All About Silkies, Nigerian Dwarf Goats & More
Pregnant goat or not? We get this question in emails a lot. People asking how to tell if a goat is pregnant. I also see it on a lot of posts on social media pages – people wondering if a goat they recently purchased is pregnant or not.
In fact, our first year breeding goats, we wondered the same thing….
Nigerian Dwarf Goats are our personal favorite type of goats. There are plenty of over types of goats that you can choose from depending on what you are looking for in a goat, but we just love everything about Nigerian Dwarf Goats.
They are a perfect size; around that of a Golden Retriever. They have wonderful personalities. And they have milk that is sweeter than even cow’s milk.
If you share our love for everything Nigerian Dwarf Goats, then please read along and enjoy our Ultimate Guide to Nigerian Dwarf Goats!
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We got our goats initially because we thought they were absolutely adorable and couldn’t imagine a world without them. Shortly after we started to wonder, “Can you make money raising goats?”
Surely, it’s a possibility. I mean, other people raise goats and seem to be doing just fine. Why can’t we? So, we started to look into the breeds we would want, the cost to purchase more goats, and the costs to keep them healthy and happy.
It was starting to look, with ALL of the expenses, like there was no way to make money raising goats.
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Whether you are just looking at goats for sale or you already have registered goats, you may look at these goat pedigrees and think – What the heck do all those letter, numbers and symbols mean? We sure did when we first started looking at goats. Reading goat pedigrees can definitely be a little like reading a foreign language. However, it is important to understand your goat’s pedigree. Afterall, you are paying more to get a goat with a pedigree, right? Then you should make sure that it is a pedigree that you want.
Being able to read a goat pedigree is an important part of making the right goat breeding decisions.
Ok, so you might see a pedigree that looks something like this:
SG GCH Waterloo Pond RHP Nutmeg 3*M VEEE90 (this is the dam of our buck The Winter Solider).
There are 4 parts to this title. Of note, this pegree above is ADGA only. AGS, another popular registry, has similar programs/designations with different ways to notate them.
Typically the first few letters will be designations or titles that the goat has achieved. In this example, the SG and the GCH are designations.
SG stands for Superior Genetics and indicates that she in in the top 15% of the breed for the PTI. (For more on Superior Genetics, check out the ADGA site here.)
The GCH represents that she is a grand champion. (This would reflect as ARMC or MCH in AGS and is called master or permanent champion). You could also see CH which represents a Champion.
After any top designations in your goats pedigree, you will see the goats full, registered name. The first part of the name will be the herd name (the farm that bred the goat). In our example above, it is Waterloo Pond. This will be followed by the goats name. In this example, Nutmeg. Of note, you may see initials, like the RHP in our example. Often times, these initials indicate a sire, dam or some other means of tracking the goats history. These are not required, but some people choose to use them. You may also see more elaborate names like one of our girls: Lil Mtn Karamel Moonlight. In these instances, most goats will also have a call or herd name that is shorter. In this case, it is Kara.
The next piece you will often see are *M or *D. These indicate that a goat has achieved an award for milk production (these can be either based on volume or milk components). M is used in ADGA while D is used in AGS. In bucks, you will see *B or *S and also +B and +S – they earn these based on daughters or dam’s performance. In our original example above you will see 3*M. The number before the * indicates that she is a third generation star earner.
The last piece you will see tagged onto a goat pedigree is their conformation scores or classification. In our example above, she has a Linear Appraisal Score (ADGA program) of VEEE90. The V’s and E’s represent different structural categories she is rated on. AGS also uses a similar program. If a goat has been judged in the AGS program, you will likely see just a letter and number such as E90.
Ok, whew! So, now that you know all the letters, numbers and symbols, you should be able to better understand a goat’s pedigree. And of course, if you are looking at the whole pedigree including the goats dam, sire, dam’s dam and so on, you will be able to see what traits trend in their ancestry. This will hopefully allow you to make purchase decisions to help you get to the goals you are trying to achieve with your goats.
I have to admit something, we just wrapped up our first round of kidding season (one round left) and we are already battling with our goat breeding planning for next year. Has anyone else ever felt this pressure? We are all working hard to make the right breeding decisions to improve our herd, but WHAT should those decisions be?
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Kidding Season can get really hectic, really fast. So, if you know you have a pregnant goat, you should be sure to be prepared.
We like to have all of our girls due around the same time so that we can get all of the sleep deprivation and bottle feedings out of the way all at once. However, this means LOTS of work for a period of time.
I don’t think there is any way to make sure that all the work is done without properly preparing for kidding season. However, with the proper kidding preparation, kidding season can go fairly smoothly.
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