Now I just gotta sayI love polled. I like blue eyes, moon spots, frosted ears, and lots of coloring too. Not too crazy about wattles, though. I try to breed my goats for conformation, not color. Colors won't help in the show ring. Although I don't breed specifically for polled, blue eyes, colors etc. Those things just seem to come with the package! Now I periodically have to check these charts. So I figured: Why not make your own? Ready? Let's start! PolledIs when a goat is born hornless. Polled is a dominant trait, thankfully, and thus, it is easy to add a few polled goats to your herd. All goats (and pretty much everything else) gets one gene from each parent. If an animal gets two recessive genes, the recessive trait show up. If two horned animals breed, (horned is recessive) then there is no chance of polled babies. Polled = P (dominant) Horned = H (recessive) Homozygous is when both genes are the same. Heterozygous is when the genes are different from each other. Here are the situations: ___________________________________________________________ HH x HH = 100% horned kids. (HH homozygous horned. Only able to produce polled offspring if bred to a polled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ PH x HH = 50% polled kids. (PH heterozygous polled. Can still produce horned offspring if bred to a horned mate.) %50 horned kids. (HH homozygously horned. Only able to produce polled offspring if bred to a polled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ PH x PH = 75% polled kids. (PP homozygous polled 25% or PH heterozygous polled 50% cannot tell which until bred. PP animals cannot produce horned offspring, regardless of mate. PH can still produce horned offspring if bred to a horned mate.) 25% horned kids. (HH cannot produce polled kids unless bred to a polled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ PP x PH = 100% polled kids. (PP homozygous polled 50% or PH heterozygous polled 50% cannot tell which until bred. PP animals cannot produce horned offspring, regardless of mate. PH can still produce horned offspring if bred to a horned mate.) ___________________________________________________________ PP x PP = 100% polled kids. (PP homozygous polled PP animals cannot produce horned offspring, regardless of mate.) Blue eyesFrom left to right: Blue, light brown (gold) brown (Just like polled, blue eyes are a dominant gene. For all you who love those blue eyes, nows the time to celebrate! It is very easy to add blue eyes to your herd. Blue eyed = Bl (dominant) Brown eyed = Br (recessive) Here are the situations: ___________________________________________________________ BrBr x BrBr = 100% brown eyed kids (HH homozygous brown eyed. Only able to produce blue eyed offspring if bred to a blue eyed mate.) ___________________________________________________________ BlBr x BrBr = 50% blue eyed kids. (BlBr heterozygous blue eyed. Can still produce brown eyed offspring if bred to a brown eyed mate.) 50% brown eyed kids. (BrBr homozygously brown eyed. Only able to produce blue eyed offspring if bred to a blue eyed mate.) ___________________________________________________________ BlBr x BlBr = 75% blue eyed kids. (BlBl homozygous blue eyd 25% or BlBr heterozygous blue eyed 50% cannot tell which until bred. BlBl animals cannot produce brown eyed offspring, regardless of mate. BlBr can still produce brown eyed offspring if bred to a brown eyed mate.) 25% brown eyed kids. (BrBr cannot produce blue eyed kids unless bred to a blue eyed mate.) ___________________________________________________________ BlBl x BlBr = 100% blue eyed kids (PP homozygous blue eyed 50% or PH heterozygous blue eyed 50% cannot tell which until bred. BlBl animals cannot produce brown eyes, regardless of mate. BlBr can still produce brown eyes if bred to a brown eyed mate.) ___________________________________________________________ BlBl x BlBl = 100% blue eyed kids. (BlBl homozygous blue eyed animals cannot produce brown eyed offspring, regardless of mate.) WattlesIt seems that all the 'extras' are dominant genes! In my research I found that polled, blue eyes, and wattles are all dominant genes! Some people like their goats with "jewelry" and some don't. I personally don't really care for it, but I would take a quality goat with or without wattles. W = wattles (dominant) N = Un wattled (recessive) ___________________________________________________________ NN x NN = 100% brown eyed kids (NN homozygous non wattled. Only able to produce wattled offspring if bred to a wattled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ WN x NN = 50% wattled kids. (WW heterozygous wattled. Can still produce un-wattled offspring if bred to an non wattled mate.) 50% non-wattled kids. (NN homozygously un-wattled. Only able to produce wattles offspring if bred to a wattled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ WN x WN = 75% wattled kids. (WW homozygous Wattled 25% or WN heterozygous wattled 50% cannot tell which until bred. WW animals cannot produce Non wattled offspring, regardless of mate. WN can still produce non wattled offspring if bred to a un-wattled mate.) 25% Non wattled kids. (NN cannot produce wattled kids unless bred to a wattled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ WW x WN = 100% wattled kids (WW homozygous wattled 50% or WN heterozygous wattled 50% cannot tell which until bred. WW animals cannot produce un-wattled, regardless of mate. WN can still produce no wattled if bred to a non wattled mate.) ___________________________________________________________ WW x WW = 100% wattled kids. (WW homozygous wattled animals cannot produce un-wattled offspring, regardless of mate.) These are just the possibilities of what you could get. Since the genes that kids get are random, like the flip of a coin, you could end up with more or less. River Edge had one set of quadruplets, the mother was BrBr/PH and the father was BlBr/HH and out of the 4 kids, 3 polled, and 2 were blue eyed. One woman we know who owns a blue eyed buck has had mostly blue eyes, even though her buck is actually heterozygous blue eyed! On the other hand, I've heard of polled bucks who almost always "throw" horns.
Now as I mentioned, I would not breed just for these outward characteristics. Especially if you are breeding with the intention to show, appraise, or do production testing. In this post I have to mention that there is a rumor that breeding polled to polled will result in animals that are hermaphrodites, that is, are not exclusively male or female, but have intersex features, and are sterile. I must tell you, that this is not true. The gene for hermaphroditism is closely related to the gene for polled, but that doesn't mean that every kid will be a hermaphrodite. Just because those two genes are close relatives, that does not mean to be polled the goat must carry the "hermie" gene. The "hermie" gene is recessive, and the kid needs two sets of the gene to be a hermaphrodite. There have also been horned hermaphrodites. It all depends whether the parents carry the gene. Have fun breeding! TTYL - Tessa
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