Q&A With the Program Director for the Livestock Conservancy
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In part II of our Q&A on goat registry, we speak with Alison Martin, Ph.D., program director of The Livestock Conservancy. Alison has a PhD in genetics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Alison’s skills in building collaborative partnerships have helped The Livestock Conservancy expand its strategic scientific and technical capacity in conservation programs.
What is the Role of the Program Director for The Livestock Conservancy?
Martin – The program director is figuring out how to save over 180 rare breeds of livestock and poultry. We look at the needs of the people who are the boots on the ground, raising and breeding these animals, and figure out how we can help them do a better job. How can we attract more people to the different breeds? Basically, where are the opportunities to do even more to grow these small populations?
Why is Registration Important for Rare Breeds?
Martin – This is a really important question. It’s essential for rare breeds to be registered because one of the ways we’ve lost them through the years is by simply not knowing which animals are purebred and which are crossbred. In goats, we have examples not necessarily of breeds, but certainly bloodlines, that have been crossbred out of existence.
An example of that is Spanish goats. Spanish goats were, in a lot of ways, just about the meat goat in the United States until Boers were imported. Then people discovered that if they crossed their Boer with the Spanish does, they got the confirmation they were looking for from the Boers, and all the good mothering traits, parasite resistance, and more from the Spanish goats; but nobody was reproducing the Spanish goat. So, those bloodlines disappeared. Nobody was really tracking, at that point in time, who was breeding them and whether they were maintaining purebreds along with their crossbreds. Some people may not even have known if they had both purebreds and crossbreds in the same herd.
So, registration plays a role in making sure that you’ve got a way to track and maintain purebred herds and the purebred individuals within mixed herds.
With the Dairy Goat Associations, Meat Goat Associations, and Breed Associations, is There a Place to Register Every Breed of Goat, Even the Rarest?
Martin – There is! Every rare goat breeder has at least one, if not multiple, options for registering their goats. Sometimes, choosing between them can be difficult, but each has different things to offer. Breeders can talk with the different registries ahead of time and figure out which one is going to be the right fit for them.
Is The Livestock Conservancy’s Breeder Directory Related to Registration?
Martin – That’s an interesting question. I hadn’t looked at it that way before. Any member of The Livestock Conservancy can list their animals and products on the Breeder Directory (https://LivestockConservancy.org/Heritage-Breeds/Breeders-Directory). It’s a way for people to find others outside of the breed associations. If they’re not active in their breed association, it’s a way for customers and consumers to find everything from breeding animals to bacon for the table (not from goats, typically).
The Breeder’s Directory indirectly links breeders. This links to registration, as many of our members who are listed in the Breeder’s Directory breed purebred animals that they’re registering.
The other thing is that we have a section in our Breeders Directory, both virtual and online, for breed registration, since many associations run their own registries. It’s a convenient place for people to connect with owners registering their livestock.
Is There a Way to Check if an Animal is Purebred?
Martin – If somebody buys an unregistered animal, they can do the homework with the help of the breeder to find out if the parents or grandparents of that animal are registered. But in most cases, it’s impossible to know if an unregistered animal you buy is purebred.
What are the Benefits of Purebred Registered Goats?
Martin – If you were trying to buy a Spanish goat with the characteristics of a Spanish goat, which include parasite tolerance, heat resistance, and so on, but what you got was three-quarters Kiko or something like that, then you might not get that full package of traits you’re looking for.
A flip side is the value to the breeders themselves, because demonstrating that what they have is a purebred San Clemente Island goat or a purebred Arapawa goat adds value to their herds if they’re selling animals, particularly for herd starts or breeding animals.
One major reason for registering animals is the long-term benefit of conserving rare breeds. If there’s a really small population, the more breeders who don’t register their animals, the more animals are lost to the future of this already small population. It’s like taking portions of your breed and just chipping them off so that your breed becomes smaller and smaller because you don’t have enough people that register.
You can’t reintegrate animals you can’t prove are part of the breed. And that genetic base gets smaller and smaller. For us in conservation, that’s a really important piece.
What if Your Herd Isn’t Registered?
Martin – That depends on the breed. For some of our breeds, we have what’s called a recovery program, which will allow you to do research on the history of the herd members. The Livestock Conservancy sends an expert out to do a visual inspection, though that’s not 100% confirmation.
For example, let’s say the herd was acquired from a well-known breeder of myotonic goats, and the herd truly looks like it, and the history seems to confirm it, so we’re certain as we can be that they’re myotonic goats. We’d then have you track your herd for a few generations to establish a recovery.
What’s more common for many dairy and some meat goat breeds is breeding up. Oberhasli goats are an example of a breed that allows breeding up or grading up. A very small population was originally imported to the United States. Some of those were purebred, but others were crossed with other alpine breeds. So, the first crossing is 50%, and then they breed back to pure Oberhasli, and that’s 75% Oberhasli, and then they continue doing that until a certain threshold where it becomes all Oberhasli.
To get back to an extremely high percentage, you’ve got to be dedicated and do that for about six to eight generations.
Kenny Coogan lives on a permaculture landscape and runs a carnivorous plant nursery. His educational TV series, “Florida’s Flora and Fauna with Conservationist Kenny Coogan,” will come out in the summer of 2025. Listen to him co-host the “Mother Earth News and Friends” podcast at www.MotherEarthNews.com/podcast.
Originally published in the June 1, 2025 digital issue of Goat Journal
