Now of course all the pedigrees are there in the background but very seldom referred to as its todays performance that counts. Now the second farm I worked on was much more lineage based, we did of course breed our own replacements from our best stock but also brought in young stock to add a different dimension and to potentially speed up the herd improvement process.
As well as using AI we also had our own bulls which were changed every 3 or 4 years, again to keep everything fresh, to avoid inbreeding and again hopefully to speed up the improvement process. Now of course this method did mean more attention was paid to pedigrees but it was still the numbers in the hrerds that we were interested in.
Now both these herds were well established so the need for pedigrees wasn't so crucial, infact the Pedigree Jersey herd was called the kings Herd as its pedigree could be traced back to a Bull purchased from King George the VI.
Now as with pigeons if I was starting up from scratch I would pay much more attention to pedigrees as I'd want to know that what I am getting is from tested and proven stock. I love pedigrees and as Andy I keep all my records on every pairing and every pigeon bred, infact I still have all my old records going back to the 80s and all of our Dads going back to the late 50s. Now those old records don't really count for much today as those birds and lines are long gone, but if I got the time I'd love to look back through them to see how the birds bred and raced back then would compare to those I have today.
I do agree that you really have to read pedigrees carefully as they can be misleading and misrepresentetive and are often used just to drive the value of pigeons up on these auction sites. If you had a champion racer that was bred from an old pair streeters it wouldn't be worth a light, but stick a fancy pedigree behind it all of a sudden you have a gold mine, does this mean that the latter is any more likely to breed winners than the former
maybe as it's from a more proven lineage but certainly not guaranteed. https://www.elimarpigeons.com/articles/ ... g-18-07-22
Des was also a lifelong stock man but he never looked at pedigrees, he kept very few or no records, everything was in Des's head, the only paperwork he used was a calender to work out his laying dates.
Now Des always sold pigeons for a modest price without pedigrees, he always said he didn't sell pedigrees only good pigeons. The only thing is that no one I know has ever managed to achieve with Des's birds what Des managed to achieve with them so make of that what you will
Anyway sorry I've gone on so much and totally bored you all, but just to sum up, I do love pedigrees especially when introducing new stock as I love to see what the lineage is and to use when introducing a new line into my loft. Now I have some birds in my loft was great pedigrees and some with no pedigree at all so only time will tell which ones will come out on top
As you say Dev, so many different yet valid opinions make this sport so unique and pleasurable.
Atb.
