![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/snowman.jpg\" "\\"Snowman\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd any roosters that\u00a0the hens hatched that shared\u00a0his solid white plummage and upright\u00a0red comb were also calm and orderly.\u00a0 But add in some swaths of brown or black feathers, or change to a rose comb, and we often got a spurring machine ready to chase\u00a0them across the\u00a0pasture or thump\u00a0them from\u00a0behind as soon as they turned\u00a0their backs.\u00a0\u00a0 Although some of our mixed roosters were reliable, the good roosters always wore white.\u00a0 And the kids didn’t need a lesson in Mendel’s principle of segregation or a Punnett square to figure that out.<\/p>\n
Once we\u00a0added a polled buck to our horned herd, though, we did have to break out a pad and pencil.\u00a0 For the first time, we discussed recessive and dominant traits (polled is dominant) and we watched\u00a0Merlin’s first few offspring carefully.\u00a0 When he produced a mixed batch of polled and horned kids, we knew he must be heterozygous.\u00a0 Which meant fewer disbuddings, overall, but no reason to sell the disbudding iron on craiglist.<\/p>\n
And we never kept or added any polled does to the herd.\u00a0 So the whole hermaphrodite issue (which\u00a0can occur\u00a0when breeding polled goats to polled goats) was a moot point for us.\u00a0 Because, really, isn’t inspecting for ejaculate during breeding season and discharge during kidding season enough?\u00a0 Looking for a nodule penis within a vulva seems\u00a0a bit like invasion of privacy to me.\u00a0 Not to mention one more reason for my friends to never <\/strong>ask, “So, what have you been up to lately?”<\/p>\n Adding a blue-eyed buck and a blue-eyed doe to the herd was the next test of our genetic understanding.\u00a0 Blue eyes are also dominant so when blue-eyed Vixen was bred to a brown-eyed buck and produced a brown-eyed kid, we knew she was heterozygous.\u00a0 But our blue-eyed buck, TS, is another matter.\u00a0 So far this season he’s produced 2 kids, both with blue eyes,\u00a0so there’s a possibility that he is homozygous.\u00a0 Unless he sired Angel’s little brown-eyed buck.\u00a0 Which we’ll never know.\u00a0 Because Angel has no respect for the concept of a control group in science.\u00a0 Way to go, Angel.<\/p>\n So far, our experience with genetics was interesting and enlightening.\u00a0 Polled kids, blue eyes, easy going temperament, broodiness, milk production, aggression—there were a million ways in which we watched the dance of genetics play out on the farm stage.\u00a0 It was exciting and\u00a0intriguing and then….it wasn’t.<\/p>\n Because last night I went in to check on Tina after dinner and found her calmly eating out of her trough.\u00a0 So calmly that I almost missed the dried and cleaned kid\u00a0asleep in the hay.<\/p>\n My heart leaped!\u00a0 Not only did Tina successfully kid on her own, she had taken perfect care of her kid, she was already up and eating as if nothing had happened, and she had done it all in the 45 minutes since\u00a0I checked her last!\u00a0 Ease of kidding is a highly desirable trait in a dairy goat and combined with\u00a0her full-to-bursting udder that had already been in evidence for weeks, Tina was on her way to earning her spot in the herd.<\/p>\n Pretty\u00a0rushed out to see the newest arrival and our hearts melted when we saw his beautiful blue eyes.<\/p>\n It was a trimuph.\u00a0 A victory.\u00a0 Until it wasn’t.<\/p>\n Because when the kid was finally roused enough by our ooohing and aaahing to rise and seek a sip of milk, he\u00a0“knuckled down” on both front pasterns as he walked.\u00a0 We gasped.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn’t exactly the same deformity that Tina had as a kid.\u00a0 Her front legs were characterized by extreme rigidity, a fierce C curve,\u00a0and\u00a0an inability to straighten them.<\/p>\n If anything, this kid had weakness from the\u00a0last joint down to the hoof.\u00a0\u00a0And that joint itself seemed enlarged\u00a0or swollen.<\/p>\n Unlike Tina when she was a kid, he could walk upright, but it was undoubtedly\u00a0a defect.\u00a0 And there was no more claiming that Tina had been merely\u00a0positioned wrong en utero.\u00a0 That her leg problems were the result of cramped\u00a0space\u00a0causing contracted tendons.<\/p>\n It’s true that leg weakness is one of the most common problems in newborn kids.\u00a0 Joint ill ( or navel ill) can occur if bacteria travels through a wet umbilical cord and affects joints in the legs.\u00a0 White muscle disease from a selenium deficiency can cause leg weakness, too.\u00a0 But this baby was born with weak legs, it didn’t occur after a few days of exposure to bacteria.\u00a0 And Tina (like all our pregnant does) was well-dosed with selenium before she kidded to prevent white muscle disease.\u00a0 The truth is that we’ve never had a kid born with leg problems until Tina arrived.<\/p>\n So there was no denying that this was a genetic defect.\u00a0 One that Tina was born with and that had now passed to her kid.<\/p>\n That’s when genetics is no longer interesting or exciting.\u00a0 That’s when genetics makes you sigh, and give your goat a good chin scratch, and know she’ll never kid again.\u00a0 And her baby will be banded and sold as a pet goat or sold to the local flea market as a meat goat.\u00a0 But he won’t be allowed to breed and he won’t stay here.<\/p>\n That’s when you look at Tina’s mother, Vanilla, and hope the bad genes aren’t carried by her.<\/p>\n That perhaps her next kid will have perfect legs and the cycle of weak legs was all started by a random buck, that lives somewhere else and will never be bred to your does again.\u00a0 Since Vanilla arrived at her first owner’s place already bred, we don’t have any info on the buck that bred her.\u00a0 But we’re hoping he’s the one with gimpy genes.\u00a0 We won’t know anything until Vanilla kids again, sometime at the end of July.\u00a0 Which means she stays at least until then.<\/p>\n And don’t worry, Tina fans!\u00a0 Tina recovered perfectly from kidding and has a lovely udder.\u00a0 She’s made a home for herself here, at the very least until she dries off.\u00a0 Since one of our goats is on her second year of milking through, we expect to do the same thing with Tina and it will be a long time before we have to make any decisions about her.\u00a0 But I doubt she’ll be going anywhere.\u00a0 Lap goats are hard to find, you know.<\/p>\n Almost as hard to find as goat sheep.<\/p>\n Good genes aren’t everything.\u00a0 Sometimes good hearts are enough.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n