Pedigree info

Goats in Meshach's pedigree.

Goats in Bucky's pedigree.

Anna - 4/11/2010 - 9/5/2018

Ruby

Frost - 3/25/2016 - 6/25/2018

Rose

June

Missy

Sunny

Beauty

Tulip

Red

Mae

April

Clara

Rain

Pepperkorn

In my goats the pedigrees.
Pictures taken from: Burns Barnyard Beauties, Victory Meadows Nubians, Goldthwaite Nubians, and Six M Galaxy Nubians.

Some fun facts about, Six M Galaxy Galileo & Six M Galaxy Nova Sunrise

Six M Galaxy Nova Sunrise. Sunrise is a USDA Elite sire, 96th percentile. He sired Top Ten doe, Six M Galaxy Red Sunrise.

Six M Galaxy Galileo.
Galileo sired two Top Ten does, Six M Galaxy Noel's Holly and Six M Galaxy Midnight Angel. He lived to be 10 years of age.

How to Understand the *B, *M, CH, etc. in Your Dairy Goat's Pedigree

Note: This was taken from another website. I don't know who originally wrote it.

Many people are confused by all the different symbols, abbreviations and letters on the pedigree of a dairy goat. Most all of them are awards and other accomplishments that the goats have, so it is good to understand them. Many of the different registries have different notations for the same kind of award. I will cover the notations for ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association), AGS (American Goat Society) and MDGA (the Miniature Dairy Goat Association). Many of the other registries share the same notations.

Milk Production Awards - a goat can earn an award based on their production of milk (for a doe) or the production of their parents (bucks only) or the production of their offspring (bucks and does both). Milk production requirements for awards vary from breed to breed and registry to registry, but are usually awarded based on volume, butterfat and protein produced. The awarded 'milk star' or 'production star' is marked as follows:

ADGA: *B for bucks and *M for does (milkers).
AGS: *S for bucks (sires) and *D for does
MDGA: *B for bucks and *P for does (production award)

The buck awards here are all for inherited stars (based on production of parents and grandparents). See below for milk awards they can earn through their offspring.

The milk awards can get a little deeper. A doe who's dam has also earned her star will have '2' preceding her star. This indicates that her dam also earned her star. If the daughter of the 2 star milker also earns her star, she would be a 3 star milker. So a 10 star milker would be a doe who has ten generations of does behind her who have ALL earned their milk stars.

For bucks, there is also a milk award they can earn through their daughters. This is what is called a 'plus' buck noted as follows for the different registries:

AGS: +S
ADGA and MDGA: +B

Bucks can earn additional pluses based on the number of daughters and their production. Again, the requirements for each award vary from registry to registry.

Championship titles are awarded based on show wins. To earn a Championship title, the goat must win Grand Champion (GCH) 3 times under at least 2 different judges at sanctioned classes. They must also be mature for at least two of those wins (does must have two wins while in milk). Each GCH win is referred to as a 'leg'. The following are how the three registries note the finished championship

AGS: MCH
ADGA and MDGA: CH

When a goat earns both their finished championship AND a milk star, they have the championship title changed slightly:

ADGA: GCH
AGS: ARMCH
MDGA: FMCH

So, these are even better than the CH and MCH titles. Goats that have earned both milk stars and finished championships are entered into the advanced registry herdbook.

In the MDGA there is another title that can be earned by miniature dairy goats. This is earned through a virtual show program. The VCH is earned in the same way as the Championship titles, but instead of live shows, the goats win in virtual shows with pictures. If the animal also has their milk award, the title is VMCH.

Linear Appraisal (LA) is offered by ADGA and Classification is offered by AGS. These programs have the goat compared against the 'ideal' goat and given a score based on how closely they conform to the ideal. These scores can often be more helpful than show wins as a show win simply means the goat is better than the other goats at the show. A high appraisal or classification score, means they are close to the ideal dairy goat. LA scores are typically listed as a combination of letters and numbers (EX92 for example is a very good score - the higher the better!) The scoring for LA and classification is a little too complicated to cover in this article, but there is a link below to help you understand the numbers and letters of LA.

SG and SGCH are titles for animals who are a part of the ADGA superior genetics program and the notations indicate that they have met or exceeded certain criteria based on milk production and Linear Appraisal.

Milk Production Awards (the pluses and stars)

Since Nigerian Dwarves are dairy goats, perhaps the best place to start understanding the pedigree is with the *M (ADGA) or *D (AGS) designations. This indicates that a doe has been tested for milking ability, and has successfully passed the required levels. There are many details associated with earning the star milking designations; however, stars in the pedigree are a good indicator that the goat has potential for good milk production. The star and plus designations are always listed after the goat’s name.

Goats can also earn stars based on their progeny; and this is obviously the only way a buck earns production awards. For AGS, the rules are as follows:

For a *D (star doe), the doe has met the minimum standards for milk production or she has three *D daughters, or two +S sons, or two *D daughters and one +S son.

A 2*D (two star doe) is the daughter of a star doe, and has also met the minimum standards for milk production. The number preceding the star indicates the number of consecutive generations of qualifying does. In the example, 8*D identifies that Arwen and seven dams before her all qualified for milk performance awards.

A *S (star sire) has a *D dam and has a +S sire or sire with a *D dam.

A +S (plus sire) has at least three *D daughters (from three different does), or has two +S sons, or has two *D daughters and one +S son.

A ++S (two plus sire) has at least three *D daughters (from three different does), and at least two +S sons.

A ++*S (two plus star sire) has at least three *D daughters and two +S, and a *D dam

In the ADGA registry, the D’s change to M’s, the S’s change to B’s; and there are small differences in the requirements. In the example, the 2*M means that both Arwen and her dam qualified for milk production awards in the ADGA registry.

Titles (CH, MCH, GCH, ARMCH)

Goats are awarded titles for show wins, and MCH is the title for a Master Champion in AGS while CH is a Champion in ADGA. To reach Champion status a goat must win three shows as champion under at least two different judges. If a goat has achieved Champion status and also has production awards (the pluses and stars), then the goat becomes a Permanent Grand Champion which is denoted by ARMCH for AGS and GCH for ADGA. These designations are placed in front of the goat’s name. If animals have multiple titles (MCH/CH), then they have completed wins at shows for both registries.

SG indicates that a doe or buck is in the top 15% of the production index for that breed, and if they also have Permanent Grand Champion status, the title becomes SGCH.

Classification/Appraisal Scores (The E’s and V’s)

AGS uses a classification system to rate goat conformation which compares the goat to an ideal 100% and assigns a percentage for that goat. The scores are Excellent (90-100), Very Good (85-89.9), Good Plus (80-84.9), Good (70-79.9), Fair (60-69.9), and Poor (under 60). This classification is displayed after the goats name and any production awards. So again using the example, ‘E’ means that Arwen scored excellent in the AGS classification system.

ADGA uses Linear Appraisal to classify goats with the goat being assigned scores for general appearance, dairy character, body capacity, and mammary. The classifications are Excellent (E), Very Good (V), Good Plus (+), Acceptable (A), and Poor (P). So in the example, 05-02 90 VEEE means that at 5 years and 2 months; Arwen was given an overall score of 90 and was considered very good in general appearance but excellent in dairy character, body capacity, and mammary.

Miscellaneous Additional Points of Confusion

Occasionally, an “H” or “h” turns up in a pedigree, and this means the goat was naturally hornless (polled). Also, an “AI” somewhere in the goat’s name means that artificial insemination was used to produce the animal.

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