Blue Tort's recent acceptance as a showable variety has me remembering when Brokens were in the process. I watched as the COD holder nailed it in the 1st 2 presentations. I was lucky to have a good friend who had some in his barn. He sent me some starter stock after that 2nd successful presentation. It wasn't all that great for type, but I had the broken gene and I bred it aggressively. I had broken entries ready to go when they passed the final presentation the next year and became officially showable the following Feb. I was one of the 1st to put them on the table in the south. I was also one of the 1st in this region to earn AOV group legs on the Brokens over Himis.
I have always bred for pattern. You have to if you're serious about Brokens. I cull anything with less than my personal standard for pattern. Of course, my standard is within the official standard, but I go beyond that. I learned that 10% (or less) Brokens are just going to give more of the same. I want more pattern consistently.
What is my standard? This is for spot patterns.
1. They must have full bold head markings. Both ears fully colored (white spots on the ears is a fault). Full butterfly. I don't keep half butterflies (fault) and definitely not if it's missing completely (DQ). Bold spots around the eyes. I won't keep any that have all the required head marks if the marks are too light, like a tiny spot on each side of the nose and eye spots reduced to eye liner. If the body color is as light, I consider them 8% and not good enough. I learned early on I will get more of the same and often less from 8%ers, and culling has pretty much removed that issue. Now they either have breedable markings or they don't. Period.
2. They must have enough color on the body. On the back, usually a stripe or series of spots. The bolder this spinal stripe is, the better. Spots on each side. I prefer more than 1 spot on each side, but I'll consider keeping less if the type is worthy, or if the side and spinal spots are bold. Especially if it came from better marked parents.
3. They must be recognized color. That's required in the SOP. I've only seen 1 judge DQ a Broken for unrecognized color, and I've seen quite a few get placed. It can be hard to tell on a 10% Broken if you don't understand how color is changed on a Broken.
Spot patterns are very unpredictable. They don't produce consistent pattern. Blanket patterns are much easier that way. I have a pretty good line of blankets that I can count on for showable pattern, but the blankets have their issues, too. The pattern can be feathered and messy, and some judges call it scattered white. It's not, but that's what the judges see, and since it's the judge's call, can't do much about that. Except to try and breed for cleaner pattern. Another issue blankets can have is too much color - over 50%. I don't worry about these too much, and will keep them for breeding. I usually get less color on their offspring.
Because I focused so hard on pattern, type fell by the wayside. Now that I have the pattern somewhat stablized, I'm trying to catch up on type. I know the rule...type before color...but with some varieties you have to work on both at the same time. Bringing in new type can actually set you back in color.
So after a few starts and fails trying to bring in type via varieties I didn't normally raise, I was set back. I don't have or want otters, but that's where the type is. The broken otters I brought in to help didn't help much. My brief attempt at broken agouti didn't work out either. The stock I bought (chestnuts) was carrying undesirable color genes. I got junk color in litters, and not enough improvement in type to make it worth the trouble. OK, it was half my fault. My brokens also carry a lot of stuff and it meshed badly with the agouti gene. Up until then, my brokens were all selfs with the shaded gene here and there. Not good with agouti.
So back to the drawing board. I wasn't getting any dilutes any more. I had moved out older broken blues and then I had none. Most of the brokens carried it but it didn't show up in litters. I was pretty tired of nothing but black. I rarely keep or show solid blacks. They're a side affect of my broken program. Blacks have to be really good to compete these days, and since my broken type is still a work in progress, I knew I didn't want the solid blacks from those litters. I wanted other colors in both broken and solid.
Last year, I brought in a couple Torts. This worked out pretty well. One of the things many of my Brokens and Himis carry is non-extension, so I immediately had Torts popping up all over. However, I haven't kept a broken tort. Got a couple but they either died or were unacceptable for type and/or pattern. I did keep several broken blacks positive for non-extension (a parent was tort).
Now I have a broken blue doe and with her have proven a broken buck to carry dilute. This buck also carries non-extension. That means Blue Torts in the near future, and I'm very glad they are now recognized. As I mentioned in the last entry, I'm not all fired up for Blue Torts. I don't care if I'm not one of the 1st to show them so I haven't gone out of my way to get any. To tell the truth, I'm not really all that crazy about Tort, black or blue. But they make pretty Brokens and that's my goal.
So here I am. A greatly reduced herd in yet another color direction. See you at the tables when I have something to put up.
tnt
