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Caprine Conformation Clinic

 

Evaluator:  Jean Harrison

Senior Does

Senior Does in milk

Entry #1

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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While maintaining extreme femininity, this angular senior doe exhibits impressive style and strength throughout. In the front-end assembly, she has prominent withers that are higher than her hips, and a deep, wide chest. She exhibits tremendous spring and openness of rib and depth of body from the heart girth through the flank. When viewed from above, she is smoothly blended throughout and shows width of her loin and rump. When viewed from the side, her legs are straight, strong, and correctly set, with adequately strong pasterns. Her udder shows evidence of strong attachments, especially in the fore and lateral attachments. She must be commended on her excellent breed character in the head and ears as well as her color.

 

I would suggest breeding this doe to a buck who is known to improve the set of the feet, imparting toes that are close together and pointed forward and under the cannon when viewed from both the front and rear. Additional areas to focus on are improvements to the height and width of the rear udder attachment and strength of the medial suspensory ligament for more clearly defined udder halves and more plumb teat placement.

Entry #2

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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This stylish powerhouse of a senior doe exhibits tremendous body capacity while maintaining an attractive, feminine appearance. She has a deep and wide front end assembly that blends smoothly into a long, capacious body supported by a strong chine and wide loin leading into a long, wide and nearly level rump. She has a deep heart girth, fullness at the point of elbow and depth and spring of rib that increases into her flank. When viewed from above, her full crops and flat ribs are even more evident. Her udder shows evidence of milkiness and a strong, smoothly-blended fore udder attachment. She is to be commended on her excellent breed character in the head and ears as well as her color.

 

I would suggest breeding this doe to a buck that is known to impart improvement in two areas. First, increased strength in the medial suspensory ligament for more clearly defined udder halves and more plumb teat placement, and increased height and width of the rear udder. Second, is improvement in the strength of pasterns, including tighter toes and feet that point forward on both the front and rear legs, and more ideal angulation of the rear legs when viewed from the side.

Entry #3

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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While she may not be as “flashy” as some of her counterparts, there is a lot to this senior doe. She has a well-sculpted head with alert eyes, a strong muzzle with broad nostrils. She has tremendous body capacity as evidenced by full crops, a deep and wide chest, deep heart girth and depth of barrel through to the flank. Her rump is long and uniformly wide from side to side. When viewed from the front, side, and rear, she stands on straight and strong feet and legs, with rear legs well-angulated from stifle to hock. Her udder is well-balanced, with evidence of good fore udder extension and a strong medial suspensory ligament that clearly defines the udder halves.

 

I would recommend breeding this doe to a buck that has a proven record of imparting dairy strength in terms of refinement and leanness, angularity, openness of rib, and flat, flinty bone. Additionally, I suggest another area to focus on when selecting a buck to breed to her is improvement in the height and width of the rear udder attachment.

Entry #4

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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This long-boned senior doe exhibits great strength, upstandingness, length, angularity and openness. She has a long, lean and graceful neck that blends smoothly into her shoulders and withers. Her back is strong and straight, with the withers slightly higher than her hips. Her rump is uniformly wide and nearly level from hips to pins and thurl to thurl. When viewed from the side, her legs are correctly set, with strong rear pasterns with hoof soles that are uniform in depth from heel to toe. She carries her mammary well above her hocks with evidence of a strong, nicely blended fore udder attachment, a high and wide rear udder, and a strong medial suspensory ligament defining the udder halves, and good teat placement and size.

 

As this doe is a purebred, my primary recommendation is to breed her to a buck with excellent breed character to impart a shorter head with a more convex roman nose and ears that are longer and more closely set against the head. From a body conformation perspective, I would suggest breeding her to a buck who is proven to improve the front end assembly in terms of depth of chest and tightness of elbow against the chest wall. An additional area to focus on when choosing a buck to breed her to is straightening the forelegs and tightening up the toes on the front feet when viewed from the front.

Entry #5

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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This flashy senior doe exhibits prominent withers and good body capacity as evidenced by her length of body, a deep and wide chest, deep heart girth, fullness at the crops and depth of barrel through to the flank. Her rump is long and very wide, level from side to side and uniformly wide when viewed from above. When viewed from the front and rear, she stands on straight legs with front feet pointing forward. When viewed from the side, her udder exhibits strong lateral attachment, a balanced shape, and good teat placement.

 

I would suggest breeding this doe to a buck who is known to improve the strength and set of pasterns under the cannon, tighten toes on both the front and rear legs, and add more ideal angulation of the rear legs when viewed from the side. Additionally, an area to focus on when choosing a buck to breed her to would be the increase the height of the rear udder attachment and size of teat.

Entry #6

Owner comments:  2nd freshening, production down from pasture strike (biting fly problems).

Evaluator comments:

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This powerful second-freshener excels in general appearance and body capacity. While maintaining femininity, she shows tremendous strength, smoothness of blending, upstandingness, angularity, and length throughout. Her chest is deep and wide, withers prominent above the shoulder and shoulder blades and points of shoulder and elbow tight against the chest wall. Her back is straight and strong and slightly uphill to the withers. Her rump is nearly level from hips to pins, wide and level from side to side with a will-set tail and well-defined pin bones. Her barrel is deep, increasing into the flank. When viewed from the side, her legs are forelegs are strong and straight, and rear legs appropriately angled. When viewed from the rear, her legs are straight and she exhibits a high, wide escutcheon. Her fore udder attachment shows good blending. 

 

I would recommend breeding this doe to a buck who is proven to increase the height and width of the rear udder attachment, and improve the lateral attachment and medial suspensory ligament. Additionally, especially given this doe’s body weight, I also suggest focusing on a buck who is known to improve feet in terms of front and rear feet pointing more forward and tightening up the toes.

Entry #7

Owner comments:  2nd freshening, kidded with a single. Stance all natural with no handing.

Evaluator comments:

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This second freshener exhibits a rare mix of femininity and power. She has well-set eyes and a broad muzzle and nostrils but also a classically beautiful Nubian head. Her neck is long and lean, yet strong as it blends smoothly into her powerful front end assembly with a deep and wide chest and nicely sculpted brisket. From there, she blends into a deep heart girth and full crops ahead of her long body, then moving into a rump that is long and wide from side to side with a well-set tail and prominent pin bones. When viewed from the side, she is standing on rear legs that are appropriately angled. Her medial suspensory ligament appears to be strong and teat size and placement are good.

 

While a nearly level rump is desired, a completely level rump like this doe exhibits in the side view can cause weakness in the back, incorrect set to the rear legs, and problems during kidding. Therefore, I would recommend breeding this doe to a buck that has shown to improve strength in the topline, specifically in the area of the chine, loin and rump. An additional area to focus on is improving milk output more appropriate for a doe of her size, and improvements in the area of udder attachment and the height and width of the rear udder attachment.

Entry #8

Owner comments:

Evaluator comments:

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This senior doe exhibits good dairy strength. When viewing her from all angles, she exhibits leanness, openness of rib, and flat, flinty bone throughout. She has a strong, wide head and a long, feminine neck that smoothly blends into the shoulder and brisket, with the withers prominent above the shoulder and slightly higher than the hips and a strong topline. Her chest is wide and she is full at the point of elbow. Her crops and loin are wide, as is her rump. When viewed from the rear, her legs are straight and escutcheon high. Looking at her udder, she obviously takes her job as a dairy goat very seriously, with evidence of very high milk production for a doe her size and body weight. 

 

Given this doe’s milkiness relative to her size, I would recommend breeding her to a buck who is known to add body mass and capacity to his kids without compromising this doe’s dairy qualities. I would suggest a secondary focus be increasing the height and width of the rear udder when choosing a buck to breed her to.

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