It's been a long time, but I figure new year, new start! I cannot believe a new decade is upon us, and I have a feeling that this will be a great year. 2009 has gone down in my books as the worst year ever for myself and my family, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
With a new year come goals, or resolutions. As a rabbit breeder I set goals that I want to meet by the end of the year. While I have personal resolutions that I am going to do, these goals for my barn are important to me, and I figure I might as well post them!
I want to not only Grand out a Jersey Wooly (homebred, purchased, whatever), but I also want to get a leg on a homebred Jersey Wooly, and a BOB with a homebred would be nice too. I want to get a leg in Open competition, which of course I need to do on a more regular basis starting in August, because I age out of youth!
I wold like to earn 1000 sweepstakes points. I do not mean be listed in the sweepstakes, or even place well in my district, I just want to earn those points! Because of how the NJWRC does their year, I would have have about 5 months of showing before the year ends. So while I will be joining in August, I want to make it my goal to earn these points and count them myself.
While winning is nice and all, if I want to be ready for open competition, I need to breed, breed, breed and then cull twice as hard. So my plan is to have lots more breedings and culling twice as hard. I'm a softy, but I know I need to do this to improve. This means learning how to palpate! Yes, I do not know how to do this, but I want and need to learn how.
I have a "project" of sorts, and while I am not ready to reveal what it is, I want to get carriers of this project well established so I can be producing the phenotypes of this color popping up more. By the end of the year I want to have at least 3 homebreds in this particular color, and well on my way to have all my colors in this particular group being carriers.
I want to internalize the Jersey Wooly standard, meaning I want to be able to know the point values of the different parts of the rabbit, and what a really good wooly is. This means that I know a bad wooly from a good wooly without looking at it, but by feeling. With focusing on one breed, it'll help to me more competitive.
Wow, that's a lot to accomplish in a year! But, I am working on them all, and as I accomplish these goals, I'll let you all know. I'm already on my way towards breeding more, with every doe in my barn being breed, some are still expecting while others are being rebred because they missed. As soon as I get litters, the culling will begin. I hope everyone had a great holiday and that we all are looking forward to this new year and decade!
Until next time,
Kelsey Nelson
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