Production STATS

One for you to check out would be Mike Nedry AGN Whitetails. If he would post he could give you what you are looking for with possibly Avalanche, and the Jack the Ripper line.

We Breed to too many different sires as they fit into pedigrees so it would be hard to put any figures on any one buck. I can tell you that I visit many farms in the area and was suprised at some of the yearlings I saw. Of all the farms that I visited on the local level I would have to say that the Dreamcatcher yearlings that were coming up had to be some of the most impressive I saw. There are a lot of amish in my area and many of them bred something or another to Dreamcatcher about 2 years ago. On most of those farms the Dreamcatcher yearlings were the best on the farm even with big name yearlings coming up. Not to say that wont change as they mature to 2 years old this year. I am not promoting this buck at all but just relaying what I saw. I bred to Dreamcatcher this past year for the first time because of what I saw.



One farm I visit quite often has a Silverhawk doe out of a duke doe. This doe has produced the largest bucks on that farm for the last 4 years. This farm has many good does but this one doe just does it every year. Her 2 year old sons have been 190 - to 227 for the past 4 years no matter what you put her to. She is defineately a super doe in my eyes as she DOES produce.



I could fill ten pages of things on this line but I will leave it at this for now because these were the first thoughts that came to mind.

It Just so happens I have been working on a project that will allow us to collect, analysis and predict this very information....





The Whitetail Registry:



It is often said that “you can't manage what you don't measure”. Looking at the deer industry and the progress made during the last 10 years, one cannot help but fantasize as to where the end product will ultimately end up. Is a 500” or even a 600” whitetailed deer possible? Is a clean 300” typical framed buck wishful thinking? What does it take to produce a constant improvement within the industry and the animals we raise? While no one breeder can honestly say or accuratly predict genetic improvement from one generation to the next, many other livestock breeders are and have realized the power of Genetic Evaluation Programs that lead to genetic improvements nine times faster within their own breeding programs.



Please consider the following:







Genetic improvement is built on the following key areas:

1. Pedigree – breed improvement is built from pedigree information - like begets like
   
2. Measurement – traits of economic importance should be included and measured if possible
   
3. Analysis – data is analyzed and turned into information
   
4. Application – breeders apply this information to make knowledgeable breeding decisions
   
5. Education – education must occur regarding data collection and how to use the resulting information.
   

Like all livestock breeders, deer breeders are constantly striving to improve their animals. Genetic improvement in the animal is seen as a better "product", and in the deer industry, different people will see a better "product" as being different things. For some, high scoring non-typical antler characteristics are sought, while others may be striving for higher scoring clean typical antler characteristics. Moreover, most deer breeders can and will agree on a continued emphasis towards healthy animals with higher fertility, faster growth rates and bigger body weights.



Whatever your goals for genetic improvement are, genetic factors are likely going to play an important part in determining those improvements, as different deer will be different in their ability to deliver the genetic improvements you seek to their offspring. A key aspect to genetic improvement of any breeding program is to first distinguish between genetic and environmental factors influencing performance and then select only those animals that are genetically superior to form the basis of a breeding herd. Performance that may be the result of good management will not be passed on to the next generation whereas, on the other hand, performance due to genetic superiority will be repeated. Genetic improvement in whitetailed deer presently occurs at a slow but steady rate as no one animal contains all the traits in a perfect combination and thus improvement involves a system of small changes in a number of traits all focused on an overall goal. While the genetic improvement gained in any one generation may not be large the overall effects of continued genetic improvement is cumulative and thus still results in significant improvement over time.



One way, however, to manage these genetic improvements is with the formal adoption of a genetic evaluation program. Adoption of genetic evaluation programs in other livestock breeds have been shown to be up to nine times more effective in driving genetic improvement than breeding selection done by an individual's own efforts and attempts.



The Whitetail Registry started working in the fall of 2007 to develop a genetic evaluation program to measure genetic abilities across a range of characteristics, and to report to the breeders which animals in their own herds are most likely to pass on their genetic improvement of any given trait to their progeny. As with most breed improvement programs this will be done by gathering performance and pedigree data, collating these records and applying genetic analysis to produce a best estimate of an animal's true genetic value. While genetic improvement will still occur without this process, the rate of genetic gain is likely to be much slower, and much less certain.









The Whitetail Registry's genetic evaluation program is focused on the traits of economic importance that will increase the profitability of the industry and its participants. These improvements are based on the continual improvements of desired antler characteristics with no defined end - so to speak. The goal and therefore the end product may change during the process, as knowledge of the importance of some of the characteristics also changes. The long-term strategy is to develop a program that will bring together objective genetic measurements, incorporating a wide range of data collection, into one database enabling breeders and producers to have access to information that will enable them to make better and more informed breeding decisions. The traits recorded include, at the present, but are not limited to:

• antler scores at different ages from 1-6 years old
  
• number of typical and non-typical points
  
• antler beam length
  
• tine length
  
• antler beam circumference - mass
  
• spread of main beams
  
• albino and piebald
  
• birth, growth and mature/harvest weights
  

OUR ULTIMATE GOAL AND WHAT WE CAN PROVIDE WITH THIS DATA:

The goal of Whitetail Registry is to provide a database of participating animals, their offspring and owners, as well as breeders utilizing semen for artificial insemination. We will continue to record data of offspring (both buck and doe and their offspring as well) over a period of several years. Using sophisticated software with genetic based probabilistic algorithms, we will compile this data and work to establish a genetic based platform, from which we can offer the following services.

• Genotype & Phenotype Predictions - The Whitetail Registry can predict inherited traits based on the stated genotypes of parents. Predictions can be included in trial mating pedigrees. The Whitetail Registry can also detect when the genotype of an individual is inconsistent with that of its parents.
  
• Inheritance Probability Analysis - This is the prediction that an individual will inherit a given trait, or the probable 'value' for a polygenic trait, based on the prevalence of the trait in its ancestors.
  
• Gene Frequency Analysis - this is the analysis of the distribution of different alleles over a set of individuals.
  
• Covariance Analysis - is the analysis of how traits vary - either the tendency of two different traits to be inherited together, or the degree to which a single trait tends to be similar amongst relatives.
  
• Inbreeding and Common Ancestors - the Whitetail Registry has very fast calculation of Wright's coefficient of inbreeding, to a maximum of 60 generations. We can produce reports of ancestor circularities (self-parenting) - individually for specific records or across a whole database. The Whitetail Registry doesn't just calculate inbreeding for a single animal at a time - you can even tabulate it for all animals in the database. You can create reports on common ancestors, view their individual contributions to the inbreeding coefficient, tag the common ancestors, and more.
  
• Breeding Reports - The Whitetail Registry can produce a report showing all breeding of a given animal, listed in various ways e.g. sorted by date of birth, or by name of opposite parent.
  
• Offspring Reports - The Whitetail Registry can also produce a report showing all the offspring of a given animal, listed in various ways e.g. sorted by date of birth, or by name of opposite parent. The offspring of each breeding are listed.
  
• Plus many, many other great reports that will help lead better to breeding decisions and faster genetic improvement in your program.
  

These are just a few of the many genetic reports we can/will provide for the participating animals and deer breeders. The Whitetail Registry is currently 95% complete on the software infrastructure of this project. Look for us to launch the online database sometime in the next several weeks.







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John- I think that is what I was trying to impart in the other title- Cervid farming and Discussion under the topic born and raised

as we are getting to that time of year when we must make the tough call who do we breed to whom ? do we ai with the some unproven yearling or stick with a known producer ? I would like to see and hear more about this topic .