August 1998

HERD BOOKS ON THE INTERNET

In January 1997, CLRC was approached by Bill Johnston of the RR3 Electronic Mall/ Breeders Connect. Bill, along with his son in law, Shawn Snider had for the previous year or two been working towards providing a service to farmers whereby they could advertise their farms and animals and show the pedigree of the animals which they had for sale. Since each pedigree had to be keyed in, the cost of that service may have been prohibitive. Thus the idea was born that if RR3 could get copies of all pedigrees electronically for all 50 associations at CLRC, then it would become possible to offer advertising to all 14,000 members of the 50 associations at much lower and unprecedented rates.

It was known that getting the associations to agree would take time and after a year and a half 15 have given authorization. Thirteen of those are now live on RR3 and it is expected the other two will be up shortly. There have been numerous questions concerning publication of pedigrees and breeders names, addresses and phone numbers. A pedigree is the associations Herd book which is public information that may be published from time to time as allowed by the Association Board of Directors. In this case it would be published free of charge on the internet instead of or in addition to a more expensive printed book. Names addresses and phone numbers etc. should not be a problem either as virtually everybody is already listed on the internet.

It is now time to make this program work as designed, to create awareness and sales for the Breed and its members for the least costly advertising that can be obtained anywhere starting at only $10.00 per year. Associations which are participating can help to keep this program alive by announcing its availability to their membership through their publications. To access these herd books and breeder advertising, you can click here and go directly to:

Herd Books
(RR3 Electronic Mall)

This site can also be accessed from CLRC's home page. Following is a current list of CLRC Breeds which have taken advantage of the generous RR3 Electronic Mall offer:

CATTLE	FOXES	GOATS	HORSES
Belgian Blue	Fox	Alpine	American Saddle
Galloway		Angora	Fjord
Guernsey		LaMancha	Hackney
Highland		Nigerian Dwarf	Haflinger
Red Poll		Nubian	Morgan
		Oberhasli	Percheron
		Pygmy	Sport Horse
		Saanen	Welsh
		Toggenburg

For more information on adding breeds or Breed Associations to this list, please contact:
E-mail: Ron Black
E-mail: Bill Johnston

For more information on member advertising, please contact:
Bill Johnston above or E-mail: Shawn Snider

COSTING AT CANADIAN LIVESTOCK RECORDS CORPORATION

The cost of providing services at Canadian Livestock Records Corporation (CLRC) is an ongoing major concern, resulting in continual attention to cost control. All costs are monitored on a very regular basis to ensure that we provide the most cost-effective service possible to our member associations. Associations that have withdawn from CLRC often cite increasing costs as a primary factor in the decision that has been made. The following table indicates, however, that, once inflation is taken into account, costs at CLRC have actually declined over the past ten years.

PERCENTAGE INCREASES IN UNIT COSTS

YEAR	ACTUAL UNIT COST	% CHANGE	NATIONAL RATE OF INFLATION (%)	HYPOTHETICAL UNIT COST IF INFLATION RATE APPILED	AMOUNT BY WHICH HYPOTHETICAL UNIT COST EXCEEDS ACTUAL UNIT COST

1988	$4.10	-	-	$4.10	-
1989	4.10	0	5.0	$4.31	$0.21
1990	4.10	0	4.8	$4.51	$0.41
1991	4.28	4.2	5.6	$4.76	$0.48
1992	3.55	-17.1	1.5	$4.83	$1.28
1993	3.85	8.5	1.8	$4.92	$1.07
1994	3.85	0	0.2	$4.93	$1.08
1995	3.85	0	2.2	$5.04	$1.19
1996	3.85	0	1.6	$5.12	$1.27
1997	4.50	16.9	1.6	$5.20	$0.70
1998	4.50	0	1.0	$5.26	$0.76

10-year increase in actual CLRC unit cost 1988 to 1998: 9.75%/10 = 0.98% per year.
Average annual inflation rate for 1988 to 1998 =2.53%

Although there was an increase in the unit cost in 1997, it is important to note that this was the first increase in four years, and was followed by no increase for 1998.

Canadian Livestock Records Corporation 2417 Holly Lane, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1V 0M7 Tel: (Toll Free) 1-877-833-7110 or 613-731-7110 / Fax: 613-731-0704 clrc@clrc.ca

August 1998

Canadian Livestock Records Corporation
2417 Holly Lane, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1V 0M7
Tel: (Toll Free) 1-877-833-7110 or 613-731-7110 / Fax: 613-731-0704
clrc@clrc.ca