Breeding Question

[aggieterpkatie]

It's a very fine line between line-breeding and in-breeding. I personally do not intend on doing it, and I recommend others don't either.

I wouldn't say it's a fine line. I worked at a well known cattle farm that's been line breeding their cattle for many generations. A TON of thought goes into each breeding. They know what they're doing, and it's worked VERY well for them.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

I've used that adga pedigree search. It gives you an option of matching 2 of your goats before you breed and tells you the % inbred. I thought that was way cool but what % is good or bad?

 

[Roll farms]

I've seen some folks on the Nubian Talk sight that think high percentages of inbreeding are good, to a good buck or doe...one who's sired or produced many show winners or does high in production.
On the same note, though...a goat w/ a high percentage of inbreeding to a dud, would NOT be good.
It depends on what they're inbred to.

 

[ksacres]

There's an old saying in goat breeding:
"If it works-it's linebreeding, if it doesn't-it's inbreeding."

And there's a lot of truth to that. There is no better way to improve a herd than by linebreeding, and there's no better way to ruin one than by linebreeding.

You will find that most high quality herds do a fair amount of inbreeding/linebreeding. It's the easiest way to cement the traits you want and pretty much the only way to get any level of consistency in offspring. Unfortunately, along with the good traits, bad traits will also be set, so that is why it's extremely important to (no matter the level of relation) never breed two goats that have the same fault together.

Also, no matter the relationship, if you breed scrub to scrub, you are always going to get scrub. Excellent quality goats don't just "happen". So start with the best quality you can find, and always breed your doe to a buck that's better than she is. You will save yourself time and money and heartache in the long run. Best piece of advice on breeding in general: just because a buck has the proper equipment doesn't mean he should be using it.