Registering AGS Nigerians with ADGA
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 check the existing herd names by calling the ADGA office. 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. 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. If the breeders assigned tattoo is different in AGS than it is in ADGA, you will need to tattoo the correct tattoo in the right, left or center tail.
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-sized 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.
Registering AGS Nigerians with ADGA
To re-register your AGS or CGS animals with ADGA, you will send their original AGS/CGS certificates, any transfer records (which you can obtain from AGS) & 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 I. Rules for Re-registering 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 “ Chimney Rock Spicey”. You can’t have the Chimney Rock herd name because it is registered. When it is re-registered the name will be “AGS Chimney Rock Spicey”. The animals being re-registered are the only ones allowed to use the AGS and CGS as part of the name. If you are registering a Nigerian Dwarf using a copy of the sire & dam’s AGS certificate, the goat will take the breeders herd name that is registered with ADGA. If they don’t have a herd name, it will have “The” in front of the name. In the following generation, your animals must have your ADGA herd name. See Article VIII B. 3 & 4.
If your animal is tattooed with “SCM”, you can’t use that, as it is registered to another member. The office will return an error report and you will be asked to add the breeders assigned ADGA tattoo to the right, left or center tail. If the breeder is NOT an ADGA member, you will want to call the ADGA office to verify that the tattoo you would like to use is available. You will need to send the error report to the ADGA office with the corrections quickly to assure the tattoo doesn’t get used during mailing time from you to the office. The quickest way is to fax it or send as an e-mail attachment.
If the AGS paperwork does not have transfer dates on it, you will need to obtain a copy of the transfers from AGS or you can send bills-of-sales showing each purchase.
Electronic Identification Devices
The Board of Directors has approved the use of electronic identification devices as a secondary form of identification. This includes Microchips and any other similar form of ID. If your animal is microchipped or has other electronic identification, it must also be tattooed. Both forms of identification can be stated and will show on the Registration Certificate.
If you have specific concerns, please feel free to contact us.