First of all, we want to extend a hearty welcome to the breeders of Nigerian Dairy Goats who were officially able to register with ADGA in January 2005. The ADGA office has been receiving many letters from you with a number of different questions. It seems like a good time for us to clarify as much as we can with this article and hopefully answer many of these questions.
The New Breeds Task force and all of the committees involved in various facets of admitting new breeds, including Linear Appraisal, Production Testing, Type, Breed Standards, Judges Training, Information Management and Artificial Insemination have been working on this for several years. This article will only address the Registration process.
Joining ADGA: Many of you are already members of the American Dairy Goat Association as well as the American Goat Society and/or the Canadian Goat Society. We would suggest that those of you who are not members of ADGA, consider joining.New Member Application This will get you several things. You will establish your Herd name and tattoo sequence. I will cover both of these items in separate paragraphs. You will also get a copy of the ADGA Guidebook with all of the Rules of Registration and other necessary information. This should answer most of the questions you have. You can also purchase the Guidebook directly from ADGA without becoming a member.
Herd name: If you don’t already have a Herd name with ADGA, you may want to establish one before you register your goats.Herd Name Registration If the herd name you want is already in our database as belonging to someone else, you will have to choose another. This has been a sticky point with some AGS members who are unable to use a herd name they have had with AGS for years. Hopefully, you can come up with several satisfactory variations that will be acceptable. We advise that requests to the office have enough suggested variations, in order of preference, included to allow the office to select one that is agreeable to both sides. To help with this selection, you should access the existing herd names list in the ADGA Membership Directory.list on the ADGA Website. You may not use AGS or CGS as part of your Herd name. These have been reserved for use in re-registration.
Tattoos: All animals in ADGA must have a unique tattoo. This is non-negotiable and here is why. As I am writing this article, 250 bull calves in Washington State are being destroyed because they cannot positively identify the one that was born to the Holstein cow discovered several weeks ago with BSE. The ADGA website has a link to the United States Animal Identification Plan. Please take the time to review this information. ADGA, and all other associations that track animals, must be able to rapidly identify the farm of origin and trace the movement of animals. If the sequence of tattoo letters you request is being used, the office will ask you to add an Alpha or numeric digit to distinguish your tattoo or will assign you a different tattoo. You may need to add this digit to already tattooed goats.
Eligibility: The herd book is for Purebreds only and is established from animals already registered with the American Goat Society or the Canadian Goat Society. Registrations are by re-registration from those Registries, the progeny of ADGA registered animals, or the progeny from a combination of AGS, CGS, and ADGA registered parents. There are NO Experimental, American or grade herd books for Nigerians. The existing Experimental, American and Grade herd books are only for the Standard size breeds recognized by the ADGA. Animals with any percentage of genetics from Nigerians, Pygmies, Angoras, Boer, or any other breed not currently recognized as a standard breed by the ADGA must not be presented for registration.
Re-registration: To re-register your AGS or CGS animals with ADGA, you will send their original papers along with an ADGA application with the correct fee, to the ADGA office. Please read the entire section of the Guidebook covering re-registration. This is Article VIII, Rules for Registration and Recordation, Section L. Rules for Reregistering American Goat Society/ Canadian Goat Society Dairy Goats with the American Dairy Goat Association.
The prefix AGS or CGS will be added to the animal's AGS or CGS name. This will be ongoing and across all breeds. This was passed by the Board of Directors to simplify the process and allow for animals coming in with names that are the same or similar to existing ADGA names. Here is an example. Your AGS animal is named “ Manna Spicey”. You can’t have the Manna herd name because it is mine. Your animal will be “AGS Manna Spicy”. The animals being re-registered are the only ones allowed to use the AGS and CGS as part of the herd name. In the following generation, your animals must have your new ADGA herd name. Under current policy, if you have not recorded a herd name with ADGA, the office will use “The” in front of the name in place of a herd name. In the above example, that animal would be “The Spicy”. See Article VIII B. 3 & 4.
If your animal is tattooed with “GLR”, well you can’t use that either, as it is mine. The office will return your application and you will be asked to add a suggested alpha or numeric character to the existing tattoo. Now this gets a little complicated so here are the steps. When you get the application back, but before tattooing the goat and re-submitting the paper, you need to call, fax or e-mail the office to be sure the recommended addition is still OK and has not been used during the mailing time from the office to you. The office tells you “Yes it is available”. You then go ahead and tattoo the additional character in the ear and re-submit the paper. The quickest way would be to fax it when re-submitting to assure the tattoo doesn’t get used during mailing time from you to the office.
Electronic Identification Devices: The Board of Directors has approved the use of electronic identification devices as a supplemental form of identification. This includes Microchips and any other similar form of ID. If your animal is micro chipped or has other electronic identification, it must also be tattooed. Both forms of identification must be stated and will show on the Registration Certificate.
I hope you find this helpful. The office staff and this committee are working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible. During the coming year, we may be posting additional information for you. If you have specific concerns, please feel free to contact us.
Lelia Berry
1284 Nadia Way
Central Point, OR 97502
(541) 664-2596
Leliaberry@aol.com
