SchönFarbe
Chillin' with the herd
I was wondering how difficult would it be to officially create a new breed of goat?
Very well put.I was reading an article in one of my sheep! magazines about someone who wrote a letter to the editor about how easy/difficult it would be to start a new breed of sheep. One of the main points was "What does this breed do that another breed doesn't?" Livestock are primarily bred for production purposes--usually leaning more towards terminal, maternal, or "dual purpose" traits. For example, with goats, you have meat and dairy breeds. Within those categories you have more breeds. For example, with meat goats, you have Savannah, Kiko, and Boer goats. Boers are the ultimate terminal sire. Savannah and Kiko goats, though meat goats, are primarily a maternal breed, focusing on day-to-day management (hardiness, parasite resistance, mothering ability, prolificacy, etc) rather than the end product (lbs of kid weaned, carcass characteristics, etc, as is the case with Boer goats). Dairy goats you have the high milk producers, the high fat producers, etc. Each one has a purpose, a niche, to fill that another breed doesn't.
What would make your crossbred meat x dairy goats different than another crossbred herd that someone is breeding to suit their specific needs. And to create a breed, you need a large enough scale that you can create many different lines with the same traits that breed true but are not closely related so you can have a sustainable population without too much inbreeding.
And when crossbreeding your goats to "create" a breed, you want the best specimens to use in the creation of the breed. Your breed will only be as good as the goats used to create it. How is their health? Temperament? Comformation? Production? For the meat goats, do you have growth rates and adjusted weaning weights? How about carcass scans? For the dairy goats used, do you have litter size information? Do you have milk production and fat production information? All of this requires extensive record keeping to ensure the traits are breeding true and you can cull any outliers in the population.
Just crossing two goats is just that--crossing two goats and creating a crossbred goat, no different than the millions of other crossbred goats. It takes extensive planning and preparation and record keeping to produce a breed. Oh and don't forget marketing... how are you going to get people to buy into your breed? Again, what sets this goat a part from other goats that fills a need that may or may not need to be filled?