Tikana velvet production
Velvet is a highly heritable trait in deer. This highly visible characteristic was our primary selection focus through those early years of our stud developing. All our velvet data has been entered into DeerSelect since 2005. We believe the strength of our velvet performance comes from the knowledge of this trait in our breeding cows. The accuracy of the eBVs for velvet in our cows is very good. The average eBV for velvet of Tikana cows has increased 46-fold (x46) in 12 years.
Actual velvet performance has shown a steady improvement. Using 2yr old weight as our benchmark, over the last 30yrs we have gone from 2.1kg in 1988 to our 2018 average of 7.18kg. Our top yielding two year old bull, Prophecy cut 10.9kg of EWSupremeTM. The average velvet cut off all of our 3 year bulls in 2021 was 9.9kg
Actual velvet performance has shown a steady improvement. Using 2yr old weight as our benchmark, over the last 30yrs we have gone from 2.1kg in 1988 to our 2018 average of 7.18kg. Our top yielding two year old bull, Prophecy cut 10.9kg of EWSupremeTM. The average velvet cut off all of our 3 year bulls in 2021 was 9.9kg
Dictator (sired by Declan out of a Trilogy cow) at 3 years old cut 14.2kg EWSupremeTM with a 23cm beam. He was sold at auction in 2016 for $28,000.
< photo of Dictator
