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New Brochure Design |
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Thanks to the ISBA Sec/Tres. Gwen Johnson , ISBA now has a layout, shown below., for a new 3 page brochure for display at the ADGA Convention this year. Gwen respectfully asks the members for feed back on this brochure and if you have any input, please email her at gjgoodey@televar.com The members of ISBA really appreciate the effort that Gwen has put into this amid all her teaching responsibilities and other obligations. A big "Thank You" to Gwen! Now, here is the information that Gwen has suggested for the brochure. |
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( & the Brown in Between ) Sables are the color variety of the Saanen breed of goat originating in the Swiss Alps. White is the dominant factor in breeding, so when a white goat is bred to a colored goat, the resulting offspring will be white unless the white parent is a color carrier. At the turn of the 20th century, owners commonly bred white Saanens to colored Saanens to keep the size up, fearing that the whites bred to each other would become small. A Msr. Crepin, who imported goats to the US at that time, also made sure the whites and colors were interbred to avoid albinism, which has since been proven NOT to be a problem. Sables were registered as registered Saanens from the inception of the American Milch Goat Registry, which was later to become the American Dairy Goat Association. In the first volume of the registry, so little concern was given to color that the color of the Saanens was not recorded, but by careful tracing a number of Saanen color carriers can be identified in that volume. Andreas Hofer, #134, has multiple colored progeny in the succeeding volumes of the AMGRA. Also a well-known Saanen sire, Great Caesar, was a chamoisee Saanen. His son, Victor 224, is a registered Saanen [white], but his mother, Belle, is a registered Toggenburg. Victor 224 is one of the better known foundation sires of the Saanen breed. Damfino, a black Saanen born of whites, caused so much interest that her owner when asked where she came from replied, “Damn if I know”; hence her name.  |
Later a Panama Louise was imported in 1920 with a chamoisee Saanen named Panama Marie; Louise was an excellent producer, but she turned gray seasonally. In the 1930's some of the Saanen breeders decided to separate the colored Saanens from the whites, and focused on the white as being the animal that was considered a true Saanen. In 1954 at the ADGA annual convention, Sables were pulled from the Saanen registry completely, relegated to the Experimental/Recorded Grade registry, and their percentages dropped to 50% AS (American Saanen) even if they were purebred Saanen all the way back to the original goat. This in effect castrated the Sable as a viable breed because a buck at 50% bred to a doe at 50% produces a 50% kid. Fifty percent bucklings of any breed CANNOT BE REGISTERED. While ADGA made it possible in the early 1990's to record the true percentage of Saanen blood, over the years many Saanen breeders in the meantime had [erroneously] determined that any colored kid issuing from white parents were a blot on the white Saanen's purity and should be destroyed immediately. This was not true, but actually proved the primal purity of their purebred and American Saanens. Many people interested in Sables gave up because they could not find a buck: many Saanen breeders destroyed them or refused to sell them for breeding ["I don't want a Sable buck to have my herd name on it"] AND because the buck could not be registered with ADGA, so the resulting kid if colored would have to be recorded as NOA Alpine since it could not meet the existing Saanen breed standard.
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Another setback occurred in 1999 when ADGA adopted the current procedure for recognizing a new breed. This was done in a hurried manner, slipping the procedure in before the discussion of the acceptance of the Sable as a breed and REQUIRING any breed applying for recognition to meet these requirements immediately. The problem for Sables is that Sables often have one parent that is white, or both parents are white, and the new breed procedure requires four generations of color on both sides. Although the ADGA policy changed in 1991 or so to allow the correct percentage to be given, at this stage very few Sable bucks are registered with ADGA. Also, the policy for Experimentals and Recorded Grades prevents breeding up within the Sable ranks for an American Sable because Sables have no recognized breed standard! Thus a Sable with 98% or 99% Saanen blood cannot be registered under current ADGA rules because Sables have no recognized breed standard! The Sable goat does have a breed standard. It was accepted in at the ADGA Convention in 1981, but ADGA has refused to recognize Sables. This breed standard accepts colored kids born of white parents. This breed standard has been published in the ADGA Guide every year except one since 1981. Therefore the “new breed” policy should not be applied to the Sable because the Sable is not a “new” breed but simply a color variant of the Saanen. The Sable actually comes in all colors and patterns. It has the same mellow temperament, size, structure, and production as the Saanen. The most common is called sundgau, which is a black with white facial stripes, inside ears, belly and legs. |
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New Sable Brochure |
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Color Carriers |
Color Carriers |
Color Carriers |
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History 2 |