Black Solid Goats in the Red/Black/Brown Pool of Colored Angoras

Black goats in the R/B/B pool:

Black goats can range from true black, to gray to light silver. Solid colored goats are also referred to as "no pattern." Solid black goats can range from true black, to gray to light silver. Usually they are born with a black birth coat and then often fade to a lighter color as their mohair grows in. Goats that keep true black in their mohair as adults are less common. 

Solid black/gray goats are present in both the black/pattern pool and the red/black/brown pool, but each pool gets it's color differently. In the red/black/brown pool, the color is from genes on the Extension locus; black is the most dominant gene on the Extension. If there is a black gene here, black will be expressed. The other genes are red which requires 2 red genes for red to be expressed, and wild which does not express a color, but allows the color on agouti locus to be expressed. in the black/pattern pool it is on the agouti locus. It is impossible to tell what pool they belong to simply by looking at a solid black/gray goat. Looking through the pedigree to see what colors and patterns are present is the easiest way to make an educated guess as to which pool they get their color from. Another way is to breed the animal to a goat from either pool and see what color is produced in the kids.

Breeding black goats with genetics from the red/black/brown pool genetics to any of the colors in the red/black/brown pool should produce color which can be any shade of red, black or brown. Often one twin will be red and the other black. Breeding the same goat to a black/pattern pool goat will likely produce white kids.

A gray doe in the R/B/B pool

Tan Solid in the Black/Pattern Pool - Agouti

Tan Solid:

There are agouti genes that will produce tan solids, solids are also called "no pattern." Colors range from cream to tan to light reds. This is considered a more dominant color in the black/pattern pool genetically in articles by Phil Sponenberg.

These goats usually fade to a white or "not quite white." This provides an additional means for producing a white goat. Because it is genetically more dominant than the patterns, it is one of the reasons many cross pool kids are white.

It is important to know specifics of the pedigree on these animals before making breeding decisions to make sure they are in the black/pattern pool. The majority of brown and red angora goats, especially those that retain their color, get their color from the Red/Black/Brown pool Extension locus.

I bred a my badger doe to my gray and white pinto buck and got this tan and white pinto buckling pictured below. His twin is a badger doeling. 

Peacock Pattern in Colored Angora Goats

Peacock:

This pattern is referred to as peacock because of the light front end and dark backend of the goats. It is a pretty pattern, and produces a fleece with colors similar to the badger pattern, but with a higher percent of gray/black color than a badger.

Peacock differs from Badger in that from the loin back, there is a large amount of gray/black present. The neck, chest, and front half of the barrel are white, cream or tan.  There are black or gray stripes on the face and the lower legs are black. The black/gray from the rear abdomen extends up the barrel and the gray from the topline extends downward in varying degrees on individuals. Some are almost solid black/gray on the rear end while others have a tan area  in the middle. The back leg from hock to stifle is usually cream/tan.

These goats are in the black/pattern pool genetically, with the genes that produce color located on the Agouti locus. They should produce color and pattern when bred to a goat in this pool.

This pattern is called Cou Clair (tan or cream) or Cou Blanc (white) in alpines.

Reverse Badger Angora Goat - Black/Pattern Pool

Reverse Badger:

Also known as Light Belly. These goats fall in the black/pattern pool genetically and have color genes on the Agouti locus that are expressed as this pattern.

This is my daughters favorite pattern. Their fleeces are a nice way to get 2 colors in one fleece. Typically a shade of gray with a smaller amount of white or cream. I have seen pictures of a few goats that have red in place of the black/gray color.

The main body, including the neck is black or gray. There are white or tan stripes on the face, usually a single bar on each side extending from the poll to the lip, running forward of the eyes. They have a white or tan belly which often extends up toward the tail, and white or tan stripes on legs. Sometimes there is white or tan hair at the jawline.

This Reverse Badger doe also has the white spotting pattern of frosting on her ears and on the top of her nose.

This pattern is called Sundgau in alpine goats.

Badger Pattern

Badger:

Also called Badger face and Dark belly

This is my favorite of the patterns. I love the combination of light tan and gray. I got my first badger last fall. She had a badger doe kid this year, so now I have two! I like to use the fleece in it's natural color to make a cream and white lock spun yarn.

The main body is a tan or cream color. There is a gray or black dorsal stripe on the top line. The belly is gray or black and this may extend up on part of the chest and up toward the tail. Sometimes there is a gray or black martingale around the lower neck. The lower legs are tan/cream with black stripes. The ears are usually tan with gray edges. Their faces are tan with dark nose and mouth and dark stripes extending from the nose to the poll, usually passing above the eye.

Badgers seem to be most likely to have the solid tan or light red color pattern in their kids. I bred my badger doe to a grey and white pinto buck last fall. This spring she had twins, her badger doeling and a tan and white pinto buckling.

In dairy goats, especially French Alpines, this pattern is called chamoisee. The caramel pattern in pygmies is similar, though in pygmies the dark belly is variable.

Producing Color in Angora Goats

Adding color to angora goats (and keeping color in future generations) takes some planning and knowledge. For a few thousand years, color has been deliberately culled from most angora goat herds. White was preferred because of the ease of dyeing and predictability of color when using white mohair.  This has resulted in multiple ways to produce solid white in angora goats and made white very dominant genetically. Purposefully producing color in angoras started fairly recently and popularity has grown since the 1980s.

Two techniques are primarily used in this venture. One technique was crossbreeding white angora goats with Navajo angoras and other breeds to introduce color.  This brings in color quickly, but also produces a few generations of "Cashgora" type goats. Cashgora goats tend to have lots of guard hairs or kemp, have loose (or no) lock structure, low luster and these goats do not have full coverage.  Some breeders searched hard and were able to find goats from white angora herds that were born with some color to use in their breeding programs. These goats helped to maintain the quality of mohair in the kids, but tended to fade to near white pretty quickly. Breeding up colored goats to match the coverage, lock structure, luster, and freedom from kemp of white angoras is the ultimate goal and has begun to come to fruition in recent years.

At the genetic level, there are 3 main sites that rule color expression in angora goats. The Extension locus, the Agouti locus and the Brown locus (brown locus goats are very rare at this time.) There is detailed information on genetics and color expression in goats written in articles by Dr Phil Sponenberg.

The Pool method for breeding for color:

A practical guide to keeping color in the next generation was uncovered by the early colored angora goat breeders. They found that there are 2 main pools of colored angora goats. If goats with color genes in the same pool are bred, there is typically color in the kids. If the 2 pools are crossed, the result is often white or light tan kids (especially in the first generation.)  These 2 pools describe the primary color and pattern of the goat.

It is important to note that white spotting (frosted ears, spots, belts, etc…) over the primary color is completely separate from the primary color/pattern of the goat and is controlled by other genes that I will discuss in future posts.

Black/Pattern pool (also referred to as the "recessive pool"). This pool has solid black/gray goats and goats with distinct, predictable patterns. The patterns usually include some striping on the face. These patterns occur in many breeds of goats and have different names in the different breeds. The most common patterns (as named in angoras) are Badger, Reverse Badger, Peacock, and Mantled. The genes for this pool are located on the Agouti Locus. This pool was given the term "recessive" because even if a goat has all the genes needed to express a black/pattern pool color, it's color can be suppressed and hidden by the expression of genes in the Red/Black/Brown pool.

Red/Black/Brown pool (also referred to as the "dominant pool"). This pool has solid goats in all shades of red, brown, black and gray. There can be some variation of the shade of color in the fleece on an individual goat. Genes for this pool are located on the Extension Locus. Goats in this pool can be hiding genes from the black/pattern pool, thus the term "dominant" is associated with this pool (but this is not dominant in the usual use of the term.)

Because the color is determined by genes on different loci, both pools can hide genes from the other pool. Red/black/brown pool color goats may have a partial or full set of Black/Pattern pool genes that are not expressed. Black/Pattern pool goats can have a partial set of genes for the Red/Black/Brown pool that are not expressed.

Most colored angora goats reliably produce color in one pool or the other based on their color as described above. Solid black goats are found in both pools and pedigrees are especially important for them because it is impossible to tell which pool they are in by looking at the goat. By examining the pedigree and colors in previous generations, a educated guess can be made as to which pool that goat should produce color with. While crossing pools often initially produces white goats, after a few generations of crossing the pools, some goats can produce color with both pools and exciting, unexpected colors and patterns can appear in their kids.