Goat Judging

This weekend will be the first weekend of the National Goat Judging program for my lovely wife, my youngest daughter and myself.

We have been working on the “project” which is about the six main dairy got breeds in Australia (Anglo-Nubian, Saanen, British Alpine, Toggenburg, Melaan and Australian Brown Goat). The breed history, description and disqualifying faults, etc.. I’ve found the project to be fairly easy and kinda fun. I’ve certainly found some excellent resources on goat breeds while doing this project.

The course is held over two weekends and covers various judgy stuff. When we are done, we will be able to start attending goat shows as assistant judges until we have enough experience and knowledge to be able to step up to the plate and do some judging ourselves.

I figure that doing this course can only help me to become a better goat breeder since it will give me access to SO many more goat breeders and goats nationally and I can get a better understanding of exactly what makes a good dairy goat. The other perk is the going along to agricultural shows as a judge.

I still need to help my youngest with her project. She knows what she needs to know to complete the project, she just doesn’t have the confidence in herself to be able to articulate it.

I am very proud of my youngest daughter and how she has been taking an interest in goats and goat showing. She loves the attention that she gets from the other goat folk and from their goats too (particularly the kids … but, meh, that’s to be expected). I am hoping that this experience will give my youngest some skills, knowledge and self-confidence that can carry her through the rest of her life. She is a peach.