Linear Assessment

[Mark Bowles]

After Saturday's Linear Presentation launch, the scheme is now available on a voluntary basis for all members to participate. Application forms and Linear Assessment quide leaflets are now available from the office. Lead times for farm visits from Holstein UK may vary from a week to a couple of months, their assessors already have a months workload in front of them at any one time so forward planning on the members part is advised.
If anyone has questions then please email me and i will attempt to answer what i can.
I will try to keep people informed through this board as some breeders that are going ahead with classification have indicated they would be happy to have visitors to experince the process with them.
Needless to say i have participated already, i had a group assessed in June and i will be booking a visit in October for my August calving cows and a couple of Bulls to be assessed.

[Saffy]

I think it is fantastic that we can get our herds assessed this way at last. Back when I had a milking herd, a pedigree Freisian/Holstien Herd it was linear assessed yearly, an excellent way of weighing up what your stock is really like as far as conformation is concerned. Even though I already had a fair bit of stock judging experience, from being brought up in farming and attending YFC, I still found linear assessment helped me to look at each part of conformation seperately, as well as looking at the animal as a whole. Unless it has changed greatly it places your animals in a category and gives you a clear idea which have the best and worst conformation overall and which bits are good or bad, and how good or bad they are, it can be a real eye opener. We will certainly aim to get ours done.
Thanks for keeping us all informed,.

Stephanie

[Ted Neal]

The old adage what goes round comes round springs to mind on Linear Assessment. I believe that the Council discussed adopting this method of classification back in 1984 and I guess did not adopt it for some reason - be interesting to know why. Does anyone have an old Bulletin?

[Mark Bowles]

Hi Ted, that is very true, David Key also proposed a classification system in the early nineties, the difference this time is that we are using independent professional assessors who assess over 10,000 animals a year......each. This is a universal worldwide system used to assess cattle producing linear scores to describe the animal.

[JohnO]

Ted I do not have the old bulletins but would also be iterested in reading the comments from 1984. Would it have been to do with the need for seperate breed standards and assessment criteria for carriers and non carriers?

[carol d]

It's been a while, but I think it had something to do with a major dairy-focused evaluator looking at the average Dexter and scoring it as though it had to be a production animal. I seem to remember getting a copy of the classification material and I'm pretty sure it was from the British Freisian assn. c.

[Ted Neal]

It was indeed based upon the British Friesian Cattle Society and the M.M.B. Unfortunately I cannot find my 1984 Bulletins - I will keep looking. I just happened upon the December 1983 edition which mentioned the Council discussing the project at their next meeting.

[Carol K]

Do you assess Carriers the same as Non Carriers? Is height part of the assessment?
Just wondering how it is done over there.

Carol K

[Mark Bowles]

The height issue ( ie stature) in the linears has been removed from the score calculations, it still remains as an indication to the animals height. A 1 on stature indicates 38inches and a 9 indicates 48 inches. We found on trials the staure was effecting the scores. Shorts and non-shorts are scored the same. We have used the British Freisian system as it is as close to dual purpose as we could get and then we adapted it as we could to suit dexters.Further tweeks are possible but it seems to work for what we want at the moment, we are talking and accompanying Holstein UK on some visits so we work together to acheive what the DCS want.