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Animal Improvement Act, 1998 (Act No. 62 of 1998)

Schemes

Animal Improvement Schemes

22. Scope of the Scheme

 

The Scheme must be applied in accordance with internationally recognised recording standards and norms as reflected in the Rules of the Scheme—

(a) Individual and group mating as well as birth, weaning (weaning weight) and death events must be recorded and forms the cornerstone of net reproduction rate and total weight of lamb weaned per ewe.
(b) Weaning weight as well as post weaning weights (270 and 365 days of age) must be recorded under natural production environments in order to evaluate growth efficiencies and adaptability.
(c) Traits recorded must be in accordance with the economical importance of sheep and goat production systems, and include fleece weight, fibre diameter, staple length, crimp frequency, coefficient of variation and clean yield.
(d) Rams of different flocks must be tested centrally under natural conditions with provisions for standardizing pre-test conditions like an appropriate adaptation period and minimum requirements for weight differences and growth rate.