Don’t you wish you could choose a buck for a particular doe that would “fix” a trait on that doe herself? I know, right? If only it were that easy…
My daughter’s animal science textbook listed the hereditability of traits for all different types of livestock so I pulled out just the dairy goat info, and then after searching the internet to see if I could add to it, I found the same chart I just made on the ADGA website. Apparently anything over 15% is worth paying attention to and once you get above 30% you have a good chance of carefully improving your herd. But still, if you think about it, a trait that is 30% hereditable means that you should have a 15% influence from each parent. So where does the other 70% come from? It’s a mix from grandparents. So when looking at that pedigree, get to know the grandparents as it seems they contribute more than the parents do!
Time to choose a buck!
| Dairy Goat Trait | Heritability |
| Stature | 52% |
| Strength | 29% |
| Dairyness | 24% |
| Rump Angle | 32% |
| Rump Width | 27% |
| Rear Leg Angulation | 21% |
| Fore Udder Attachment | 25% |
| Rear Udder Height | 25% |
| Rear Udder Arch | 19% |
| Medial Suspensory Ligament | 33% |
| Udder Depth | 25% |
| Teat Placement | 36% |
| Teat Diameter | 38% |
Wiggans, G.R. and Hubbard, S.M., Genetic evaluation of yield and type traits of dairy goats in the United States. Journal of Dairy Science 2001.
River Edge Farm 