Glen & Karen Hastie
960 Wildwood Road
Sunbury
Victoria
Australia 3429
Phone (03) 9740 9010
Fax (03) 9744 9010
hasties@bairnsley.com
FULLBLOOD OR PUREBRED?
This is both a confusing and sometimes controversial topic. Some breeders, who may have been breeding for some time, still do not fully understand the terms and may inadvertently portray their animals incorrectly.
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When all is said and done, it doesn't matter a great deal to most people, as long as you are happy with the Highland cattle that you have - their breed character, structure, size, temperament, colour etc. Although we were confused and misguided when we started in the breed, we believe that more people lose out by choosing poor quality Highlands at their first purchase, than are disadvantaged by mixing up fullblood and purebred animals.
Definitions
|
'Fullblood' |
Highland cattle that descend only from 'fully imported bloodlines' and whose pedigrees can be traced back to the UK Herd Book or a country that does not allow intentional grading-up from other breeds of cattle (eg Canada, USA). |
|
'Purebred' |
Highland cattle, fourth generation or higher, who
knowingly have
another breed in their pedigrees somewhere. |
|
'Graded' |
Highland cattle who are first (C-grade), second (B-grade) or third (A-grade) crosses, that have been bred up from another breed. |
|
'Old Cattle' |
Descendents of the Highland cattle imported to Australia in the mid-1950's. These animals were bred with for many generations but never had records kept and were not registered in any herd book. |
As noted in The History of Highland Cattle in Australia there were also a number of live animals and semen from numerous bulls brought into Australia, that were registered in other countries (eg Scotland, Canada, and USA) that did not allow intentional grading-up from other breeds. The pedigrees of such animals do not knowingly have any other breeds anywhere in them and can be traced back to the original animals registered in their country of origin, and usually back to the original animals registered in Scotland over a century ago. These animals, from fully imported bloodlines, have been termed 'fullblood'.
The Australian Highland Cattle Society, when first formed, decided that it would be quicker, and cheaper, for breeders to establish the breed in greater numbers by allowing animals to be bred-up from another cattle breed. This means that you could actually start with another dairy or beef breed (eg Shorthorn, Angus, Jersey) and use a registered Highland bull over them to achieve a first cross female that could then be put back to another registered bull. This process was called grading-up and once the progeny reached fourth cross, they could be termed 'purebred'.
Question - If a first cross Highland is 50% Highland, how many generations do we have to breed to get 90%, 99% or indeed 99.9% Highland?
|
1st cross |
1/2 Highland |
50% Highland |
C-grade |
|
2nd cross |
3/4 Highland |
75% Highland |
B-grade |
|
3rd cross |
7/8 Highland |
87.5% Highland |
A-grade |
|
4th cross |
15/16 Highland |
94.8% Highland |
purebred |
|
5th cross |
31/32 Highland |
96.9% Highland |
purebred |
|
6th cross |
63/64 Highland |
98.5% Highland |
purebred |
|
7th cross |
127/128 Highland |
99.2% Highland |
purebred |
|
8th cross |
255/256 Highland |
99.6% Highland |
purebred |
|
9th cross |
511/512 Highland |
99.8% Highland |
purebred |
|
10th cross |
1023/1024 Highland |
99.9% Highland |
purebred |
|
etc |
So to be 90% Highland, you need to have a fourth cross animal. To be 99% Highland, you need to have a 7th cross animal. To have 99.9% Highland genetics you need to have a 10th cross animal.
If you cross a fullblood with a fullblood, the progeny will always be termed fullblood. If you cross a fullblood with a purebred animal, the offspring will always be purebred, because on one side of the pedigree you will not be able to trace their lineage back to the UK Herd Book or a country where their society does not knowingly allow grading-up from other breeds.
We defy anyone to consistently pick a 'fullblood' from a 'purebred' Highland animal on appearance alone. Having said this, we personally believe in the long tradition of this majestic, old breed and want to keep our lines as fullblood and traceable back to the original Scottish Herd book in 1885. Many other breeders are not of this opinion and are happy to use fullblood or purebred animals, so long as they appear to be a good representative of the breed.
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The current situation with the Australian Highland Cattle Society
The society does not currently recognise or differentiate between purebred and fullblood animals. When the society was first formed, there was a differentiation (a 'P' was assigned to purebred animals) but this was voted on and dropped soon after. Other than that discerning between the two classes of animals might help to allay any confusion to new members, and possibly help with recognition of the herdbook with overseas societies, there is no great reason to do so. All females, fullblood or purebred, can be registered, can be shown and their progeny can be registered. Currently purebred bulls need to be at least 5th cross (come from a purebred female) to be registered. In the early stages of the society, some fourth cross bulls were allowed to be registered.
Currently the numbers of graded animals (A-, B- and C-grade) has diminished significantly, simply because of the greater number of purebred and fullblood Highlands around.
