If you are interested in breeding and selling your dairy goats, Linear Appraisal is a must. No, not all successful breeders participate in LA. Yes, there will still be a market for your kids even if you don't do LA. BUT! If your goal is to raise high-quality dairy goats, and to sell to other performance herds, you should really think about getting your girls in front of an appraiser. An appraiser is a super high trained ultra-judge who comes and judges your goats. Unlike shows, where all the goats are judged off the each other (which means if all the other goats suck, of course the only decent animal will win) with LA, every goat is judged off the 'perfect' goat. But in this world, nothing is perfect, so the highest score any animal can earn is '94'. Even then, I'm pretty sure you need to go in front of an ADGA comittee to see if your goat really deserves that high of a score. FUN FACT: The highest score a Nigerian Dwarf has ever recieved is an '93' Signing upLet's face it. Anything that involves ADGA has an extreme amount of complicated and intimidating paperwork. We will work through this together, my fellow paperwork-phobes. If your're not able to commit to an appraisal, but would like to learn, see if you can help out at a friends session. It's very helpful. I would very highly recommend signing up early, before the 31st of January. Apparently there were too many late sign-ups last year, so the sign-up fee after January 31st jumped from $35 to $75.\ Linear Appraisal Application For all those who, like me, are worried about filling in the paperwork wrong, here is a quick play-by-play: Are you hosting the LA session at your house? Yes:1 or 3 No: 2 Will you allow others to come to your house with their goats and join the appraisal? Yes: 1 No: 3 If you are taking your herd to someone else's place to be appraised, click here to find a host herd. After you get permission to bring your goats over to your host's house, fill in their name and ADGA ID#. All the ID's can be found in the ADGA membership directory. Write in dates that you absolutely cannot attend the appraisal due to other commitments (shows, vacationing in Hawaii, etc) You need not pay the $8.50 per goat right away. Just the entry fee. You will receive a 'Currently owned list' from ADGA later in the year. That's when you need to cough up. Play by play over. Before the appraisalJust like a show, all you goats need to be shaved and uddered for the appraisal. Tip, make sure all your goats walk. Ella could have scored better if she had walked for the appraiser, but she hunched her back, bowed her neck, and leapt around the barn. (Sigh) How it worksLA is supposed to be less subjective than showing, but sad to say, some appraisers consider themselves 'tougher' than others. The way it goes, each goat has some traits judged on a linear scale from 1(very little) to 50 (a whole lot). The higher the number doesn't mean better, in fact, too much can be as bad as too little. The traits judged from 1-50 are: Stature, Strength, Dairyness, Rump Angle, Rump Width, Rear legs side view, Fore udder attachment, Rear udder height, Rear udder arch, MSL, Udder depth, Teat placement, Teat diameter, Rear udder side view. This is where LA can be a bit more subjective The traits: Head, Shoulder assembly, Front legs, Rear legs, Feet, Back, Rump, and Udder texture are judged on the scale of great-awful. 'E' Excellent is 90% or more of the ideal. 'V' Very good is 85-89% '+' Good plus is 80-84% 'A' Acceptable is 70-79% I don't like seeing anything below an 'A'. 'F' Fair is 60-69% 'P' Poor is less than 60%. The four main traits are General Appearance, Dairy Strength, Body Capacity and Mammary. CABrandywinfarms Fannys Glenda VEEV 87. Glenda scored Very good for General Appearance and Mammary, and Excellent for Dairy Strength and Body Capacity. The number is her final score, depending on the appraiser this could be lowered or raised from this. I have seen does with VVVV 88 scores, VEEV 89, and VEVV 86. It really depends on your appraiser. Then there is a whole slew of codes from defects like 'High dorsal process' or 'Tilted chest floor' to comments, such as 'Stale' or 'Dry'. Each goat gets about 2-3 minutes of stage time, and then its over. It's really easy, and very very informative. Our 2017 appraiser was very friendly, and thanked us for participating. Fine PrintJust so you don't get any nasty shocks, I've written down all the fine-print I can think of. 1) All ADGA Senior does must be appraised. ADGA does not want people to cherry-pick who comes or not. Yes, dry does must come too. The appraiser may decide not to appraise dry does, but that is his/her decision. Not yours. The only exception to this rule, is if your doe is older than 8 year old, was last appraised on or after her 5th birthday, or was appraised last year. Don't worry bucks are always optional. 2) To appraise bucks, you must also appraise does of the same breed. I don't know why, it is just one of ADGA's rules. 3) If you have less than 16 animals to be appraised, you may need to go to a host herd to be accommodated. There are only 7 or 8 appraisers in the whole US. 4) After a goat is 5 years old, a score becomes 'permanent'. If you choose to appraise again, and the score goes down, the permanent score does not go down. If the score goes up, however, the permanent score goes up. The permanent score goes behind the goats name. 5) If a goat under 5 years old, is scored lower than she did, say, last year. Her score does go down. You are not supposed to advertise the higher score as an only or permanent score, if a lower, more recent score is available. Ready to get your girls appraised?
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