(November 2005) Over the years, the ADGA office would occasionally receive an inquiry from an ADGA member that wanted to register a castrated male goat for use as a cart goat, a pack goat, a meat goat for a 4-H project or a pet.  The answer has always been "no". The American Dairy Goat Association's main purpose as a registry for dairy goats has been to keep track of the pedigrees of breeding animals. If the goats in question were not breeding animals, ADGA saw no reason to register them.

Last year, at the 2004 convention, the Registration Committee presented a proposal to offer a Certificate of Identification for dairy goat wethers. This was passed by the Board of Directors.  This year, we presented an amendment to that proposal deleting the word dairy, so that all goat wethers would be eligible for the Certificate of Identification.  This was also passed by the Board of Directors.

Just a word of explanation on why the Registration Committee feels that this is an important program for ADGA.  This is part of our process to establish methods of locating and identifying animals for the National Food Animal Identification System.  Should there be a disease outbreak in the United States among goats that affects human health, (think Mad Cow and Avian Flu), we want to be able to identify where the diseased animal came from.  I recently discussed this with Linda Campbell, ADGA's Representative to the National Program.  The plan is that by 2009, all food animals must have a permanent form of identification.  We need to be able to identify the individual animal, where they were born, herd mates, and current location, within 48 hours of a disease outbreak.  Since we can now do this with our new database for Registered and Recorded animals, our thought is to extend this principle to animals that are not eligible for Registration or Recordation.

This is also offered as a service to our membership who while raising and registering dairy goats with us, may also keep goats for other purposes. This is to specifically meet the need to identify these non-breeding animals for purposes of transporting them.

Bryan Lenihan, our Information Systems & Services Manager, contacted the Registration Committee right after our return from the Annual Meeting in Kansas City. We are working with Bryan to set up this program and it should be available shortly.  As soon as the program is ready for ADGA Members to use, I well write another informational piece for the Web site and ADGA News and Events.  This will spell out in detail how the program will operate.

Here are some of the preliminary details we are looking at.

The program will be available only to ADGA Members.
Animals will be required to have a tattoo that follows the existing ADGA Tattoo requirements.

We have asked Bryan to also allow space for additional forms of identification, such as electronic devices and ear tags.  All of the forms of ID on the animal would be on the Certificate.

The place of origin is required, to the best knowledge of the current owner.
Name and address of breeder, if available.
Name and address of owner.
Color and Description.
Age or approximate age. It could be the actual birth dates or the year born.
Breed or Breed type. Here we are thinking of a drop down box offering an assortment of possible crosses.
Certificate number.

It will state clearly on the face of the Certificate that this is not a Registration Certificate and that no pedigree is kept or implied.

Any changes or transfers will need to be completed by the ADGA office.

The Certificate of Identification will look different, both in color and layout, from the Certificate of Registry to avoid confusion.

This is a work in progress and we may still have some important additions or changes. Please feel free to contact the Registration Committee if you have questions or suggestions. We welcome your input as we implement this new program and service to the ADGA Membership.

We encourage you to work through the Registration Committee. I assure you, we will present your ideas to Bryan and the Committee, and answer your questions to the best of our ability.

Lelia Berry
Registration Committee Chairman
Leliaberry@aol.com