How to select good breeding stock for mink farming? Keep these precautions in mind

What is breeding stock selection?

Breeding stock selection means choosing superior individuals to keep for breeding while culling inferior ones.

How to select good breeding stock?

1. Choose a good breed. A good breed is the foundation for improving the mink's litter rate and survival rate. When introducing a breed, you must consider the breed's adaptability, disease resistance, physiological heredity and trait stability. When introducing stock from another location, be sure to compare the differences in climate and natural environment between the two places, and promptly and appropriately adjust the feeding and management methods.

2. Build a good foundation herd. Breeding stock selection generally goes through 3 stages: primary selection, secondary selection and final selection.

Primary selection: Adult male mink should be primarily selected based on their mating ability and semen quality; adult female mink should be primarily selected based on their litter size, milk yield, maternal instinct, number of surviving offspring, etc. For the selection of kits, based on the litter size of the same litter, development status, survival situation and parent quality, select and retain by litter at weaning. The primary selection should retain 25%-40% more than the actual number to be kept for breeding.

Secondary selection: Conduct secondary selection from September to October. Mainly select each animal one by one based on growth and development, body size, body weight, physical condition, fur color and quality, and time of molting. The number for secondary selection should be 10%-20% more than the actual number to be kept for breeding.

After primary and secondary selection, form the foundation breeding mink herd; this work generally must be completed before the end of October. Then carry out purposeful individual retention.

3. Select superior individuals. Conduct final selection in November, choosing superior individuals as the male and female breeding mink for the next year, generally with 1 male to 3 females as 1 group. Female mink should be retained from one's own foundation herd, while male mink should be retained from outside farms to prevent inbreeding and reduce production performance.

① Weight standards: male mink over 2 kg, not exceeding 2.5 kg; female mink over 1.2 kg, not exceeding 2 kg;

② Fur color and density standards: black mink should be glossy black all over, with complete underfur and guard hair, and fur density on the back of more than 12,000 hairs per square cm; colored mink should have attractive markings, glossy body fur and complete molting.

③ Body length: male mink 45 cm, female mink over 38 cm.

④ Health status: free of epidemic disease, alert head and eyes, active and playful, normal eating and drinking, no history of fur chewing or tail biting.

⑤ Reproductive ability: female mink giving birth to more than 6 kits per litter, with good maternal instinct; male mink with strong mating ability, mating with 5-8 female mink in one breeding period.

⑥ Breeding age: the suitable mating age for male mink is 2-4 years of age, and a few can be used for 6-10 years. The annual ratio is: 30% of the current year and 70% of the older ones.

⑦ Others: male mink with cryptorchidism, female mink with external genital deformities (a long distance between the genitals and the anus), and disabled ones (missing legs, short tail, blind eyes, etc.) cannot be retained for breeding.

Precautions for breeding stock selection:

① Carefully investigate the pedigree of the introduced breed to avoid inbreeding; at the same time, establish good pedigree records for your own farm.

② Investigate the medication process; those with a history of drug allergies are best not retained for breeding.

③ Mink that have been given hormones (such as melatonin) cannot be kept for breeding.

④ Those whose summer fur has not fully shed cannot be selected for breeding, especially mink born in May should not be retained for breeding.

⑤ Those with an abnormal head-to-body ratio cannot be retained for breeding.