I is for INBREEDING (vs. linebreeding)

TIRZAH

Here are my three animals that are Grand kids of PiddlinAcres Peaceful Voyage who I think has put his stamp on the goat world. These animals bring in some of the great goats I've seen in the pedigrees of some very outstanding animals from some of the biggest herds in the Nation including Twin Creeks, PiddlinAcres, Lost Valley, Green Gate, and Goodwood.

CALM THE STOM

JOIE DE VIVRE

Of course Joie's daughter - Twinkle Lil Star is also related and Joie is bred this time around to a

"cross out" buck who has some similarities in his background but isn't AS related as Storm.

I wanted to take a moment to kind of explain the differences between the two so our buyers will understand what we do here at CBF. When I first got into goats, I assumed that Inbreeding was BAD and what the line was between INbreeding and LINEbreeding. After talking to some much wiser goat breeders I learned a little bit. NOT enough to be considered an expert and frankly - I still believe breeding goats is a bit of a roll of the dice with some rolls being a little more educated than others! INbreeding is breeding a closely related doe/buck pair - for instance a Father to a daughter or a buck to his mother or sister. For me personally, this is a little to close for comfort.

Not to say I haven't seen it turn out fine - I did see a pairing that close that turned out a very nice little doe who has done well. I've also seen 1/2 siblings produce some outstanding offspring. My issue is that I've seen what it has done in the dog world and I can see where the "pooling" of

bad genetics produce some health problems we'd rather not deal with - don't want to go there with my goats if I can avoid it. Here, we practice linebreeding which is the breeding of two goats with common related ancestors. Early on, when doing my research I noticed certain names popping up over and over in the pedigrees of outstanding milking/show goats. HMMM I think to myself - I need goats with those lines. So I went searching (and found my best milker right under my nose - I was looking at ordering one from out of state and spending an inordinate amount of money on said goat!) The more research I did the more I was convinced a little bit of line breeding is a good thing. So, while we don't practice close breeding here there are certain lines that we concentrate on to breed (we HOPE) sweet goats, with good conformation, and lots of milk. I now have some similar lines in another doe and my buck. They are related but all are

grand or great grandkids of these particular animals but who have OTHER good lines thrown in for good measure. Sorry if I confused you on this but it's been an area of great learning and I will tell you there is even software out there that can help you figure out your coefficient of inbreeding that will help(supposedly) keep you out of the danger zone and into the zone where you are turning out some nice animals. - Check out some of the big breeders who continually win and earn milking stars and you will often see similarly bred animals in their backgrounds.

Hope this post clears up any misgivings you had about LINE/IN breeding for your goats and helps you to understand better why we breed the way we do here at CBF Nigerians