During the ABBA 2020 Winter Board meeting held January 20th in Ft. Worth, Texas a rule change was put forth by the Performance Committee to no longer require breeders to provide birth weights when registering calves with the ABBA in order to attend ABBA shows. This rule change was accepted by a majority of the board members and it will take effect immediately.
In the ABBA Official Show Rules from 2019 rule #19 states, “ALL Animals MUST have a Birth Weight submitted to be eligible to show in ABBA Approved Shows.” As of January 20, 2020, according to the rule change, birth weights will NO LONGER be required by the ABBA in order for Brahman cattle to show in a ABBA approved show.
John Coleman Locke, Chairman of the Performance Committee, explained to the Board Members why the Performance Committee felt the need for this change prior to member’s casting their vote.
“When this rule was first put in place about ten years ago the hopes of the Performance Committee was that more breeders would be encouraged to get accurate birth weights on their cattle”, explained Locke. “Instead what we have found is that some breeder’s might be guessing at birth weights and we feel like this could be skewing our performance data. We want to encourage ALL breeders to submit data on their cattle. It is just very important that the data submitted is accurate.”
Editor’s Note: This is an unofficial report about a rule change. If you should have any questions please contact the ABBA office at abba@brahman.org or 713.349.0854 for more information.
