Goats 101

So, let's start at very beginning by looking at some basic terms and facts.

1. Doe - A female goats. If they're less than a year old, sometimes called doeling.
2. Bucks - A male goat. A young buck is called buckling.
3. Brood doe- A doe that is kept and used for breeding purpose to pass on certain desirable genetic traits.
4. Kid - A baby goat or a goat less than a year old.
5. Yearling - A goat that is between one and two years old.
6. Wether - A castrated male goat
7. Herd - A group of goats.
8. Ruminant - An animal that has a stomach with four compartments and chews cud as part of the digestive process.
9. Udder - The organ in a goat that produces milk.
10. Teat - The protuberance form the udder that you use to milk a goat. Goats have two teats.
11. Dam - A goat's mother
12. Sire - A goat's father.
13. Purebred - Best described as the offspring of two purebred parents of the same distinctive breed. The degree or percentage of breed is determined by the breed association.
14. Registered - Pedigree for individual animal is recorded and accepted by the specific breed association.
15. Crossbred - Each parent is of a different, distinct breed.
16. Upgrading - Use of purebred buck and keeping accurate breeding records with the goal of improving specific traits of herd.
17. Grade - The result of the breeding of purebred (buck) and "ordinary" (doe)
18. Mongrel - The result of a breeding using parents of unknown, unimproved or "grade" ancestry.
19. Backcross - A daughter is bred back to her father or a son back to this mother.
20. Inbreeding -A doe is bred to a buck that is more closely related to her than the average buck. Also refers to the same buck being kept to breed successive generations of female descendants or doe to succeeding male descendants. This, of course, is where so many questions arise for the amateur goat raiser. It is generally stated that inbreeding results in:

• Poor reproductive fitness
• General lack of vigor
• Reduced performance.