We had about a dozen of our goats classified today. That means that a judge came to the farm and basically scored our goats against the ideal. The goats are scored on things like length of bone, front end assembly, head and breed character, feet and legs, neck, skin, ribs, chest and heart girth, fore udder, rear udder, teats, and more! Total possible score is 100, but I don't think I've ever seen a score much beyond 92. After all, no goat is perfect. If a goat scores 90 or higher, they are "Excellent," 85 to 89.9 is "Very Good," 80-84.9 is "Good+," and so on. Of the eleven goats classified today, we received ten VG and one E!
Maly PG Annie Oakley scored 90.4! Last year, she came so close to "E" with an 89.8 as a three year old. Does should improve with age, although sometimes things start to break down, such as feet, legs, and mammary support, especially as does go beyond six or seven years of age. Although Annie does not carry the Antiquity Oaks herd name, she was born here. Maly is the herd name that my oldest daughter Margaret had for her herd. When she went to college, she sold all of her goats to me. I didn't have to buy them all, but I have to admit that she did a great job breeding, and I wanted to buy her goats!
Our first homegrown master champion, ARMCH Antiquity Oaks Carmen *D scored 89.9 today at age 7, which is exciting. She is a good example of a goat that keeps improving with age. This is her highest score yet. It's hard for me to believe she's already 7!
And although Antiquity Oaks Giselle didn't score as well as several other goats, she wins the award for "most photogenic" today. Her score was 87.7, which is still a "VG" and quite good, but you get to see her picture instead of the other four goats that scored 89-point-something because their pictures didn't turn out as well. And unfortunately, I totally forgot to get a picture of Pinkerton, the buck who scored 89.2.
So, why do people have their goats classified? It's very educational, and you get a second opinion on your goats. It also makes it nice for potential buyers of kids to have that second opinion. It's not just me saying that a goat is good in a particular area. Buyers can actually look at the goat's scorecard to see how they were scored on each individual area.
3 comments:
Congratulations on your excellent results!
LOVE them! They all look nice to me... lol And funny you mentioned the last one being the most photogenic today, because I liked her best! lol
Congratulations! All your goats are lovely, though, anyone can see that. You, and your daughter, have done a fine job breeding them. It is nice getting second opinions from professional judges though. I didn't realize you could get them to come out to your farm!
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