Performance Testing For The Commercial Breeder: Part 1

This selection, breeding and management tool can improve the efficiency and profitability of any beef operation, says Thokozani Ndonga, senior research technician at the Agricultural Research Council, Irene. He begins this series by exploring the prejudices against performance testing.

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Commercial beef producers give one or more of the following reasons for not carrying out performance testing:

• They claim they can identify good and poor producers in a herd with the eye, without using records, performance test data or breeding values. They are not convinced that performance testing is of any value for selection, breeding and/or management of a herd.

• They do not think the time and money involved in keeping records and weighing animals justify the benefits of performance testing.

• Some well-known stud breeders get high prices for their animals based mainly on their name in the industry. They fear that performance testing and breeding values will show that their animals are not as good as people currently believe.

• They think that performance testing involves putting only young bulls through central performance tests (Phase C) and on-farm performance tests (Phase D).