - we are coming
along great in the 'short body type' department, but sometimes find the rabbit
will also have a pinched hindend - we see this more in the bucks than in
the does and is a fault we will work on improving soon. Since we cull early for the shoulder faults, we
don't have to deal with this now.
Size: In 2006, the Holland Lop breed standard changed - it used
to state that the ideal weight for a Holland was 3 pounds, but now that
line has been removed from the standard, making the 4 pound weight the top
limit with no suggestion of an ideal weight. Despite this standard
change, we are
still striving for the smaller Holland, and are achieving it with some
consistency.
Bone: This is one area we cull severely for at this age.
If the rabbit does not show promise of heavy bone in the front legs by this age, the
rabbit is sold as a pet, even if it is a doe and even if it is exceptional
in other areas. This is one area that we started out on the top with
- almost all our foundation stock came with really nice bone, so we don't
want to move backwards in this area! Often, a medium-boned rabbit will be
allowed to mature, as bone does seem to develop with age.
Head: The heads of the rabbits in our lines take the longest to
develop, which can be a bit frustrating for us - at this point we are
looking for the basic good head type; round, short muzzle, nice width
between the eyes, and good head mount on the shoulders. If this
basic type is there, we will keep the rabbit and allow it further growth,
otherwise the rabbit is culled. We check for eye spots again, since
these can develop as the rabbit grows up, and check the
teeth again at this point-but like I already mentioned, none of these
genetic problems have cropped up in our herd.
Ears: Our Hollands already have some really nice ears - short, thick and
round. We have one line that has longer ears but they still
are shaped well, and are thick. Ear carriage is directly related to
the crown which is discussed next.....
Crown: following closely behind the pinched hindquarters, the
correct crown development is probably one of the bigger faults in our
lines - some of our rabbits have a short crown going from ear-to-ear, which causes the
'airplane' effect of the ears. After allowing further development,
the crown usually grows enough to allow the ears to be held in a downward
position. Rabbits with absolutely no crowns and ears that are held
upright are culled -we'll tolerate a poor crown for the time being, but no
crowns/bad ear carriage will move us backwards.
Despite a poor crown, if the rabbit
has an excellent type, we keep him or her. This is a fault that is
worth 8 points on the show table.....this is just not a big concern for us
at the moment, but is something we'll be working on improving in the
future.
Personality
You'll
notice I never mentioned culling for temperament. We've
never had to consider temperament in our lines - although we have the full
range of personalities, we've never had a mean Holland as of yet. Oh
we might get a timid doe who doesn't like attention now and then, but we've never even had a
territorial doe yet in our Holland line! Our bucks are pretty typical
Holland bucks - each wants to just about jump into your arms when you
open the cage, and this has been consistent in our lines. In your
own breeding program, temperament is something you must consider and cull
for - mean or viscous rabbits should never be tolerated.
Color
You may
notice that I never mention color above either....when we were new Holland
Lop breeders we were concerned about each rabbit's color, pattern or
markings, but after gaining quite of bit of showing experience, we
realized that this area is not of high importance in the Holland Lop.
Of
course, each Holland Lop needs to conform to the standard for whatever
color he or she is, but we've never had issues in this area. Most of
ours are tortoise, both solids and brokens, and so far we've haven't had
problems with poor color or white under the tails and despite our brokens
exhibiting different patterns (heavy, light), all these pattern variations
have been accepted,
or rather, not even mentioned on the show table. Of course, your
brokens need to to conform to the standard and have the minimum markings.
We have only seen a
few instances of a judge basing final class placement on the actual color
of the rabbit; in each case, several solid torts were competing for the
top slots and with all being equally similar-the judge had to resort to
judging the actual tort color and shading quality of each animal.
If you
are breeding colored Hollands, other than the usual torts or blacks, you
may have more of a concern in this area - thoroughly read your standard to
make sure each colored Holland conforms.
Should You
Cull Severely?
Some
experienced Holland breeders suggest severe culling - that is
consistently culling for all faults without fail. With this
type of culling plan, you would not be keeping rabbits that have any
obvious faults. Certainly, if you maintain such a strict culling
program, you will end up with better Hollands, faster than our more
relaxed approach.
Oh we
do go through periods of severe culling...especially if a fault shows up
that we do not want-we'll even get rid of an entire line of Hollands if a
new or severe fault shows up somewhere.
"Riding Out"
your improvement process
Improving your line is going to take you time, even years - instant
success is not easily obtainable with this breed. You must have
faith in your improvement and culling plan and also be prepared to take
'hits' on the showtables without allowing yourself to become disappointed
- this can be particularly difficult for youth breeders. There have been
plenty of times I've had to remind Jody of his goals and how many
improvements he's had already.
If you
are working on colored Hollands, you probably have even more of a
challenge - I think there are a lot of colored Hollands out there with
poor type, being bred anyways, for their color.
Keep
focused on your goals, cull consistently, and have confidence in the
rabbits you have already improved. Eventually you will
have the satisfaction of consistently producing Holland Lops that you are
happy with!
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