How to choose

If you want to have animals that are strong for work; that give a lot of milk; that gain weight quickly and make plenty of meat, you must choose breeding animals that are:

· well formed.

You must eat or sell all poorly developed animals. Keep animals that have plenty of muscle. The muscles of the back and rump are the most important, because they give the best meat.

· resistant to disease.

For example, do not raise zebu cattle in forest country where there is tsetse fly.

· good producers.

It is important to choose animals that produce a lot. For example: pigs that gain weight quickly; cows that give a lot of milk; chickens that lay plenty of eggs; ewes that produce two lambs.

· not too young or too old.

A breeding animal that is too young, not yet fully grown, gets tired, does not gain weight. It becomes a bad breeder. Its offspring will be poorly nourished, for a female cannot both feed the young she is carrying, and go on growing herself.