FAO ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND HEALTH PAPER 34
breeding plans for ruminant livestock in the tropics |
by
i.l. mason and v. buvanendran
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
M-22
ISBN 92-5-101247-4
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The authors would like to thank Dr. Helen Newton Turner for reading the manuscript and making many valuable suggestions. They are particularly grateful for the additions and amendments she made to the sections concerning sheep and goats.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome © FAO 1982
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1.1 Achievements in temperate countries
1.1.1 Improvement by breed replacement (grading up)
1.1.2 Improvement within breeds
1.2 Transfer of technology to tropical environments
1.2.1 Constraints on production in the tropics
1.3 Environment and breeding policy
2.1.1 Recording for national level decisions
2.1.3 Recording in the tropics
2.2.1 Milk recording practices
2.2.2 Problems of milk recording in the tropics
2.2.3 Alternatives to official recording in the tropics
2.2.5 Alternatives to monthly recording
2.2.6 The problem of milk let-down in zebu herds
2.2.8 Records on the farm and production summaries
2.3.2 Recording in developed countries
2.3.4 Recording procedures in the tropics for suckler calf systems
2.4 Recording in sheep and goats
3.1 Correction for environmental effects
3.1.2 Use of correction factors
3.2 Environmental factors influencing production
3.3 Estimation of breeding values
Chapter 4 SELECTION PROGRAMMES
4.1 The place of selection programmes in genetic improvement
4.1.2 Importance of selection in indigenous breeds in the tropics
4.1.3 Selection procedures in developed countries
4.2 Selection programmes in dairy cattle
4.2.1 The importance of selection programmes in tropical breeds
4.2.2 Selection programmes in developed countries
4.2.3 Selection in institutional herds in the tropics
4.2.4 Selection in new breed formation
4.2.5 Selection programmes in the absence of either AI or milk recording or both
4.3 Selection programmes in beef cattle
4.3.2 Breed comparisons related to size
4.3.3 Selection schemes in developed countries
4.3.4 Important traits for tropical beef cattle
4.3.5 Selection programmes in the tropics
4.3.6 Dual testing for milk and beef
4.4 Selection programmes in sheep and goats
4.4.2 Sheep improvement programmes in developed countries
4.4.3 Selection of sheep and goats in the tropics
4.4.4 Selection for reproductive rate in sheep and goats
4.4.5 A scheme for improvement of prolificacy and growth rate
4.4.7 Selection for milk and wool
5.2 Sex and age of animals to be imported
6.1 Maintaining a crossbred population
6.1.2 Systematic crossbreeding
6.3 Application to different classes of animals
Table 1.1 Ecology and cattle breeding policy for commercial and subsistence farmers in Kenya
Table 4.1 Calculation of productivity indices
Table 6.2 Hybrid vigour in dairy cattle crosses in Sri Lanka as shown by decline from F1 to F2
Figure 1.1 Average milk production of recorded cows in Sweden (1900–1980)
Figure 1.2 Average milk production of recorded cows in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway
Figure 2.1 Dairy record sheets
Figure 2.2 Birth records sheet
Figure 2.3 Treatment records sheet
Figure 4.1 Breeding plan at the National Sahiwal Stud, Naivasha, Kenya
Figure 4.2 Open nucleus breeding scheme
Figure 6.1 Crisscrossing (reciprocal backcrossing) between temperate and tropical breeds
Figure 6.2 Rotational crossing between temperate and tropical breeds
Figure 6.3 Strategic options involving crossbreeding and selection
Figure 6.6 Body weight of Boran, Red Poll and their reciprocal crosses in Uganda