Description:
The Nigerian Dwarf breed standard says does should be 22.5" tall at the shoulder. The breed standard for bucks is 23.5 inches. Any doe or buck that measures taller than that is considered "over-height" or OH.
They are disqualified from showing and from the ADGA top ten breed leaders list. They can still be appraised and they are usually registered because they don't reach their full height until 2-4 years old, but many goats are shown (and may have won) and have offspring by 1-2 years old.
Height is officially measured and recorded by an appraiser during linear appraisal and by a DHIA tester during a Verification Test (VT.)
It is difficult to perfectly measure a living goat that won't hold still. Goats also seem to shrink a little as they age. So it is not unusual to see several different heights for any one animal. Some appraisers have decided to carefully measure tall goats on a flat surface and record the most common reading from several measurements.
At shows, the goats are supposed to walk under the measuring stick as they walk into the ring. I had an appraiser tell me that most judges don't want to make a scene and if a goat is just barely over-height, they don't disqualify them, only make sure they place last. Also, some appraisers do not know how to correctly use the measuring stick. So just because a goat has been shown does not mean they are not over-height or will not go over-height later on.
The Nigerian Dwarf breed standard says does should be 22.5" tall at the shoulder. The breed standard for bucks is 23.5 inches. Any doe or buck that measures taller than that is considered "over-height" or OH.
They are disqualified from showing and from the ADGA top ten breed leaders list. They can still be appraised and they are usually registered because they don't reach their full height until 2-4 years old, but many goats are shown (and may have won) and have offspring by 1-2 years old.
Height is officially measured and recorded by an appraiser during linear appraisal and by a DHIA tester during a Verification Test (VT.)
It is difficult to perfectly measure a living goat that won't hold still. Goats also seem to shrink a little as they age. So it is not unusual to see several different heights for any one animal. Some appraisers have decided to carefully measure tall goats on a flat surface and record the most common reading from several measurements.
At shows, the goats are supposed to walk under the measuring stick as they walk into the ring. I had an appraiser tell me that most judges don't want to make a scene and if a goat is just barely over-height, they don't disqualify them, only make sure they place last. Also, some appraisers do not know how to correctly use the measuring stick. So just because a goat has been shown does not mean they are not over-height or will not go over-height later on.
Inheritance:
Height obviously has a genetic component. However, it has complex inheritance. If you breed a tall buck to a short doe, you will not get medium sized offspring, but rather short and tall progeny, as well as some in the middle. It has been interesting to see in my herd how quickly height can be reduced in a few generations. Our Top Ten doe Zoella has an OH dam. But her sire is small. Zoella is not a tiny doe, but never over-height. However, Zoella's kids have been smaller than other same-age and management goats in our herd, even when she was bred to slightly OH bucks. Zelu, Zola, Zufi and Zieger are all well within the height limit. Gorgonzola is an inch or so OH. Their sires, Barbeillon and Giulianni, were both over-height.
The other thing to know about the Nigerian Dwarf height limit is that research has been done showing that male goats should be proportionately larger than female goats. And they have recorded the natural difference between a buck and his female relatives(dam, sisters, daughters.) As is described in the article below written by Joanne Karohl from Dragonfly Farm, the buck limit for Nigerian Dwarf bucks is too short for the doe height limit. If you use bucks that are within the height limit, you will end up with daughters who are way below the doe height limit. And if you use bucks who are a few inches over the height limit, most of their daughters will still be below the doe height limit.
This has been seen numerous times in our herd. Jude is like 3" over the height limit. He is a huge buck and he has not had OH daughters. Jude's daughters are large and are right at the height limit. I am sure he will have a few daughters go OH. However, the majority of his daughters are within the breed requirements. Likewise, D'Ambert, Niolo and Eagle Scout are all within the height limit and their daughters are shorter than Jude's daughters. Eagle Scout's daughter Babybel was quite small. When we bred Babybel to Jude, her daughter Rouelle is one of our largest does.
Some of our best goats (for structure and production) come from OH parents. A few examples of this are: SG Rouelle EEEE 92, Gourmandise VVEE 90, and yearling Chateau VEEE 88.
Height obviously has a genetic component. However, it has complex inheritance. If you breed a tall buck to a short doe, you will not get medium sized offspring, but rather short and tall progeny, as well as some in the middle. It has been interesting to see in my herd how quickly height can be reduced in a few generations. Our Top Ten doe Zoella has an OH dam. But her sire is small. Zoella is not a tiny doe, but never over-height. However, Zoella's kids have been smaller than other same-age and management goats in our herd, even when she was bred to slightly OH bucks. Zelu, Zola, Zufi and Zieger are all well within the height limit. Gorgonzola is an inch or so OH. Their sires, Barbeillon and Giulianni, were both over-height.
The other thing to know about the Nigerian Dwarf height limit is that research has been done showing that male goats should be proportionately larger than female goats. And they have recorded the natural difference between a buck and his female relatives(dam, sisters, daughters.) As is described in the article below written by Joanne Karohl from Dragonfly Farm, the buck limit for Nigerian Dwarf bucks is too short for the doe height limit. If you use bucks that are within the height limit, you will end up with daughters who are way below the doe height limit. And if you use bucks who are a few inches over the height limit, most of their daughters will still be below the doe height limit.
This has been seen numerous times in our herd. Jude is like 3" over the height limit. He is a huge buck and he has not had OH daughters. Jude's daughters are large and are right at the height limit. I am sure he will have a few daughters go OH. However, the majority of his daughters are within the breed requirements. Likewise, D'Ambert, Niolo and Eagle Scout are all within the height limit and their daughters are shorter than Jude's daughters. Eagle Scout's daughter Babybel was quite small. When we bred Babybel to Jude, her daughter Rouelle is one of our largest does.
Some of our best goats (for structure and production) come from OH parents. A few examples of this are: SG Rouelle EEEE 92, Gourmandise VVEE 90, and yearling Chateau VEEE 88.
Over-height bucks: Marcellin, Jude, Gorgonzola, Giulianni, Barbeillon, likely several other bucks who were not retained
Over-height does: Gourmandise, GL Angel, J La Couronne
Over-height does: Gourmandise, GL Angel, J La Couronne
Thanks to Joanne Karohl of Dragonfly Farm for letting us use her chart!
Our Breeding Strategy:
Height is only one part of a beautiful, productive dairy goat. Yes, we would like Nigerian Dwarfs to be dwarf sized. We raised Alpines at one point and we enjoy the small size of Nigerian Dwarfs. However, they are also supposed to be dairy animals. We breed for milk production first. Because this is a new breed, great milk production is not consistently seen generation after generation. Does who are closer to the height limit have the capacity to eat more food and carry more kids, which should lead to more milk. Does who are closer to the height limit are better able to carry a huge udder without it touching the ground. They are easier to fit a milk bucket underneath. We have also seen a trend among Nigerian Dwarfs that we are breeding for very wide hippos because we can't make the goat bigger and taller to get more milk production but we can give them full size bodies on half size legs. This can lead to elbow and leg issues where their legs just cannot support that much extra weight.
So while we want to stay within the height limit, we understand that some of our breeding stock will be a little too tall. That does not mean we will sell them unregistered or that we will automatically cull them. We will continue breeding them with slightly smaller goats to bring them back down to the right height. But we do enjoy showing and hope to be on the Top Ten Breed Leaders list someday, so the height limit is still our goal.
We also expect most of our bucks to be over-height in accordance with does who are on the larger size of the breed. I have had several buyers tell us our Nigerian Dwarfs are large. If you buy a buckling from us, we do NOT guarantee it will stay within the buck height limit.
Height is only one part of a beautiful, productive dairy goat. Yes, we would like Nigerian Dwarfs to be dwarf sized. We raised Alpines at one point and we enjoy the small size of Nigerian Dwarfs. However, they are also supposed to be dairy animals. We breed for milk production first. Because this is a new breed, great milk production is not consistently seen generation after generation. Does who are closer to the height limit have the capacity to eat more food and carry more kids, which should lead to more milk. Does who are closer to the height limit are better able to carry a huge udder without it touching the ground. They are easier to fit a milk bucket underneath. We have also seen a trend among Nigerian Dwarfs that we are breeding for very wide hippos because we can't make the goat bigger and taller to get more milk production but we can give them full size bodies on half size legs. This can lead to elbow and leg issues where their legs just cannot support that much extra weight.
So while we want to stay within the height limit, we understand that some of our breeding stock will be a little too tall. That does not mean we will sell them unregistered or that we will automatically cull them. We will continue breeding them with slightly smaller goats to bring them back down to the right height. But we do enjoy showing and hope to be on the Top Ten Breed Leaders list someday, so the height limit is still our goal.
We also expect most of our bucks to be over-height in accordance with does who are on the larger size of the breed. I have had several buyers tell us our Nigerian Dwarfs are large. If you buy a buckling from us, we do NOT guarantee it will stay within the buck height limit.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there can be a lot of variation between over-height animals. Some are just barely OH with 1/4" over. Others, like Jude are 3" over-height. So you can look at the recorded linear appraisal stature score on a goat's online pedigree and figure out how tall that goat is. That is one reason we like to have bucks appraised. We are not trying to hide the fact that we use OH bucks who produce in-height daughters.
However, in 2022, linear appraisal stopped recording stature measurements. More data is always better but they can only fit so many different categories in the algorithms. Stature/height was traded for "Body Depth." We are not sure if this is better or not. In some ways, I would rather breed for body depth than stature.
However, in 2022, linear appraisal stopped recording stature measurements. More data is always better but they can only fit so many different categories in the algorithms. Stature/height was traded for "Body Depth." We are not sure if this is better or not. In some ways, I would rather breed for body depth than stature.