Selection
goals and program of the Marchigiana, Chianina, and Romagnola Breed
The selection program essentially expresses the overall activities performed
on livestock enrolled in the Herd Book in order to pursue the selection
objectives that have been identified. In particular, the following goals
have been estabilished for these breeds: further improvement in daily weight
gain and muscle development in animals that are already somatically
well-developed, have light skeletal structure and are morphologically correct.
The Genetics Center (1) is the hub of the system. Here, performance tests
are carried out for the genetic eveluation of males (4) and for the coice
of the elite bulls to be used for artificial insemination(5). The decision
to fovour the male line stems from the fact that through artificial insemination
techniques, the male breeders are capable of siring a larfe number of offspring
during their lifetime. As a result, the have a greater effect on improving
the population than the females do. The dams (6) are assessed on the
basis of genealogy, morphology, maternal capability and reproductive efficiency.
Programmed mating among the best bulls (5) adn cows (11) makes it possible
to obtain a new generation whose males (12) will be ginven priority for admission
to ge Genetics Center. Data (7) is collected on the ranches concerning ease
of calving, weight gain and muscle development seen in young livestock (14)
in order to calculate the genetic evaluation indexes on the progeny
test base.