GOAT BREEDS
Dairy goats: Breeds of importance in the USA include 1. Nubian
Nubians can come in any color but are recognized by their long droopy ears which must extend beyond the end of the nose in registered animals. Often the goat has a Roman nose. Boer goats, which also have lop ears, can be confused with Nubians by people who have not heard about the Boers. When an erect eared dairy breed is crossed with a Nubian, the result is airplane ears.
Nubians put on weight/fat easily and when kept as pets may need to be on a continual diet. They also seem to be predisposed to trace mineral deficiency problems such as zinc and selenium deficiency. This is the 'Jersey' of the goat dairy breeds, producing milk with 6 or 7% butterfat.Nubians can carry a recessive gene that, because of an enzyme deficiency, causes failure to grow in homozygous kids. The condition is often referred to asG-6-S and a genetic text is available from Texas VMDL(search caprine and molecular diagnostics).
2. Saanen Saanens are white European goats with upright ears. The name may be pronounced with an 'ay' or 'ah' sound. Because the white is dominant, an animal that looks like a purebred Saanen may carry the genes for other colors. When registered animals produce colored kids (often called 'sable Saanens') the kids can't be registered as Saanens, though there is a separate registry for owners who want to keep these animals. Lack of pigment makes the does susceptible to squamous cell carcinoma of the udder.
GOAT BREEDS
3. Toggenburg
These medium-sized Swiss goats are fawn to dark chocolate in color with white stripes on the face, white at the base of the tail and base of the ears, and white on the legs. Ears are erect. Some of the highest producing dairy goats belong to this breed, but some individual Toggenburgs have a reputation for off-flavored milk.
4. Alpine
Alpines are European dairy goats with erect ears. They come in a variety of color patterns that are distinctly 'Alpine', including the cou blanc (white neck) in the foreground and the cou clair (tan neck) farther back in this picture. A cou noir has black neck and white hindquarters, while a sundgau is black with white facial stripes and underbody. See the Oklahoma site for more color patterns.
Alpines, like other European dairy breeds, often have a beard in animals of either sex. Wattles, small appendages of no known function, are often attached to the neck but sometimes displaced to the side of the face. The breeder may clip the wattles off kids at birth.
GOAT BREEDS
5. Oberhasli
These dairy goats are a reddish brown color with black on the legs, head, tail, and a black dorsal stripe. The same color pattern in a French Alpine would be called chamoisée. Ears are upright.
6. LaMancha
The LaMancha is a dairy goat that originated in Oregon from short eared goats common in Spain. It is defined by its ear shape, which is a dominant trait. Gopher ears have a maximum of 1 inch length and very little or no cartilage. Bucks must have gopher ears to be registered.
The elf ear variant of the LaMancha ear can be up to 2 inches long. LaManchas are not deaf, but some raisers claim they talk more or louder than other breeds.
GOAT BREEDS
7. Nigerian dwarf
This is a miniature goat from Africa but has a longer body than a pygmy goat and has the proportions of a dairy goat. Adults are typically about 75 pounds. Ears are upright and the animal can be of any color. Does must be under 22.6 inches at the withers while the maximum for bucks is 23.6 inches. Production averages 800 pounds of milk in a 305 day lactation.
For additional pictures and some fun with the dairy breeds, visit the 4H website at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~pazzani/4H/Goats.html
Meat goats: 1. Boer
This "farmer" goat originated in South Africa and its name probably was given to distinguish it from Angoras imported into that country. It is a large meat animal with horns and lop ears. Although a variety of colors are possible, Boers are often white with red on the head. Many are being raised throughout the US at this time and are used in purebred or cross breeding programs in the Northeast.
GOAT BREEDS
2. Spanish meat goat
Spanish or "brush" goats are animals of unknown ancestry, some of which were feral descendents of goats the Spaniards brought to Texas and Oklahoma as a meat supply. They underwent natural selection for centuries for hardiness, but not huge udders - before being recognized as a viable livestock enterprise. Many of them look like crossbreds of European dairy breeds.
3. Tennessee Fainting goat, Myotonic goat These goats have also been called Tennesse Meat goats and Tennesee Stiff-Leg goats. They have an inherited myotonia which causes muscle stiffness, especially when the animal is startled, which may cause it to fall over. They were originally identified in Tennessee in the 1880s and in the 20th century were a useful model for myotonia congenita in people. They have been kept as a novelty but more recently have been selected for large frame size and heavy muscling, to use as meat goats. See movie clip on the web.
See the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (search breed information, then goats) for more information. These goats come in many color combinations and have airplane ears (shaped like Alpine ears but not erect, instead they jut out sideways). The constant stiffening and relaxing of the muscles of myotonic goats may result in heavy rear leg muscling, tender meat, and a high meat to bone ratio. The Onion Creek Ranch in Texas claims to have a trademark on the name Tennessee meat goat, for animals developed at their ranch. Another registry has been formed for meat and pet animals in the US and Canada, and has a good description of the breed
GOAT BREEDS
4. Kiko goat This is a hardy meat goat breed, developed in New Zealand from feral goats. They were selected, in the 1970s, for survivability and weight gain. No shelter was provided, no assistance given at kidding, no supplemental feeding offered under range conditions. No hooves were trimmed and minimal drugs were used for parasite control. Until 1986, some dairy bucks were used in developing the breed but now the breed is closed to outside bucks and a herd registry has been established. All colors are possible, but white is common (because it is dominant) in the goats imported to the US.Pictures of the breed can be found on line. The does are fertile and the Kiko kids grow rapidly without human intervention. (Photo courtesy of Alexis Stambaugh)
Fiber goats: 1. Angora
These small frame goats produce the fiber called mohair. Angoras usually are not dehorned. Shearing is done twice a year and freeze losses occur if the weather turns bad after shearing. Sometimes a strip of long fiber is left down the middle of the back to serve as a cape. The breed originated in Turkey but large populations exist in Texas and in South Africa. They are relatively susceptible to internal paraistes (including coccidiosis) and to sucking lice. Colored Angoras are popular with handspinners. The breed needs added nutrition to support fiber growth but overfeeding makes the fiber slightly coarser than that produced by a starved animal. Hence misguided owners may not feed well enough to maintain health because they are trying to achieve a fine fiber diameter. Because males are larger than females and can produce lots of fiber, wethers frequently make up a substantial proportion of the flock. This means that diet must be well managed to avoid urolithiasis.
GOAT BREEDS
2. Cashmere
The term 'cashmere' actually refers to a kind of fiber, a fine (mean fiber diameter of 19 microns or less) downy undercoat, rather than a specific breed. This fiber was originally picked off the bushes by the goat herders in Central Asia, but now is more commonly shorn from the animals. Special dehairing equiment is then needed to clean the long guard hairs out of the cashmere fiber before it can be used for fine garments.
3. Cashgora This is actually a fiber type, from animals that originally were a cross of Angoras and feral goats in Australia and New Zealand.
Pygmy/pet goats: 1. African pygmy These small goats are genetically dwarf. They are commonly kept as housepets in the US and like to watch television while sharing snacks on the couch. They are very commonly admitted to the CUHA large animal clinic for urolithiasis, often because they have been overfed grain or snacks. They easily breed twice a year and multiply out of control in petting zoo situations. The pygmy goat is also used as a small, inexpensive model for larger ruminants in research trials.
GOAT BREEDS
2. Pygora
This white kid goat is a cross between a Pygmy goat and an Angora - small and curly!
3. Kinder - this is a cross between a Nubian doe and a pygmy buck. The Kinder is a pet goat that makes a moderate amount of milk and meat.
