The Absolute Basics

Mothers will provide half of the genetic make-up of any organism and the father will give the other half.  This is the underlying principle of inheritance.  In order to understand how the mother and father’s genes will work together to create new characteristics in the kid, we need to know the different types of alleles possible for each gene.  There are three basic types of alleles–

 

• dominant - this allele will express itself if just one parent passes it on,

• recessive - will only express itself if both the mother and the father pass it on,

• codominant/ incomplete dominant – the different types of alleles will combine together to create a new characteristic.

 

To make things even more complex, at least 40% of the characteristics that we can see (udder, height, stance, etc.) are controlled by MANY genes.  Taken together, this means that there are an enormous number of variations possible for each trait and each breeding.  This is why it is possible for every organism to be genetically unique.

 

On top of the genetics of an organism, the environment in which it is brought up will also have a major influence on what genes are expressed and how they are expressed (influence of management).  In other words, Phenotype (physical expression) = Genotype (alleles inherited from both parents) x Environment.  Every goat kid is an expression of a unique set of alleles and its environment – identical twins raised in different herds would have different versions of their traits.  Gene expression is a complex, chaotic process that is almost impossible to control or predict.  The best we can do is to take into account all of the information that we have and try to control for the best breeding possible. 

 

To get an idea of how complex these genetics can be, look at the genetics of coat coloring in Nigerian Dwarf Goats - http://members.cox.net/foxcroft/genetics.htm  Coloring is only controlled by a few genes and leads to a wide variety of expressions. When looking at the overall conformation and production of a dairy goat, we are talking about thousands of genes and many are interacting with each other. 

 

 

Weathertop Farm
Registered Nigerian Dwarf Goats
Johnsonville, New York 12094
Rensselaer County

Email us: weathertop@littlemilkers.com

 

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