SHERE COUNTRY RANCH

Raising Registered Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats & Limousin Cattle in Beautiful Northeastern Minnesota

Linear Appraisal

Brief Overview: 

ADGA's Linear Appraisal program is a performance program designed to help breeders evaluate their individual animals based on type traits that affect the structural and functional durability of their animals.

The linear appraisal system includes 13 primary traits and 1 secondary trait that are used by the appraiser to evaluate functional conformation. To these linear traits have been added eight structural and functional areas (head, shoulder assembly, front legs, back legs, feet, back, rump, and udder texture) that are evaluated by the appraiser as Excellent, Very Good, Good Plus, Acceptable, Fair or Poor. The appraisal system also includes room for the appraiser to notate up to two remarks and/or defects. The last part of the linear appraisal system is an evaluation of the animal in the four major categories (three for bucks) and the determination of a final score for the animal. Only the linear trait scores and the animal’s final score are part of the computerized linear appraisal data base used to develop sire summaries; the other information is included to provide the herd owner with additional information about the individual animals that are appraised.  An optional youngstock program is also available.
Scoring:

When figuring a score, General Appearance (first letter) is 35% of the score, Dairy Character (second letter) 20%, Body Capacity (third letter) 10%, and Mammary (fourth letter) 35%.  On bucks and young stock, General Appearance is 55% of the score, Dairy Character 30%, and Body Capacity 15%.  Mammary is excluded of course and on young stock the E for Excellent used with the bucks and senior does is replaced with an Ec for Extremely Correct.

For the letters:

E = Excellent
V = Very Good
+ = Good Plus
A = Acceptable
F = Fair
P = Poor


For the final number, scores 90 and above get an Excellent rating, 85-89 gets Very Good, 80-84 gets Good Plus, 70-79 gets Acceptable, 60-69 gets Fair, and 59 and below gets a Poor rating.

The ideal goat is a score of 100, but of course there is no such thing as the perfect goat. The highest score an animal can get is 94, and if they receive that score they have to go before a committee formed by the ADGA to prove that that animal really deserves a score of 94. The highest score a first freshening doe can get is 89.  The highest I have seen a Nigerian Dwarf doe score is a 92 and in my searches so far, I've only found four that received that high of a score.

To be continued!

2010 Linear Appraisal Notes & Results: 

I had the pleasure of being the host farm for our July 2010 Linear Appraisal.  My good friend Debbie Newsam was kind enough to offer to take notes for me and with her permission I have included the key points from our appraiser below:
Key conformational points (highlighted) that are needed to have a correct and dairy animal. Correctness leads to longevity and productiveness, he couldn't stress this enough!
 
At birth -Literally when the kid's head is presenting in the birth canal look for a broad and deep muzzle with wide nostrils, broad through the jaw in width and depth. Being able to breath well and eat well makes for a long-lived, productive dairy goat.
 
As the front legs appear, look at the length of the cannon bone (the lower leg bone).  They should not be short but with the knee facing forward and of close to equal length with the upper leg bone.
 
These two conformational points were the most important to consider in young animals. He highly stressed that if you do not see correctness of muzzles and cannon bones AT BIRTH , then do NOT consider this kid a "keeper" and cull it from your herd.
 
Look at the sternum pad if it is tipped forward that will create straight ( llllllll example) ribs which are NOT correct. Ribs should angle toward the rear of the goat, note: the last rib will always angle even on straight ribbed animals so feel all the ribs, not just the last one. Flatness of rib is highly desirable and you should be able to lay your finger between the ribs. The sternum should continue to behind the elbow (feel for this).
 
Topline -shoulder to chine and chine to pins should be three equal in length parts for a BALANCED animal. Looking at a dairy goat's topline from ABOVE starting at the last rib, put your thumb on one side and your index finger on the other and as you run your hand toward the rear of the goat the spine should widen and your fingers be stopped by the hip bones.
 
Do NOT get rid of the does that look too refined, in Nigerians these will be your most "dairy" does. Seeing prominence at the point of the shoulder can indicate too overly refined, watch for this. Sharp and clean "dairy" does tend to be shallow in the heel and have more spread toes, don't worry about pretty feet, concentrate on that dairy character.
 
A long topline with a short underline coupled  with downhillness in the topline and rump makes udders tilt. The underline or barrel should deepen as you look toward the udder area.
 
Dorsal Process (tail bone between pin bones and hips) should be level NOT prominent (raised high) in kids. This is an indication of future kidding problems (C-sections!) After does have freshened the dorsal process does not settle back in until 6 weeks fresh.
 
Width of Rump - Check kids at 10-11 months old. You want at least 5 inch width, preferably 5 1/2 inches. It will be difficult to produce correct rumps without correct loin widening. An excellent length and width of loin will makes udders well extended beneath does
 
If you can fix the sternums, proportioning of length in top line and loins this will FIX  a lot of other problems.
 
Meatiness happens to udders when does are nursing kids but texture will improve with complete filling and emptying of udder by removing kids and hand milking.

Below are the 2010 appraisal results of the animals currently in my herd (10/1/10).  Note:  Cinnamon wasn't feeling well on appraisal day and Red Velvet had a rough kidding and c-section which I believe negatively affected their scores.
7/6/2010 General Appearance Dairy Character Body Mammary Final Score
Megapixel E E V   90
           
Xplicit E E E V 90
Little Voice E E E V 90
Seminole Wind V E V E 89
Masquerade V E E V 89
Yoyo Tunes (FF) V E V V 88
Suzy Q (FF) V V V V 88
Violette V V E + 87
Red Velvet + V + + 84
Baby Doll (FF) + V V + 84
Cinnamon + V + + 83
           

I have added current heights of my senior does and bucks to their respective pages based on the measurements taken at my July 2010 Linear Appraisal.  All of the senior animals in my herd are well within the ADGA and AGS height limits and most are also within the NDGA height limits. 

The linear scale for stature for the Nigerian Dwarf breed is as follows:

Linear Score Stature in Inches
5 17"
10 18"
15 19"
20 20"
25 21"
30 22"
35 23"
40 24"
45 25"


2008 Linear Appraisal Notes:

My first ever Linear Appraisal was done in August 2008 and I must say that it was a truly educational experience and one I intend to continue participating in on an bi-annual basis.  It confirmed some things I thought I knew as well as teaching me a few new things to look for.  It was money very well spent.  My only regret is that I didn't have my bucks and more junior does evaluated this year.  Due to other family obligations this year, most of my freshened does were dried off early.  The does that were still in milk were only being milked once a day and in Xplicit's case, still had a single kid nursing on her, so their mammaries certainly were not all they could have been.  Anyway, enough excuses.  I feel the girls did very well all things considering and am quite pleased and feel much more comfortable knowing what I need to work on.  One thing the appraiser did make note of was that all my appraised freshened does rated Excellent in their rump score, which she said is far from typical with the Nigerian breed.  Below is a summary of how the girls rated. 

8/6/2008 General Appearance Dairy Character Body Mammary Final Score
Violette V V E + 87
Cinnamon V V V A 85
Xplicit V E E A 84
Terabithia V V V A 82
Aria V E E F 80
Fire N Ice V V V --- V
Seminole Wind V + V --- V-