It’s All About Genetics: The Art of Breeding Poultry!

What is breeding? It is the practice of obtaining individuals, in this case poultry, with the desired traits. It’s all about genetics!

When it comes to breeding poultry there is something one has to decide: whether the breeding is done for quality- which is the commonest- or for quantity.

For breeders, the most important thing is deciding which traits and characteristics have to be passed from parent to offspring and thus having a solid base (desired stock-birds) is much desired. In a perfect world, breeders would like to obtain the perfect individual- a highly improbable target- but the skill lies in getting closest to that ideal- after all, that’s how the breeds we know nowadays came into existence.

Here are some steps which one needs to follow to breed out unwanted traits and thus to keep the desired ones:

1.   Establish a solid, long-term goal and be sure you know exactly what you need to obtain in terms of traits;

2.   Breed those birds which are the closest to those you desire to create;

3.   Keep record of which birds you bred;

4.   Cull/Give away the birds with characteristics you don’t desire.

Experienced breeders try to focus on only one or two breeds as this permits more time and energy to achieve their goal.

Never give up and remember that this takes a lot of time and money to obtain anything near what you were after but I can assure you it’s all very satisfying.

By Christian Cutajar- National Diploma Student in Agriculture

Animal First Aid

Perhaps we have looked on in dismay: a dog hit by a car in the middle of the road. It's good to know that we can provide the necessary first aid to the dog as this link, provided by Alan Ronayne, clearly illustrates:

A Case for a New Perspective on Agriculture

We live in a world of extremities. While people are sunbathing in their patio in Mississipi, families are praying their houses will not be shelled overnight in Libya. While girls are enjoying a shopping spree in West London, a mother is trying to earn enough money in China by working 23 hours a day.
And even though these polarities stare at us very blatantly, there is still one thing that unites us all. Leaving aside for a moment the subjective aspects of morality and social ideology, there is one material aspect we all strive for every day of our lives. Food. Good food. For whether you're enjoying a Big Mac after the shopping spree or trying to fill your daughter's plate with rice in your daily one hour off, we need it to live.

We have been alienated as to how important food is in our daily life. Going around our busy lives, earning more and more money we think we depend on luxuries which we soon realize are trivialities. But each and every day we go around asking ourselves ‘What am I going to eat?’
And even though we usually find the answer we rarely understand that the chicken nuggets we thawed or the potato we peeled or the can of mushrooms we just opened all trace themselves back to that one and only sector which has been with us since the dawn of civilization: agriculture. For whether ploughing the soil with an ox or harvesting wheat with a two-storey machine, whether keeping a couple of rabbits to supply his one’s family or owing a multi-million milking parlor, agriculture has been the source of our nourishment since forever.

We are now realizing that a world without our farmers and growers is a world without food and a world without food collapses – right away.

Revolving around farming and growing is a wide range of subject areas- from environmental protection to animal care, from entrepreneurship to machine operation.

This blog is written by Maltese students who are the future food providers and animal carers.

We hope you enjoy your stay and we look forward for your feedback.