Chris Lamin, secretary of Australian Dairy Goats Inc (ADG), said the arrangement would also allow members’ herd data to be professionally managed and integrated, particularly data from herd recording, registration and classification.

“Being such as small industry, it is not economically viable for us to develop data bases and services from scratch,” she said.  

“The alliance with Holstein Australia enables us to piggy back on their experience, staff and systems in place.”

A former dairy farmer and now owner of Allawoona Dairy Goats at Briagalong in Gippsland, Ms Lamin said ADG  was formed to promote genetic improvement of all dairy goats in Australia. 

“ADG is a commercially-focused organisation offering breeders genetic improvement facilities, including classification, estimated breed values, DNA profiling and stud registration,” she said.     

The availability of breeding values will mean that, for the first time, goat buyers will be able to see objective, performance information about members’ animals for sale.

“At the moment if you want to by a stud buck the best available information is likely to be its dam’s 24-hour production figures,” she said. 

“With dairy cows it’s the norm to expect production figures for a whole lactation and that’s the direction we want to head.” 

Ultimately the organisation aims to provide progeny testing, estimated breeding values and DNA (genomic) services. 

Graeme Gillan, Holstein Australia’s chief executive officer, said the alliance was a “win win”. 

“At the farm level, there’s a big difference between cows and goats but in terms of genetics and records management, the needs are very similar so it’s relatively straightforward for us to provide the services that Australian Dairy Goats are looking for,” he said.

Holstein Australia’s cattle herdbook and appendix contain records of over one million animals, with 70,000 new registrations and 40,000 classifications each year.

For more information contact Chris Lamin on 0429 492 485 or allawoonadairy@wideband.net.au.