Breed Profile: Sable Goat
Sable Saanens Excel, Whatever the Color!
Reading Time: 5 minutes
A Sable goat is the colored offspring of purebred Saanen goats or Sable Saanen parents. Apart from coat color, a Sable goat has the same characteristics and qualities as a Saanen.
Origin and History of the Sable Goat
Like the Saanen, Sables are descended from goats that had become native to the Alps in Central Europe. When animals are separated into different valleys, they tend to drift apart in their genetic makeup. Farmers frequently enhance this phenomenon through their own criteria when choosing which goats to breed. In the Saanental of Switzerland, farmers preferred white goats, so they selected these individuals to breed, perhaps selling off colored kids to neighboring valleys where different colors and patterns were preferred. Saanental farmers may even have brought in white kids from other valleys. The result is that herds developed in the late 1800s for dairy potential were predominantly white and polled through farmer preference. However, the white coat color is a dominant gene, which allows a wide variety of genes for color and pattern to be carried unnoticed by breeding stock.
How Colors Proliferated
French government official Joseph Crépin was well-known in Europe for promoting the goat as a dairy animal and encouraging goat dairies as a serious agricultural venture. His passion for goats came as a result of the remedial effect of his goat’s milk on his son’s early illness. In France, infant mortality was high, and tuberculosis was a major cause. Urban goat farms and family goat keeping seemed to him to offer the perfect solution to avoid the disease and fortify the nation’s children (we know now that goat milk won’t prevent, cure, or stop transmission of tuberculosis).
Although Crépin promoted goats bred for dairy, especially Alpine goats, he was concerned about the Saanental preference for all-white coats and polled animals. He felt those breeding goals would end up weakening the breed. He believed that eliminating color would lead to albinism, which we now know isn’t the case. However, he was correct in his concern for pure polled herds, as we know this can lead to sterility. Consequently, when he selected Saanen goats for export, he chose colored individuals or those with a colored parent. Similarly, he selected some horned specimens.
Dairy Goats in America
Most Saanen imports into America were between 1904 and 1922. Some of these may have come from other Swiss valleys, bringing color patterns from their herds’ gene pools. Imports from Canada in the late 1940s added Dutch and British Saanens into the mix. These were sturdier and more productive and also brought recessive color genes.
The American Milch Goat Record (AMGR) registered all imports up to 1914 as purebred, whatever their color. Of 7168 pure Saanens registered from 1918, 117 were listed as “off color.” That’s 1.6% of registered purebreds! Colors mentioned were black and white, brown and white, gray, red, blue, and tricolor.
In the 1930s, AMGR allowed other herds to be graded up to Saanen over 10 generations: another factor that could have let a colored gene slip in unnoticed. This decision precipitated the split of AMGR into what is now the American Goat Society and the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA).
The Controversy of Color
Although ADGA originally registered all colors, by the 1950s, it accepted only white or cream Saanens for the registry. Until 1954, there was no registry for colored Saanen offspring. At that time, ADGA opened an American grade register for “experimental” animals. These individuals were considered only 50% American Saanen, even if they were purebred from registered Saanen lines.
Some eminent Saanen breeders also bred Sables and strove for their recognition. The Sable Breeders Association was formed in 1974 to propose a breed standard to ADGA. In 1996, the newly formed International Sable Breeders Association (ISBA) started work on new proposals, the second of which ADGA accepted in 2005.
Conservation Status
As descendants of the popular Saanen breed, Sables aren’t at risk. Their recognition as a breed helps to reduce the risk of culling potentially valuable offspring simply due to their color.
Characteristics of the Sable Goat
Description
As for the Saanen, the Sable is a large, deep-bodied goat with dairy conformation, short hair, erect ears, and a straight or dished facial profile. Goats may bear wattles and horns. Males have a full beard and mane and may have longer hair along the back and hind legs.
Weight
Does at least 135 pounds; bucks at least 170 pounds.
Height to Withers
Does at least 30 inches; bucks at least 32 inches.
Colors
Sables can be any color or pattern except for solid white/pale cream. The word sable means black or dark brown, but colors may be paler and include browns, reds, or grays. Color may be solid, patterned, or broken with white. More examples of potential color patterns are available on the ISBA website.
A Sable bred to another of its breed produces colored offspring. Matings of pure white Saanens can give rise to colored or patterned kids. In addition, some white Saanens develop color as they mature.
Temperament
Generally calm and friendly, they readily accept handling and enjoy human contact.
Adaptability
As bred for high yield and intensive management, they thrive with good feeding and husbandry. Although they love to pasture, they require more care and better shelter than a rustic breed. Their colored skins protect them from sunburn, but white patches may be prone. Like other alpine-type dairy breeds, they need extra hoof care and parasite treatment in damp climates.
Biodiversity
The Saanen gene pool has already been restricted by intensive selection for production, so the relaxation on selection for color is a welcome move for their biodiversity.
Productivity of the Sable Goat
Does can produce one to four kids per year, potentially from the age of eight months, and yield high volumes of milk.
- Popular use: dairy;
- Yield averages: as for the Saanen, around seven pints a day with 3.2% fat and 2.9% protein.
“Some of our best does often drop colored kids—probably they never read the standards.” Allen Rogers, 1942, ADGA Yearbook.
Sources
- International Sable Breeders Association
- Rogers, A. 1942. American History of the Sable Breed, ADGA Yearbook.
- Goodey, G., 1998. The Sable Dairy Goat. Record Stockman.
The lead and title photos (taken by the author) show Natalie, a colored British Saanen, who lived at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in the UK.
