Along the lines of what joken says, white goats are better for the environment than other color goats. A pasture full of white goats reflects more sun than darker goats, thereby mitigating against global warming.
When I was in cattle, a vet told me polled herefords are more prone to casting their uterus during labor. When I told my FIL, who raised registered polled herefords for years, he hit the roof.
"IT'S GENETICS, not the kind of cow!" Prejudices come from many sources.
Skin color is very important to a goat's chances of getting cancer from sun exposure. The exposed area at the back of the tail and below the tail base is a prime target for skin cancers to develop in lighter-skinned goats. Even then, it is not common. But many Boer folks like to select for goats that have that area dark-skinned.
Speaking of Boers, they are getting the rep here of not doing well. "Stay away from them. Lots of work, compared to other goats, and high-dollar to boot." Well, I think that bad rep is developing as a result of two things: 1.) Breeders keep everything alive they can and sell the good, the bad and the ugly for the big dollar to be bred again, so poor genetics are rampant. 2.) Farmers take pampered breeder goats and turn them out on farms and expect them to surivive and thrive with no preconditioning. I can tell you as someone who has mistakenly done that, some of those pampered goats don't make it unless you ease them out of the soft life and into a production farming system. I ease them in now.
That might give some folks here a clue as to why I get preachy about culling bad genetics and raising goats in as natural an environment as possible. It is good for the breed in the long run.
