There’s a book put out by the American Dairy Goat Association that details breed characteristics for the dairy breeds they register. As I filled out the forms to register my Nubian buck High Reaches Pamela’s Kingpin, I had to mark these off. More important, I knew he showed these traits.
The Ears Have It
Most people recognize a Nubian by their ears. It’s the first thing people notice in kid pictures.
The breed characteristics list these ears as pendulous. This means they are long and hang down.
What I notice about ears on a buck is that, no matter how long they appear to be on the kid, they get progressively shorter relative to their face. By the time a buck is full grown, those ears that wrapped around his nose as a kid barely reach the end of his nose.
What About That Nose?
Nubians are supposed to have something called a Roman nose. This means it is concave or bows up from eyes to nose.
The amount of this curve varies, but is not supposed to be flat. My goats have a moderate curve now.
Years ago, I had a goat named Connie with the really high Roman nose. She was lucky as it didn’t make her top jaw shorter than her lower one. It sometimes does. The moderate curve is much better.
What Color do You Prefer?
Nubians come in a wide range of colors both plain and spotted. The different colors come in and out of favor.
For years, the color was black. As long as a goat was black, she was kept. Those goat lines lost size and milk production. But people bought them because they were black. Spots are the special color now.
Dairy goats are kept for milk production. Color doesn’t matter. That doesn’t mean you can’t pick out a goat with a color you like. But the production history is first, breed characteristics are second and color is third.
Kingpin’s Breed Characteristics
The boxes all got checked off. He has the right ears, the right nose, typical color with spots. His mother is a good milker.
Now Kingpin is official with a registration number. And next week he will have the DNA profile to add to it. On Monday, he goes to a new home. I will miss him.