New goat breeders may have colour problem

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 22

New goat breeders may have colour problem

Many of New Zealand’s newest goat breeders may have a colour problem, according to an M.A.F. adviser in Rangiora, Mr Ross Moorhouse, who is himself a goat breeder.

By putting white females to white males, breeders are often assuming that the progeny must be white. They find to their displeasure that this is not necessarily so. “It is the variable expression of white genes which is confusing people,” Mr Moorhouse says. Breeders must learn about colour, he says, and begin to record the colours of goats during upgrading programmes so as to produce pure-breds that they and the possible purchasers

can have confidence will produce mostly whites.

In the meantime, the premiums that new entrants are paying for colour-sorted feral females may be wasted money. The browns and tans which are discounted may be closer to the white objective than prospective purchasers realise.

The root cause of the colour prejudice is the demand for white cashmere, cashgora and mohair fibres. Breeders are all aiming towards white flocks because of this market factor. In the near future some goat breeders might find it economically worth while to concentrate on coloured goats, especially the “selfcolours” or morrits, which

are an even colour. Like the black and coloured sheep industry, an enthusiastic group of non-white goat breeders may emerge. Mr Moorhouse has seen the beginnings of this specialisation during a recent trip to Australia in which he looked at Government and private cashmere and mohair flocks.

The goat industry in both countries is divided into two broad streams — cashmere and Angora. But there is plenty of overlap between these two groups, the first of which is attempting to breed greater yields of fine cashmere fibre (15 to 18 microns) from feral stock and the second of which is specialising in upgrading from feral to mohair pro-

duction (23 to 30 microns) from Angoras. In between is the cashgora fibre range. But most manufacturers want white fibre and cashmere and mohair marketers are discounting greys, browns or blacks. Although feral females, used as a base stock for all fibre specialisations, come in whites, browns and blacks according to approximate Mendelian proportions, breeders are all aiming for white flocks and are disappointed when coloured kids appear. The desire for feral females has pushed prices over $lOO a head in recent months and some vendors are attempting to sweeten the financial pill by colour sorting females. White

females, of course, and blacks, are attracting premiums while no-one wants browns. Mr Moorhouse believes this market prejudice shows

a basic lack of understanding about colour in goats. As in sheep species, white is not a dominant gene in goat colouring. It must be accumulated while the genes for other colours are bred out. This process may take several generations before any assurance of white can be given. “In' the sheep industry, which has been breeding for white for generations, blacks still emerge quite frequently,” Mr Moorhouse said. In New Zealand Angoras or crossbred goats, breeding white to white no assurance that white kids will emerge, a fact which has angered new breeders and embarrassed some vendors,

especially after the recent kidding. In up grading flocks anything up to 50 per cent coloureds is quite common, he said, in spite of the use of a white pure-bred male. New Zealand pedigrees are short and few breeders have colour-recorded. A white male which might have cost big money to purchase could leave an embarrassing string of coloured offspring. The incidence of colour in pure Angora flocks in Australia is down to 5 to 10 per cent, he has been told. Nevertheless Mr Moorhouse believes that New Zealand must continue to use up-graded Angoras rather than relying on imported Australians. The« Aussie pedigrees may be much longer, and their whiteness more fixed, but the pure-bred population base over the Tasman is also small and some genetic faults such as cryptochids and short tendons can show up. The market prejudice against browns ignores the fact that brown, tan and white colours are all interconnected genetically. “A tan feral female may in fact be closer to white than most people realise and therefore a good buy if it is discounted,” he said. Premiums are paid for blacks because of the belief that blacks do not have recessive brown genes, but that doesn’t necessarily follow either, he said. It might take longer to breed white from a black female start than from a tan female. The key is in the buck’s colour history, Mr Moorhouse stresses. Some cashmere breeders over the Tasman are now starting to record colour and only when a buck leaves nearly all offspring

white can he be sold with any sort of guarantee. Because cashmere breeders are breeding “feral to feral,” to increase the production of the fine down fibre found on all goats but; in greater proportions in New Zealand and Australian' ferals, their colour task is .' harder. It would be worth; while for the cashmere in-' dustry to foster coloured fibre outlets, because some’ processors and manufacturers will specialise in col2 cured fibres, rather than continue to heavily discount; the greys and browns, Mr Moorhouse says. In the mohair section, breeding for white by using, white pure-bred bucks is, certainly a realistic objective but farmers must recognise that colours can and will emerge. One problem is the “golden kid” syndrome, when supposedly white parents, perhaps halfway ’ through an upgrading pro-, gramme, throw a golden ; coloured kid. Such a kid has red primary fibres but the much’ more numerous secondary fibres which develop later' on are white. The animal is then quite often sold as a‘ white one, although of course it still carries the’ potential to leave coloured offspring. The recent changes to the pedigree registration system made by the N.Z. Mohair Producers’ Association have done away with official inspections, shifting the emphasis with pedigree applications to the breeders and their reccord. So in the sale ring it is now even more a case of “buyer beware,” says Mr Moorhouse. Until breeders offer colour histories, what looks white enough as a potential stud animal may still leave plenty of evidence to the contrary.