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Zimbabwe Herd Book Page Please note ZHB launched its own new website in May 2022, packed with information for livestock breeders. Click HERE or on the ZHB logo at left to visit... |
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ZHB Breeder Requirement Courses
- next course dates TBA - email trace@lit.co.zw for more info
For pictures of the first six courses and stud visits in Gweru, Esigodini, Chinhoyi, Macheke, Beatrice and Harare, click HERE. These ZHB Courses are designed to inform breeders of their requirements and formats for data submissions to the Herd Book and cover: |
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Click HERE to download ZHB Breeder's Requirements Course Notes in PowerPoint | ||
For the January 2022 Issue of Livestock Registering Foundation's Newsletter, follow this link : LRF-TF News |
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About The Zimbabwe Herd Book
Pedigree livestock - also known as stud animals - are the seed stock of the livestock industry and is the basis of stud breeding. The Zimbabwe Herd Book was established by an Act of Parliament in 1980 to oversee the registration of pedigree livestock. Stud breeding involves the controlled mating of livestock and detailed birth notifications of progeny with parents are recorded with the Herd Book. In addition, stud breeders record the fertility, survival and growth performance. Livestock production depends on three pillars: genetics, health and husbandry. Stud Breeding - genetics - is the cornerstone of commercial livestock production. A strong commercial industry is dependent on a healthy and vibrant stud industry to offer stud/breeding stock that meet requirements in a range of production environments and market scenarios. At its annual National Sales, all animals on offer have undergone veterinary examination and inspection so that the livestock industry is offered a wide range of top quality genetics. Stud breeding is a long-term passion where breeders strive to breed the ‘best’ animal. Breeders apply modern breeding technologies to carefully select animals to be parents of the next generation and in so doing, improve the genetic merit of future generations. Breeders also select parent material from outside the country in the form of live imports, semen and embryos. Stud breeding also requires the meticulous recording of parentage (pedigree) as well as specific performance data that measures reproduction, survival and growth. These performance figures, together with the parentage information, are used to select the best animals to be parents of the next generation. Genetic improvement is therefore passed on from generation to generation and from the stud herd to the commercial herd. ZHB has implemented BreedPlan, the leading performance evaluation software from Australia. The industry can now avail itself of the latest technologies that provide both breeders and commercial producers with accurate genetic assessment of animals that are selected for breeding purposes. A wide range of genetic material is also available for commercial producers who want to select the best breeds and breed combinations to meet their particular production environments. It is more economical to select the right breed for a particular production environment than adapt the environment to meet the requirements of the breed. Beef cattle breeds can be grouped into six sub-groups:
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Setting Up Calving Year in BreedPlan In the instance where a breeder has not defined a ‘Calving Year’ in BreedPlan, animals are treated as distinct groups within a Calendar Year, e.g. 2021 born calves, and ident of all calves starts with year of birth, i.e. ‘21’. This typically applies to year-round calving. For breeders with a calving season that extends over the calendar year, for example, calving from September to March, provision can be made in BreedPlan to identify these animals as being in the same calving contemporary group. This will avoid splitting the contemporary group in genetic analyses according to calendar year. To cater for this, we firstly require you to confirm your Calving Year. For example, with a calving season extending from September to March, then a Calving Year can be defined as April to March. Then all calves born from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022 will be given the same Year of Birth in their Ident, that is 21-NNNNHDL. Kindly advise your Calving Year so that we can make necessary edits to BreedPlan to cater for your calving seasons. To do so, email: |
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Click here to download the CEO of the Livestock Registering Federation's end of year message 2021 |
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Contact The Zimbabwe Herd Book at
Old Show Office, Exhibition Park, Samora Machel Ave, Belvedere, Harare +263 242 756 600, 772 915, 777 391 Email addresses: zimherdbook@gmail.com and trace@lit.co.zw |