# ADGA Registration Help!!!



## CapraCurry (Dec 13, 2015)

Hello! I'm very new to this community so please bear with me and my ignorance! I finally went to go visit the little Nigerian Dwarf doeling that will begin my little herd and I'll be taking her home next week! Very, very cute! I'm in the FFA and I share the land with my lifelong friend who will also be raising Nigerians. We wish to register our goats under one herd so that the offspring produced from them would carry our shared herd name. Is that possible? Can youth members even do that? And if so, how would we go about doing that? Should I register my herd at the same time that I do my membership registration? Also, when registering, the field asking for the "Membership Name", Would that be my first and last name? I appreciate any help given!!  
Thank you very much!


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## babsbag (Dec 13, 2015)

Hi and welcome to BYH  from California. You need to wait on the herd name until your membership has been processed. As far as sharing a name I would call ADGA and ask them. I know that families do it all of the time, but not sure how that happens. You might reconsider sharing a name as someday you will most likely go separate ways and who takes the name? 

The goat in you avatar is adorable, is that your new one?  Is she registered with ADGA?


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## CapraCurry (Dec 13, 2015)

That's her! She hasn't been registered yet, as the breeder would prefer that I become a member before doing the registration and transfer, it just makes the whole thing easier that way. Supposedly if the transfer is done to a non member and then I become a member the transfer form has to be done again to transfer her to myself. 
We have definitely considered the possibility that we could go separate ways, but we figure our herd is going to end up being very small in the long run and will, at max, make it to 5 or 6 goats. The way our lives are lined up I just can't see us becoming strangers but you are definitely right.


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## babsbag (Dec 13, 2015)

Then if you want to share a herd name I would get your membership done and call ADGA, they are very good about answering questions. The goat you are buying will have the herd name that belongs to the breeder so you have time to get your herd name before your kids come in a year of so. Good luck with your new little girl. Is this your first goat?


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## CapraCurry (Dec 13, 2015)

Yes, this is my first goat indeed. However, I've raised just about a billion chickens or so in my lifetime and I currently raising a hampshire/suffolk sheep cross for show and market. Very, very excited to start showing and raising goats! In the past, I had only ever been around "petting zoo" goats, which I personally never found to be all that affectionate. Took the food and they were gone. I had thought that they'd be like the sheep, somewhat skittish and unhappy about being handled or touched. Boy was I wrong! When I walked into the breeders doe pen they were ALL over me, two even coming to sit in my lap like a dog! They did not seem to mind being scratched and stroked all over  Now I had heard about goats being sweet in the past but wow they sure weren't kidding!


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## babsbag (Dec 14, 2015)

Well welcome to the world of goats and unless your parents stop you it is almost certain that you will own many more than 4 or 5. We call it the Goat Addiction Syndrome.   No one can stop once they own one. 7 years ago I bought three, I now have about 40 and we are building a dairy. Watch out, they are addicting, much worse than chickens and I have a bunch of those too. Just wait until the first kids are born, you will be hooked. Read all you can, learn all you can, and ask all the questions that you want; we love to help and there are a lot of goat owners on here with many years of experience.

Does your FFA leader have goat experience or do you have another goat mentor?


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## Latestarter (Dec 14, 2015)

Just wanted to jump in real quick and say Greetings @Mintatheena  from the front range in Colorado! ! You've hooked up with one of the "go to" goat people here in @babsbag ! There are others as well. A real specialist on the Nigerians is @OneFineAcre . Really great folks here all around if you ever have issues/problems! Hope you'll stick around a while and share stories and pictures (especially pictures... we all love those!). Good luck on your journey!


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## Southern by choice (Dec 14, 2015)

@One Acre Farm  will be the most helpful about the rules etc.
Personally I would recommend you have your herd and your friend has their herd... long term less issues.
Personally I find some of the ADGA rules a little hard to understand. I work with 4 registries and ADGA is the most confusing. LOL


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## Fullhousefarm (Dec 14, 2015)

Yes, you can do it. You just have to realize that legally they will both be both of yours and if you ever want to separate you'll have to transferal goats into separate names at that point. It would make showing (goats have to be registerd in youth's name for ADGA youth shows) and breeding easier in that you can both show all goats and you don't have to write breeding memos and such if your herd gets larger.

You'll need a "family" membership- not youth. (That's what my daughter has had since she was 9) You'll need to put both names. So, "Sally Johnson and Jane Doe." Currently ours is DaughtersFirstname Lastname and family. That way her brothers can show too now. I know a family that has three last names on theirs since they have kids with different last names and also are god parents and have partial custody of another. So theirs is like "Smith, Doe, and Johnson family." ADGA is usually very helpful when you call, but I'd just sign up online and you shouldn't have any problem. I do believe there are some rules about accounts having more than two names, but don't know the specifics.

You can also have two separate youth accounts and share a herd name and tattoo letters/numbers. So, that would be another option. There is a form to sign to let someone else use your herd name and tattoo.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 14, 2015)

Fullhousefarm said:


> Yes, you can do it. You just have to realize that legally they will both be both of yours and if you ever want to separate you'll have to transferal goats into separate names at that point. It would make showing (goats have to be registerd in youth's name for ADGA youth shows) and breeding easier in that you can both show all goats and you don't have to write breeding memos and such if your herd gets larger.
> 
> You'll need a "family" membership- not youth. (That's what my daughter has had since she was 9) You'll need to put both names. So, "Sally Johnson and Jane Doe." Currently ours is DaughtersFirstname Lastname and family. That way her brothers can show too now. I know a family that has three last names on theirs since they have kids with different last names and also are god parents and have partial custody of another. So theirs is like "Smith, Doe, and Johnson family." ADGA is usually very helpful when you call, but I'd just sign up online and you shouldn't have any problem. I do believe there are some rules about accounts having more than two names, but don't know the specifics.
> 
> You can also have two separate youth accounts and share a herd name and tattoo letters/numbers. So, that would be another option. There is a form to sign to let someone else use your herd name and tattoo.



x2.
ADGA is usually helpful.  Now would be a good time to talk to them, before the spring rush of registrations/shows/milk tests swamps them.


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## samssimonsays (Dec 14, 2015)

Welcome to the world of goats and BYH from Minnesota! Your little doeling is adorable to say the least, that doesn't even describe it lol


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## babsbag (Dec 14, 2015)

I knew there would people with more registration experience than me; I don't have any children that are at home so no goats for them and DH is not interested at all. However, if I die before him he might wished differently when he tries to sell of 40 goats that he doesn't own on paper.


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## CapraCurry (Dec 14, 2015)

Thank you so much for the help! I feel so welcomed to the community, I didn't think my first meager thread would garner so many responses!


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## CapraCurry (Dec 14, 2015)

babsbag said:


> Does your FFA leader have goat experience or do you have another goat mentor?


My FFA advisor has some goat experience but its mostly been sheep and steers kept out here in the past couple of years. The breeder has been extremely helpful and has answered a lot of my questions but I'll be sure to stick around here, I'm sure I'll have about 100 more questions. I'm unsure about the technicalities about keeping the sheep and the goats together but so far I've been getting mixed responses, some saying to keep them separate totally and some saying that if properly introduced they should do fine together. I'm also concerned about any parasites they could possibly transmit to her...although they were wormed very recently and have nice bright pink eyelids


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## babsbag (Dec 14, 2015)

One of the big issue with sheep and goats together is that goats need copper in their minerals and sheep can't have copper in their minerals. The copper is very important for goats. I have never owned sheep so I am no help in the cohabitation but others on here have both and I am sure they can give you some ideas.

One thing you will learn here on BYH is that there are many many ways to do just about everything and most do it all a little differently. But it is all worth listening to.


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## ragdollcatlady (Dec 14, 2015)

Welcome!

One of our experiences in showing goats in our county fair, (Kings County, California), my daughter was prevented from showing in both showmanship and in registered classes, because her goats registrations had her name and mine on them. You might want to be sure that the shows you want to participate in will allow a family or shared ownership before registering them that way. Might cause you more grief than it is worth depending on where you are. 

I personally prefer AGS as they have proven to be much more user friendly (especially for new members) and the rules they have make sense to me.


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## Southern by choice (Dec 14, 2015)

ragdollcatlady said:


> I personally prefer AGS as they have proven to be much more user friendly (especially for new members) and the rules they have make sense to me.


I agree.  AGS is easier. They do not, however, do "experimentals".
When dealing with the ADGA I have had different answers from different people. We don't show but who knows if we got the right answer when we registered and that could be a problem if my daughters ever show.
I think even the MDGA is easier- and that's saying something. 
I do like the ADGA though and my favorites are the pedigree search, DHIR stats and LA scores. Nice to plug in a planned breeding or look up a goat to see if they are "too" related.


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## OneFineAcre (Dec 15, 2015)

Not sure about FFA but in an ADGA Youth show, the youth has to own the animal.  In an open show you don't have to necessarily own the animal.
That's why Rachel is the owner (breeder) of all of our does.
She can show them in the youth show, and we can show them in the open shows.


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## CapraCurry (Dec 15, 2015)

Hmm then maybe it really would be a better idea if we just did 2 separate herds...She doesn't think she's gonna get anymore goats then her buck and I can see myself accumulating a couple of does!

Do I need to register a herd name right now? Or do I have some time to think about it?
Can I leave the tattoo portion of my request blank until then or would I be able to change it once applying for a herd name?


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## CapraCurry (Dec 15, 2015)

Sorry, that doesn't make sense, oops! What Im asking is if I register for my membership, it asks for a requested tattoo. However, id like to know if that tattoo could be changed upon registering a herd name. I'm a bit befuddled after reading the rules


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## Southern by choice (Dec 15, 2015)

We had to do herd name and tattoo if I remember correctly.
You may want to call and check on both to see if they were already taken.

Our Herd name was slightly different but too "close" to anothers... our tattoo was fine... we went down several names before one worked.
They ask you to put a second choice on the paperwork but our ended up being really different. We had to change things up because we use 4 registries we wanted all the same name and tattoo letters.


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## goats&moregoats (Dec 15, 2015)

From Vermont.  I am still currently unregistered. Looking forward to that happening this next year. I am definitely going with AGS. I don't show but wish you the best in your endeavor to do so. If I were younger when I started my goat addiction  then I would have definitely gotten into showing. 

As for keeping your goats and sheep together. I personally do not recommend it. I only have two sheep on my little hobby farm. It is for the mineral reason only on my part. I use loose mineral and keep it available at all times.  When I first got the sheep they had to be penned with my goats there fore I could not leave the mineral out. I would have to enclose the sheep for a bit so my goats could have their mineral. Much easier to just keep separate so both goats & sheep could have their needs meet properly. 

Your doeling is adorable. Love the pattern. Looking forward to more pictures.


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## Southern by choice (Dec 15, 2015)

We had sheep and goats... we ended up separating them. At first all was fine but by the time they hit a year old they were ramming the goats. My does were pregnant and I was not about to lose kids... the LGD's also got very frantic as they were highly bonded to the goats and would try to run interference but not touch or hurt the sheep... in the end it was stressing the dogs out, stressing me out, and stressing the goats.

Sheep are more prone to sore mouth which you do not want in a dairy herd ever! The minerals will be an issue and they do need different feed as most goat feed has copper in it.


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## CapraCurry (Dec 16, 2015)

Definitely will be uploading some more pictures of her when she gets home on Saturday!
I think I decided I want to name her "Yella Bella" but I'm not really sure...

The sheep and goats definitely will have different pens, and here at school we never let the sheep out to graze unless we're out there, which we are for about 2 hours everyday (they have unlimited hay access and some space to walk and run around, big penned in area). Would it be alright if they were allowed to walk around and graze at the same time and then locked up for feeding and night time separately? I don't really know how to explain the situation without making a video...perhaps I will!


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## Southern by choice (Dec 16, 2015)

A sheep person would be better to answer but sheep graze all day I don't know how they would do on hay with just 2 hours of grazing.


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## CapraCurry (Dec 16, 2015)

They are also fed a pound in the morning and evening of an 18% sheep feed. We dont really have pasture here, and they typically get the whole day in the spring and summer but there just isnt anything for them to eat out here right now. Everything they eat is dead atm! But they do love to run like nuts around the barn and hop and they'll take an occasional bite off some leaves they find. We give them a timothy/alfalfa mixture, and they seem to be doing good. Gained lots of weight in muscle and so far no major parasite problems. You are right though, they'd probably be better off on pasture all day.


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## Latestarter (Dec 16, 2015)

I wouldn't think there would be any issues with letting them out together if you're out there with them. As others have mentioned, sometimes the sheep can be mean to the goats, and I'm sure it could go the other way as well, but if you're out there with them, that's easily enough stopped (unless it's a 300#+ ram...). The only real issue would be the minerals/copper and as long as those are provided in their separate pens... all's good.


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## CapraCurry (Dec 19, 2015)

Pictures!!


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## CapraCurry (Dec 19, 2015)

Again, thank you for all of the responses! I appreciate it


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## goatgurl (Dec 19, 2015)

how cute is she!  and i love her color too.  i think her collar is almost as big as she is, lol.  looks like she will grow into it tho.  i am no help with the registration issue.  no children around to show goats so i don't have a clue but listen to some of the other folks around here because they do.  good luck with your little doll.


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## Latestarter (Dec 19, 2015)

She's gorgeous! What a cutie! Thanks for the pics!


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