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Dairy Goat Industry of the United States

Department of Animal Science and Agricultural Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark 19711

ABSTRACT

There are two national dairy goat organizations in the United States, the American Dairy Goat Association and the American Goat Society with 17,690 and 1,700 members. They recognize official breeds Alpine, LaMancha, Nubian, Oberhasli (Swiss Alpine), Saanen, Toggenburg, and Pygmy. Annual registrations exceed 50,000 animals. The all-time, all-breed leader for milk yield is a Toggenburg (2,614 kg in 305 days) and for fat yield an Alpine (113 kg in 305 days). More than 100,000 Dairy Herd Improvement records are processed for sire proving. Distribution of records by breeds is 27% Nubian, 25% Alpine, 15% Toggenburg, 11% Saanen, 6% LaMancha, and 16% others. Average milk production records and fat percent are: Saanen 962 kg, 3.5%; Alpine 952 kg, 3.5%; Toggenburg 921 kg, 3.3%; LaMancha 817 kg, 3.8%; Nubian 806 kg, 4.6%; and others 871 kg, 3.7%. The wide majority of dairy goat herds have less than 10 animals. More than half of all bucks have only one daughter. Acceptable break-even prices to producers require high production. Income after feed costs of $25,000 in 1978 was possible with herds of 100 average does, with consideration of processing and retailing of milk and milk products. Dairy goat activities in 4-H have increased from 3,530 to 16,618 members in the last 8 yr. The potential of United States dairy goats for export to developing countries is considerable. Merchandizing of goat milk and products in the United States is of limited dimension but has wide potential if professional development, promotion, and research become more involved.

¹ Published with the approval of the director of the Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station as Miscellaneous Paper No. 945, Contribution No. 63 of the Department of Animal Science and Agricultural Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark 19711.