03/21/05, 09:14 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Virginia
Posts: 142
|
|
|
I think it is a definite combination of diet and genetics. I think there is a tendency to have chine problems in very long-bodied goats and possibly goats with not-so-good front-end assemblies moreso than others with better genetics, but I believe it is highly influenced by environmental conditions.
I have found that a dip in the chine, or weak chine, to be almost always due to overly fast growth as a yearling. Too much weight combined with too fast growth. Not all goats fed hard like this will have a chine breakdown, but some will.
I've believe weak chine is related to the entire front end assembly. I've had a line of goats that were fairly strong with a lack of brisket and front legs were probably set a tad too far forward and they were long bodied goats and they grew fast and had weak chines, and then I've had narrower goats with great front ends, nicely placed front legs and they have great chines. I think a bad front end assembly puts more stress on the chine and therefore causes it to break down if the animal is too fat or grows too fast as a yearling. Of course this is more conformation instead of dietary, but those goats in the first category mentioned above seemed to be the ones prone to developing the problem in conjunction with the overfeeding/fast growth. So it is a two-way street.
I used to have chine problems when I fed my yearlings up to be large and win in the show ring. Since I started cutting out the grain in the spring and putting them on pasture, they grow a little slower but they end up better in the long run with less chine problems. I do grain as kids and encourage to grow, but there's something about that yearling stage - I guess it has to do with body parts growing at different rates. What people (judges also) don't realize is a yearling goat is not supposed to be as big as a four year old. They can and will grow until they are four, and they do a lot better if let grow slowly like that. Some of the more experienced, older judges seem to realize that and place accordingly.
Sometimes at shows people don't know any better and try to stretch the back legs way out like a rocking horse and that also makes the chine look horrible when it is really not. I see pictures like this on the internet all the time. Too bad it makes their nice animal look aweful. This is why they are looked at on the move also in the show ring.
Now the rump, that's another matter. It can be sloped real severely from hips to pins and there's nothing you can do about it. Again, sometimes it's just a growth spurt, but usually a steep rumped kid will be pretty steep as an adult also. Steep rump is not the end of the world, it just means you will not do as good in the show ring. It is actually a desireable trait if you want to avoid kidding problems. Extremely level rumped animals from hips to pins are more prone to not be able to kid normally. A steep rumps supposedly means a lower rear udder, but I've had some pretty steep rumped nubians and they had nice high rear udders and their udder didn't come anywhere near their hocks...
Hope this helps.
|
