Keep records, avoid selective memory
Genealogy or pedigree is only one of the important records every game fowl breeding farm should maintain. A breeder without proper records is like a blind led by another blind.
Ask a game fowl farmer, breeder or raiser what are the most important factors in a successful farm operation and chances are these are the answers: quality of the flock or bloodlines in game fowl parlance; facilities and equipment; raising techniques including health management; and area or environment. There is however one other factor as important as any of the above-- record keeping.
To keep records is simply to collect relevant information that can help you to take good decisions and to keep track of activities, production and important events on a farm. Records can be about any performance of the flock—from egg laying to hatching to survival rate to win-loss percentage. Records could also be about economic development, health of the flock or any activity in the farm. It is important to keep record keeping simple, and to keep records systematic. If records should be of use to us, then they must be complete, accurate and true. There is no sense in keeping false records.
Another vital thing about records is that records can prevent us from being victimized by our own selective memory. People love to remember only the good things not the bad ones. In cockfighting we tend to remember the wins, not the losses. Therefore, without records we will end up over estimating the value of our bloodlines.
Important records to keep include genealogy or pedigree; mating records; markings; egg laying rate; fertility; hatching; vaccination; survival rate per stage; and conditioning and fight records. For commercial farms, sales records of every bloodline are also vital for guidance in decision making. A breeder without proper records is like a blind led by another blind.
The records can:
• Be used in determining profitability of various techniques used at the farm.
• Be used to keep your memory on what you did and/or what happened to avoid selective memory.
• Be used in decision making, especially on a strategic level.
• Be used to compare the efficiency of methods, systems, inputs, etc
• Help the owner, manager or investor in improving the efficiency of farm's operations.
In short records will help decision makers make the right decisions.
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