The Werk Nick Rating Advantage
In the realm of pedigree, there is one thing breeders want to know about a prospective cross more than anything else. What is the nick rating? And by that they mean the industry-standard Werk Nick Rating.
Easy access to these ratings for your stallions responds to two important principles that determine which stallions are selected by breeders and which are either not seriously considered or overlooked entirely. How a promotional effort responds to these two principles determines how successful it will be.
Breeders select stallions that attract their attention
WTC's eNicks site provides a way for breeders to select your stallion as a prospective cross for their mares, and viewing the ancestry of the prospective foal conveys a powerful message. To be sure, this message will be negative in regard to mares with which the stallion has a low Werk Nick Rating. But, as you know, stallion promotion is in part a numbers game. Stallions that get the most attention from breeders tend to be the most successful.
Breeders select stallions on the basis of what they know
For mares that have a favorable Werk Nick Rating with the stallion, the message will be highly compelling. they key to understanding the value of free eNicks for your stallions is that breeders are more likely to select a stallion for which they know the Werk Nick Rating is high than to select one whose rating they don't know at all, no matter how high it might otherwise be. A given mare is not going to be bred to a given stallion unless the owner of the mare has grounds for believing that the cross is a favorable one. The Werk Nick Rating can provide those grounds in a more broadly credible and compelling way than any other measure of compatibility.
How we know it works
In 1997, WTC began distributing its Software for Stallions program to stallion farms interested in using the Werk Nick Rating to promote their stallions. The software enabled them to provide breeders with the rating for the cross of any mare with any of the stallions they were standing. Year after year, enrollments increased, and nearly all of our original subscribers continued to renew their annual subscriptions. They added that expense to their stallion promotional budget because it worked.
How it works
Unlike the Software for Stallions program, which is used only as an in-house promotional tool, the eNicks site works both that way and as a dynamic advertising medium. You can access the site yourself to print prospective matings for your clients, and your clients can use it themselves to access prospective matings with your stallions.
Enrollment fee
The fee for enrollment is US$795 per stallion annually. When you consider that booking just one additional mare because of eNicks can return many times the cost of enrollment, this may be the most valuable, cost-effective form of stallion promotion available to farms today.
Sign up to receive more information on enrollment online or, if you have questions, call us at (510) 490-1111.