I am not sure if this is the place for this question and if it is not, I am sorry.
I have head allot of different views when it comes to polled and blue eyed ND's.
First I have heard that naturally polled goats do not make the good milkers and the same was said about goats with blue eyes.
I have also heard that one should never breed a polled goat to a polled goat because that would result in a hermorphadit baby.
And lasty I have heard that polled goats carry a sterile gene.
Does anyone know weather some or all these are true in Nigerain Dwarfs?
Replies
When you talk about 50/50 polled, you're saying that out of 100 goats, about half will be polled. Of my six mini mancha kids this year that had a polled sire, FIVE were horned! Talk about losing the polled lottery! :( But I've had does bred to that same buck that had triplet polled goats. In the end, it all winds up being 50/50. Some years I have more polled; some years I have more horned.
A homozygous polled goat is NOT necessarily going to be a hermaphrodite. There is a saanen study from about 50 years ago that used homozygous polled bucks. There were 1500 kids in the study, and when they bred two heterozygous polled goats, they got 10% hermaphrodites. When they bred a homozygous to a heterozygous polled goat, they got 25% hermaphrodites. So, you can see the odds of a hermie are not even that high. There are people who are breeding polled to polled. It is up to you.
WOW, Kelly, that is awesome! But my guess is that if it were that easy to get polled (using a polled buck) somebody would have already figured it out and we would all know. Shoot, there probably wouldn't be any horned goats left by now. I know I would be getting me some polled ones if I could get those odds. 6 out of 7 GREAT!
I have a doe that is blue-eyed and she is a wonderful milker. I didnt buy her for the blue eyes, I bought her for her milking pedigree. I dont do the color breeding. So it depends on what kind of a breeder you get them from-production or color. Next freshening she will go on milk test and I think she will do great.
I guess the next question would be, who passes more traits? The buck or the doe?
All my does were born with horns, but have disbudded. My 2 bucks are naturally polled.
Baby girl had twin doelings and both are polled.
Martha had triplet doelings, 2 polled 1 horned
Crescent had 1 single buckling and he was polled
Sanora had 1 single doeling and she was polled.
Was I luckey this go around?
Genetics make my brain dumb. LMAO!
Here's what Deb. said in another thread about blue eyed goats, (and the breeding for the blue eyes vs. them just happening to HAVE blue eyes, but coming from and bred because of their good milking lines)
"I know blue-eyed goats are pretty to look at, but don't get too excited about them. Blue-eyed goats with good milk records and good conformation are hard to find, because people just keep re-breeding them for the eye color, even if they aren't good for show or milk. People who are serious about milk or show don't care what color a goats eyes are or if they're spotted or polled or any of those other things that backyard pet breeders charge extra for. And if someone starts bragging about a goat whose grandmother was a champion or had a milk star, just leave. When I was new to goats, someone told me she was charging more for a goat because her grandfather was a champion. I don't know a single reputable breeder who would charge more for something like that. I have kids every year whose grandmother was the 2005 national champion (Pegasus, one of my bucks, is out of her), and I don't charge a penny more for Pegasus kids. I got him because I hope he'll pass on his mom's good genetics, but breeding isn't a perfect science. So, do your homework, research pedigrees, and don't buy anything on impulse. I've never seen a goat that wasn't cute!"
I've heard some of the same.
I know a few people with blue eye milkers that seem to produce well. I've never heard anything negative about polled goats in relation to how the perform as milkers... so I can't help you there. Or with fertility issues on polled goats. I'd want to see the "official" report on that one.
I don't think it's a disputed idea that polled to polled can result in hermaphrodites, but that can happen in non polled situations too... and it's not a definite result that is bound to happen every time as I understand it. It just CAN happen. There's a discussion about that here in the forums... You might try to search for the term and see if you can find it. There was some good stuff in it.