ADGA Performance Programs: Why We Participate

We often advertise that we are an ADGA Plus* herd, or that we participate in “performance programs.” Those that have been breeding registered dairy goats for a bit will know what that means, but if you’re new to dairy goats, you may wonder why we think these programs are important. Our opinions are just that—opinions, and only our own—but we do feel the performance programs are valuable assets to our breeding program, and we’d like to explain why.

I don’t want to take up a lot of space going into in-depth descriptions of the different performance programs (maybe in another post), but when I use the term “performance programs,” I am talking about the programs in which herds can actively participate through the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA), which are the Dairy Herd Improvement Registry (DHIR) (“milk test”) and Linear Appraisal (LA) programs, along with the genetic evaluations/data automatically calculated by ADGA using these programs (for example, Elite List-designated animals and Super Genetics-designated animals)**.

DHIR and LA records become a permanent part of an animal’s record, and are searchable through the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) database and ADGA Genetics website, respectively. We feel it is important to build this data on all members of our herd for two main reasons:

1. This data becomes a resource that helps us, as breeders, make improvements within our herd by recognizing and addressing weaknesses and capitalizing on strengths. The data is cumulative. It allows us to see how a sire affects our herd and the heritability of specific traits. It allows us to better define our breeding goals and see more quantifiable results.
2. This data also provides a record for potential buyers, in much the same way it does for ourselves. Anyone can use these resources to research an animal, and its relatives, and use that data to make decisions when purchasing new stock. For example, if you’re looking to improve a particular trait, you can look at the linear scores and structural traits of a specific animal and its relatives to see if it has strength and consistency in that trait throughout its family tree. The same goes for milk production records. In this way, our participation in performance programs helps our customers make better informed decisions when adding animals to their own herds. There might not be any guarantees as to how a goat will turn out or if they will make the changes you want to see in your herd, but it is important to us to provide our customers, and our animals, the best chance of success.

If you’re familiar with any of these programs, you’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned awards as a reason why we participate in performance programs. For those who are not familiar, I’ll note now that in addition to building data on your herd, individual animals can also earn awards through DHIR for production or milk components (milk “stars”) that also become a part of the animal’s permanent record with the registry. The Linear Appraisal program results in each animal receiving a final score and, while not an award, an animal that scores consistently across traits and earns a high final score is certainly welcome. We’d be lying if we said we don’t care at all if our goats earn production awards, excellent Linear Appraisal scores, or other designations that recognize high-performing genetic evaluations, such as Superior Genetics. Of course we enjoy seeing our animals recognized for performing well. It’s just that we feel strongly that the real value in these programs is in the data.

It’s probably obvious that I feel that these programs are very important—and I do. But, I will caveat that I certainly don’t make *all* my decisions based on performance data. I have no magical cut-off LA score, nor do I have a specific milk production number, that results in removing a doe from the breeding program. There are simply too many factors at play for me to hold to a very rigid use of performance program data/information, and how I use the information most definitely depends on the animal in front of me, what I know of the animal’s relatives and how they matured/what they produced, and any other influencing factors (did she just not fill well/was she out of condition on LA day? Was she a first freshener with a single kid that I just didn’t have the patience to milk through to 240 days? Etc., etc.).
And finally, I think it is important to remember that these programs are tools, and as such, you get to use them in a way that works best for YOU. Like I explained above, I don’t have any magic numbers—but maybe you do.

*ADGA Plus is simply an ADGA program that offers a small discount when you register for both DHIR and LA and pre-purchase DNA typing kits; therefore, you know that a herd using the ADGA Plus designation and/or logo is participating in all the available programs.
**The place to start on the ADGA website for more information on their performance programs is here:  http://adga.org/performance-programs/

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