[Rhi]

Hi,
My little herd consists of
1 - saanen type nanny
1 - saanen x guernsey nanny
1 - togg nanny
1 - saanen x togg
1 - saanen type whether
1 - anglo nubian x alpine billy.

Sadly none of my goats are registered and I wouldn't know how to go about doing it either.
This autumn I am putting my saanen x guernsey girl to a guernsey billy.
I wanted to use my billy (AN x BA) on my bigger saanen type girl but I've been told its pointless using a cross bred billy on my girls and the kids will be worthless and no one would want them. Is this true?? As I have the option of using the same guernsey billy or a pure saanen one on her also??
All my kids will be disbudded, sadly my AN x billy has horns but that wasn't down to me.
I don't milk and don't intend to either. I keep my goats as a hobby and want to breed from them.
What does everyone think? Am I wasting my time with my cross breed billy?

Thank you

Rhi x

[wytsend]

To be frank....I dont think you are wasting your time for this season.   I would go ahead and use your boy.
2 reasons:     (1)   you wont be paying out any stud fees.
                     (2)   you will get experience of kids next year.
Then you can decide which way you want to go.    The female kids wont be 'worthless'   ......the males will and should be sold for meat rearing.
Disbud all female kids,  handle them well and you should get around £100 for any you dont wish to keep.

[Roxy]

I agree with Wytsend .....go  ahead and breed. You will get the experience, and then the pleasure in having bred your own kids.  You have to be hard though, and not get too attached, when it comes to selling!!
 
I have some pygmy goats, which came to me with no papers.  One of the males is very nice, and he is the father of Priscilla, out of one of my pygmy girls, and she was gorgeous.  Had a lot of enquiries when it came to selling her.  All my pygmy goats have horns, but as they all live together this is not a problem to me.
 
A lot of people just keep a couple of goats as pets - so the fact they are not registered is not an issue, and also they have no wish to breed.  There are always people wanting goats, especially the smaller ones that can be kept on a small space.

[Rhi]

Thank you so much. My billy is lovely, he's calm, gentle and friendly, and he's very kind with his companion.
I think I will go ahead and use him as you say it gives me experience what with being new to all of this. To be honest I didn't realise how stressful goat keeping can be at times, we farm a large sheep and beef farm and my shetland sheep and goats are abit of a hobby for me and I seem to be constantly battling foot problems with the goats at the minute because of the weather. Thank you for boosting my confidence guys x

[Anke]

Re registering your goats - you would have to be a member of the British Goat society to register any goats in your ownership. previously nfegistered adults can (as far as I know) only be registered in the identification register and then slowly bred up to Herd book status by using registered males. However if your goats are your hobby that may not be worth your while and would only be useful of your females were outstanding milkers.
By breeding your SaanenxGG female to a GG billy (is he registered?) you would have have a goood chance of selling the offspring, keep a note of the billy's number etc and when you come to advertise them on ukgoats you can include the sire numbers etc. But yes -disbud everyone and ring all the males. Collect goat curry recipes, especially if you get more males than females and you won't be able to sell them all.
Bt it would be such a shame to have 4 nannies in milk and not milking them.... you could use any spare milk (after the kids had their share) for orphan lambs, so much cheaper than Lamlac....