“You are not breeding for a photograph. You are breeding for a 3 AM snowstorm, a dog attack, a failed hay harvest. The 2021 family breeder must prioritize the ‘triple threat’: fertility, feed conversion, and temperament. Everything else is decoration.”
Show-ring standards are actively destroying small-farm genetics. family breeding digest magazine 2021
Ridgely argued that the American Poultry Association’s standard for a perfect Silkie (five toes, walnut comb) or the perfect Nigerian Dwarf (specific height limits) has no correlation with maternal instinct, parasite resistance, or foraging ability. She wrote: “You are not breeding for a photograph