The History of the North American
Cashmere Goat Herd Codes
By Marilyn
Ackley, Updated by Mickey Nielsen 2012
In 1991
CaPrA, our now departed national cashmere growers’ organization; decided it was
important to develop a list of farm codes of North American cashmere
herds. The underlying thought at the
time was that; if there should ever be an American cashmere goat registry there
had to be a simple way of knowing which farm was responsible for which
goats. A CaPrA committee began its work
by studying the herd code protocols established by various livestock
organizations. Ultimately they decided
to follow the policy of organizations including those representing American
Rambouillet sheep, Angora goats, Maremma sheep dogs, Limosin cattle and others.
The concept
is simple. A goat forever carries the
herd code of the farm where it was born.
The code is permanent, a part of the goats’ name or number. Where ever the goat lives it takes that code.
More on Herd Codes Like Diamonds They’re Forever
Concerning Cashmere New Letter September-October 1997
By Marilyn Ackley
Herd codes
provide a quick and efficient way of identifying animals in relation to their
breeders. If a farm registers the herd
code XXX only that farm has the privilege of adding the XXX prefix to the names
or numbers of their animals. Their prize
winning buck XXX Studly will maintain that designation his entire life no
matter who buys him. If I buy that buck
he will NOT change his prefix. Although
I could get fancy and add my code to the end of his name making him XXX Studly
of QQQ.
If the
owners of XXX sell the farm and never raise another goat the privilege of
giving kids the XXX code retires with them.
The goats they tagged as XXX goats won’t necessarily retire, they will
continue with their XXX prefix as long as their tails wag and their rumens
ruminate.
Whenever
people discuss herd codes somebody envisions surprises. Consider this situation. The good folks at XXX use their buck XXX Dude
over their doe XXX Fluff. Then you arrive
and purchase Fluff as a bred doe. She
obviously keeps her XXX prefix but what about her triplets who are born at your
ranch a few months later? Some livestock
farm code systems would give credit to the folks who made the breeding decision
and owned the animals at the time of breeding.
That is NOT consistent with CaPrA’s system. The place of birth is everything.
In 1999 Kris
McGuire wrote a Concerning Cashmere article reminding people to use their herd
codes whenever entering animals in a competition. She was careful to note that it is critical
to use the appropriate code on each entrant.
As Kris wrote, “Just because you were smart enough to identify a good
goat and buy it, it is not ‘your goat.’
It must be forever identified with the herd code of the farm upon which
it was born.”
Remember to
pass along all the herd code information in the pedigrees that go with your
sale goats. It is definitely to your
advantage as a breeder to credit all the herds that have contributed genes to
your pool. If you use a computerized
pedigree program that doesn’t include a column for herd codes, don’t fret. Just type the code prefix as part of each
goat’s name.
For eighteen plus years Marilyn Burbank has freely given of
her time and effort to maintain the Cashmere Herd Codes carefully checking new
request and recording information. We
owe a great big THANK YOU to Marilyn for keeping this important data current
and moving forward all those years.
Currently there are over 398 Herd Codes recorded for the USA
and Canada with a handful from New Zealand and Australia that trace back to imports.
With the US Federal Government Scrapie requirements you must
have a premise number if you sell any goats or show your goats. If you do not have a premise number yet check
to see if you can use your current herd code in that premise number. Although it is important to remember that the
premise number stays with the physical address it does not move with you if you
move, you would be require to obtain a new premise number or use the number
already assigned to the new physical address.
It is very important that when you purchase a goat with a
Scrapie identification tag that you do
not remove that tag. This is this goat’s
permanent identification number and should only be replaced if it is lost. Just as you should never change a goat’s
identification number you should never change a goats name or herd code. This leads to great pedigree confusion if you
are breeding and filling out pedigrees.
Changing the name or identifying herd code on a goat that you show or
breed is cheating the original owners, the golden rule applies here.
When the Cashmere industry begins to ennoble goats it is
very important that your goats are properly identified in shows, pedigrees, and
sales. It can be nearly impossible to
tell one Black Jack from another without either herd code information and/or
Scrapie identification numbers as two or three persons could own the same Black
Jack over the years.
If you do not have a herd code; consider getting one
today. It is quite simple and
painless. Choose any three or four
combination of digits, have a couple in mind just in case your first choice is
not available.
New contact for obtaining a North American Cashmere Herd
Code is Mickey Nielsen at americancashmere@aol.com
There is The Cashmere Goat Registry established for those
that may want to use and support these services.
