sabato 15 gennaio 2011

Poultry - The Rovigo Ermine Turkey

Maschio di Tacchino Ermellinato di Rovigo. Foto di Andrea Mangoni, esemplare di Marco Bindocci.

Among the many breeds of Italian turkeys, The Rovigo Ermine Turkey is one of the few that is well known outside its home region, the Veneto. Either for the beautiful livery and for good production skills and the instinct for breeding, the breed has spread quite well among fans, but is still rather common.
Was Prof. Raffaello Quilici, Institute of Experimental Poultry Rovigo, in 1958, which starts from common bronzed turkeys and inserting Narragansett (one of the finest American turkey breeds) got to a point mutation of the selection by a small livery heads a group of ermine, on which to continue efforts to standardize the production characteristics and size.

The breed is characterized by flesh-colored legs, white skin, an ermine livery that resembles that of the German race Crollwitzer, and a medium size, with females who stood about 5 Kg and males 11 Kg. These birds are very rustic and precocious, fast feathering, also suitable for farming in the mountains. The females are excellent brooders, perfect to complete broods of many poultry, also because of their size is not excessive. Unfortunately, the lack of uniformity of somatic characteristics often leads to think that we can improve the characteristics of the livery by crossing with other breeds. In truth, the mere effort of the farmers should be more selective than enough to maximize the uniformity of the livery of this breed.The animals pictured here belonging to my friend Marco Bindocci, they become from the flock of the University of Perugia, I also had the pleasure of seeing an equally beautiful and very uniform flock, well characterized, near a farmer in Casalserugo (PD), which was obtained by a pure breed male had by Institute of St. Benedict of Padua and a group of bronze female with a right size. It 'goes without saying that in this case, that should be taken as an example, were the stubbornness and the assiduous selection made by these farmers to enable such an outcome. Should serve as inspiration and reference for every farmer, especially in these times when the word "selection" seems to scare the fans more than many others.

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Femmina in cova di Tacchino Ermellinato di Rovigo. Foto di Andrea Mangoni, esemplare di Marco Bindocci.

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