Winter Kidding Watch =) Aspen's Turn Pics Pg 59 ALL DONE

[ksalvagno]

He is just way too cute!

 

[rebelINny]

Very cute and I agree thats great ears for a F1!

 

[jodief100]

Pardon my ignorance, what is an F1?

 

[helmstead]

first generation mini - FB nubian x FB nigerian

 

[rebelINny]

first generation mini - FB nubian x FB nigerian

Yep what she said unless of course if it were mine it'd me mini-Alpine

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Yeah, but don't we like instant gratification. I recently quit smoking and a mini-nubian is my present to myself. I'll wait, I guess I have too, lol.

Amen!

 

[helmstead]

Snips has no ligs tonight. Udder isn't tight, but ligs are definitely gone. I've had 5 hrs sleep in the past 48 hours.



Guess I won't get much sleep tonight either!

 

[jodief100]

first generation mini - FB nubian x FB nigerian

Now you have got me really curious. I got just enough genetics with my biology degree to make me dangerous.

So you are trying to create a "mini" Nubian, essentially a mini goat that looks just like a Nubian. So you cross a Nigerian with a Nubian and usually the ears do not look Nubian. What is the next generation cross? I may be wrong but it seems in dairy goats the critical part of the phenotype is ears. If you cross with another Nigerian that makes the ears even less Nubian but if you cross with a Nubian then you are breeding the boys from the F1 for the next generation?

This is fascinating. I dont do any phenotype selective breeding , so this is really different.

 

[poorboys]

very sweet, like the brown mixing in with the white!!!

 

[helmstead]

first generation mini - FB nubian x FB nigerian

Now you have got me really curious. I got just enough genetics with my biology degree to make me dangerous.

So you are trying to create a "mini" Nubian, essentially a mini goat that looks just like a Nubian. So you cross a Nigerian with a Nubian and usually the ears do not look Nubian. What is the next generation cross? I may be wrong but it seems in dairy goats the critical part of the phenotype is ears. If you cross with another Nigerian that makes the ears even less Nubian but if you cross with a Nubian then you are breeding the boys from the F1 for the next generation?

This is fascinating. I dont do any phenotype selective breeding , so this is really different.

There are a lot of ways to go about getting the ears right - but with mini Nubians you also have to worry about the nose. You can breed the F1 doe back to a FB Nubian buck. Or, you can select only the F1s with drop ears and roman noses, and cull the 2/3s drops and airplanes from your breeding program. IF I were doing a full on Mini Nubian project, I would go with the method of selecting only the F1s that meet breed standard and breeding those, because breeding back to Nubian gets your percentages way off and messes with height. Some people also breed F1s to Americans (F4+), but again, that messes with your percentages. It's quite a challenge to get right. And the registry is cracking down on high percentage offspring, too many farms have 90% of the standard breed in their later generations, which is throwing off the size and type.

We decided last year that we weren't going to go into a full on Mini Nubian project, only because we don't want the risk of a percentage buck having relations with our Nigerians. I good American Mini Nubian is a really neat creature...but I'll stick with my FB does and making F1s so I can keep my Nubians in milk.