Udder classification session in Urdazubi (Navarre)
The ARDI project continues and among the actions proposed to strengthen the connections among the genetic improvement diagram for the Latxa and Manech breeds, a new activity was undertaken in Urdazubi (Navarre) on 25th February. The aim of said activity was to continue and delve into the harmonisation udder classification systems applied to each diagram. This action was undertaken on Xabier Bengoetxea’s flock of Blonde Face Latxa with the participation of 6 classifiers from North and South Basque Country, under the technical direction of Francis Fidelle. This harmonisation session is a continuation of the one carried out for the same purpose in North Basque Country on Manech Tête Rouge flocks in February 2019.
This work session brought to light both the differences and common ground extant between both diagrams, and led to a long detailed discussion of udder classification systems. The practical session involved a total of 72 sheep, and proved the North Basque Country classifiers had no problems in assessing nipple size, a characteristic not contemplated in the Manech udder classification, despite being the feature showing greatest variability.
To sum up it is worth highlighting the results obtained by the classifiers are globally good; therefore, complete uniformisation between the udder classification systems should not be a problem.