Breed standards, body conformation, etc.

[onedozenphyllises]

A little help for the more or less untrained eye, please!

I have Nubian goats (five of them). I have read info on breed standards and what genetically superior animals should look like, but I find this all to be rather abstract, since I have no visual basis for comparison. I only have my own goats to look at most of the time, and I think it would really help me if I could see a side-by-side comparison of a excellent goat, one that's very good, one that's good, fair, poor, etc. with some notations as to what makes them so, so I can REALLY know the difference. They say for example that when buying a dairy doe, one should look for good udder attachment. Now, I think I could tell good from bad, but I couldn't tell good from great, or good from "just okay". Can anyone out there in goat land point me toward a resource with picture examples, or maybe post some images here?

Or maybe I just need to look at a lot of goats over a long period of time. Sorry. I'm still kind of a novice here.

 

[trestlecreek]

Honestly, pictures just tell 20% of the story. You have to go out in the ring and feel those goats and then stand back and take your look. Watching a goat on the move also tells a lot about the goats confirmation.
Without feeling a "great" goat, you will not completely understand.
I started out looking at pictures and got close to what should be ideal, but after feeling nice goats, I then realized I only had part of the complete picture prior.
I would suggest finding a show nearby and watching the show and then follow the goats to the pens and ask the owners if you could take a feel.
Then go to the pen of the last placing goats and take a feel. You will be amazed at what you fine.

 

[onedozenphyllises]

Thanks! I truly had NO idea how I would figure this out without examples. Live examples = even better!

ETA - I have no intention of ever showing goats. I just want to know because I want to know (and so I can make better informed purchases).

 

[trestlecreek]

Pictures could show a dip in the chine, improper rear sets, rump slope and some of the other really obvious faults.
Is that what you were looking for? I have seen some pictures of these sorts on-line, maybe we could fine them and post them here?

 

[onedozenphyllises]

That would be great, at least to start me off.

 

[PattiXmas]

I had a similar question -

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1901

 

[trestlecreek]

Here is a really nice page that describes the basic structure for dairy. It has a few pictures that would show some pointers.
With dairy, they tend to stretch them out, which would hide some faults, but this does give a good idea to start with.
Let me know if you need more pics and I will see what I can do.

http://goatdairylibrary.org/Pages/Conformation.htm

 

[onedozenphyllises]

Thanks Trestlecreek - that's very helpful!