Thursday, August 25, 2016

Linebreeding Meat Rabbits For Food and Profit



Line-breeding is a form on inbreeding that is most often used by successful rabbitry's in order to maintain the desired genetic traits and characteristics of their foundation stock. Instead of mating brother and sister (inbreeding), linebreeding is the breeding of father to daughter and mother to son to maintain and improve the herd. The process of selectively breeding offspring to their respective parent has been performed for hundreds of years with cattle, goat, pigs, sheep, poultry, and rabbits by both farmers and ranchers. The goal is to produce enough offspring in your rabbitry that you can put meat in the freezer and sell quality livestock while maintaining a quality genetically stable bloodline.

So what does a genetically stable bloodline look like? Well with linebreeding the goal is to be able (after several generations) to produce a specific generation that still has 50% of each of the genome of the original parents used as your foundation stock. Sounds almost impossible right? Actually, it is pretty easy if you keep accurate records and are careful with your breeding program.

To be successful, your breeding must be kept on strict lines and within limits, and may be adopted for years without having to outcross any new rabbits into your bloodlines. To aid you in your endeavor, you will not only need to have a linebreeding chart, you will also need to know how to read it, and that is the goal of this article. The process will become clear once you understand how to use the linebreeding chart accompanying this article.


The Linebreeding Chart

To begin the process we need an unrelated breeding pair of rabbits (male and female), this pair will be known as your foundation stock or original male and female. They are represented at the top of the chart simply as 'Female' on the left and 'Male' on the right. Each dotted line represents a female (doe) and every solid line a male (buck). Where the two lines meet there is a circle with a letter depicted indicating what group the offspring of this breeding pair belong too. In addition, there is a fraction indicating the amount of genetic material (genes) that each parent has contributed to each offspring.


Getting Started

Once we have chosen a breeding pair to become our foundation stock, we begin the breeding process. All of the kits from this breeding will be labeled group A. Looking at the chart we see that all of the kits born in this litter will receive one-half (½ or 50%) of their genes from the original male, and one-half (½ or 50%) of their genes from the original female of this line.

Once the rabbits from group A reach breeding age (about 6 months), we will breed back one of the males from this group to our original female (mother to son), and one of the females from this group to our original male (father to daughter). These two breedings produce the rabbits in groups B and C, each of which possess three-fourths (¾ or 75%) of the genes of the parent and one-quarter (¼ or 25%) of the genes of the other parent. In this case, Group B carries three-fourths (¾ or 75%) of the genes from our original female, one one-quarter (¼ or 25%) of the genes from our original male, while group C carries three-fourths (¾ or 75%) of the genes from our original male and one-fourth (¼ or 25%) of the genes from our original female.

So, how did we arrive at these figures? Let's examine the kits produced in group C by the breeding our original male with a female from group A. Our original male carries 100% of his own genes and the female from group A carries one-half (½ or 50%) of our original male genes. Adding these two fractions together we get 1 ½. We then take 1 ½ and divide it by 2 (because the breeding takes two rabbits) and the result is that all the kits produced by this breeding (which will be labeled group C) will carry three-quarters (¾ or 75%) of the genes from our original male, and one-quarter (¼ or 25%) of the genes from our original female (1 + ½ = 1½ / 2 = ¾ male genes). This same principle is carried through out the chart with the number by the circle indicating the fraction or percentage of the genetic material that each parent has provided (left side of chart female, right side of chart male).

For the third generation we breed a male from group C to a female from group B. Each of which contains three-quarters (¾ or 75%) of the genes of the male and or female respectively. All of the kits from this breeding, labeled group E, will contain one-half (½ or 50%) of the genes from both our original male and female.

This is determined by adding three-quarters (¾, or 75%) of the females genes from from group B to the one-quarter (¼ or 25%) of the genes from the female from group C and divide by 2 (¾ + ¼ / 2 = ½ or 50%). Likewise we add three-quarters (¾ or 75%) the male genes from group C to one-quarter (¼ or 25%) of the males genes from group B and divide by 2 ( ¾ + ¼ / 2 = ½ or 50%). This is the objective of linebreeding, namely to come back to a point in which the rabbits in your herd contain one-half (50%) of the genetic material of both your original male and female foundation stock. As long as we do this we are not inbreeding, rather we are linebreeding. Therefore, each time we breed without going outside the bloodline, we are maintaining the genetic base of our original male and female rabbits.

Next, we breed a male from group B with our original female resulting in group D, whose kits posses seven-eights (7/8 or 87.5%) of the original females genes and one-eighth (1/8 or 12.5%) of our original males genes. We also breed a female from group C, to our original male, resulting in group F, whose kits possess seven-eights (7/8 or 87.5%) of the original males genes and one-eighth (1/8 or 12.5%) of the original female's genes. We will also breed a male from group F to a female from group D, resulting in group I, and again we come back to our genetic goal as all of the kits from this breeding contain 50% of the genes from both our original male and female.

The next generation will produce kits having one-half (½ or 50%) of their genes coming from our original male and female at group N by mating a male from group J and a female from group H. Offspring from groups G and K if bred together will also return us to our goal of producing kits that contain one-half (½ or 50%) of the genes of each of our original male and female foundation stock.

Following this form of linebreeding enables the breeder to keep several different males and females breeding that are genetically similar enough to retain and improve on their original breeding pair without causing any genetic anomalies or health issues.


The percentage of genes contributed from our original male and female for each group are listed below in what I consider is a little more concise and readable format.

1st Generation (Group A)
Group A's Genetic Makeup: 50% original female, 50% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group, to your original female to get group B, and breed a female from this group to your original male to get group C.

2nd Generation (Groups B and C)
Group B's Genetic Makeup: 75% original female, 25% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to your original female to get group D, and breed a female from this group to a male from group C to get group E. Breed a female from this group to a male from group D to get group G.
Group C's Genetic Makeup: 25% original female, 75% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group with a female from group B to get group E. Breed a female from this group to your original male to get group F. Breed a female from this group with a male from group F to get group K.

3rd Generation (Groups D, E, and F)
Group D's Genetic Makeup: 87.5% original female, 12.5% original male.
  • Breed a female from this group to a male from group E to get group H. Breed a female from this group to a male from group F to get group I. Breed a male from this group to a female from group B to get group G.
Group E's Genetic Makeup: 50% original female, 50% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to a female from group D to get group H. Breed a female from this group to a male from group F to get group J.
Group F's Genetic Makeup: 12.5% original female, 87.5% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to a female from group D to get group I. Breed a male from this group to a female from group E to group J. Breed a male from this group to a female from group C to get group K.

4th Generation (Groups G, H, I, J, and K)
Group G's Genetic Makeup: 81.25% original female, 18.75% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to a female from group I to get group L. Breed a female from this group to a male from group J to get group M.
Group H's Genetic Makeup: 68.75% original female, 31.25% original male.
  • Breed a female from this group to a male from group J to get group N. Breed a female from this group to a male from group K to get group O.
Group I's Genetic Makeup: 50% original female, 50% original male.
  • Breed a female from this group to a male from group G to get group L. Breed a female from group to a male from group K to get group P.
Group J's Genetic Makeup: 31.25% original female, 68.75% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to a female from group G to get group M. Breed a male from this group to a female from group H to get group N.
Group K's Genetic Makeup: 18.75% original female, 81.25% original male.
  • Breed a male from this group to a female from group H and you get group O. Breed a male from this group to a female from group I to get group P.

5th Generation (Groups L, M, N, O, and P)
Group L's Genetic Makeup: 65.63% original female, 34.37% original male.
Group M's Genetic Makeup: 56.25% original female, 43.75% original male.
Group N's Genetic Makeup: 50% original female, 50% original male.
Group O's Genetic Makeup: 43.75% original female, 56.25% original male.
Group P's Genetic Makeup: 34.37% original female, 65.63% original male.


Conclusion

There are several prominent breeders of meat rabbits throughout the United States that have been successfully linebreeding for years. One of the more successful pseudo-commercial type organic rabbit meat breeders is Polyface Farms owned by the Salatin family who have a pretty substantial herd of rabbits. They have been linebreeding meat rabbits for more than 25 years with great success. So much so that they have developed their own strain or bloodline of meat rabbits. Through the process of linebreeding you can develop those traits you are looking for in a specific breed of animal and continue to enhance those characteristics to their full potential. This has been proven time and again by breeders of cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs through specific lines of livestock that have been successfully breed for 50, to 100 years and more without any new genetic material being added to the herd.

Now most of us will never be breeding meat rabbits for that long, but it will probably take you 1 to 2 years for each generation to work your way through Fetch's chart that is listed in this article. That's 5 years in the most optimistic view, but more likely it will take you 7 to 10 years to produce a good quality herd while maintaining it's genetic diversity. I say this because of the following reasons. First, in my personal opinion you shouldn't start breeding your doe until she is 6 months old. Second, once your doe is ready to breed, you may have to cull a few litters before you get the best male and female from each group in order to breed for the next generation. Hey, but that's ok, placing rabbits in the freezer is the main reason most of us are raising meat rabbits. Finally, you have to consider that the climate in which you live and the type of housing you use for your rabbitry has a big impact on your breeding schedule. If you live in the south, you will generally be unable to breed between in the months of May, June, July, August, and most of September if you do not keep your bucks in an air conditioned barn. In East Texas were we live, that only leaves you with 6 to 7 months out of the year in which to breed before the temperature starts to get above 80 degrees.

So, by the time you get to the 3rd generation you may have five breeding pairs with some males and females breeding to more than one generation all producing meat for your freezer and livestock for you to sell as you look for that next best rabbit(s) to continue your bloodline. Who knows, with proper herd management, maybe one day you can be successfully breeding your own bloodline for more than 20 years just as the Salatin's on Polyface Farm. As always, if you have enjoyed reading this article and find the information here valuable, we ask that you share it with your friends. Do not forget to send us a friend request on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+


Similar Articles On Our Blog:

 
New Zealand Rabbit Genetics Part 1: Dominant And Recessive Genes
New Zealand Rabbit Genetics Part 2: Coat Color, It's In The Genes



References:




Bennet, Bob, Storey's Guide To Raising Rabbits, North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2009

Patry, Karen, The Rabbit Raising Problem Solver, North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2014

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