Saanen

The breed comes from the historic Saanen district and the neighboring Simmental, both in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. From the 1800s it was exported around the world, and local sub-breeds grew from it: the British Saanen, the French Saanen, the Israeli Saanen, the Russian White.

The export worked. The global population now exceeds 900,000 head, with only about 14,000 of them left in Switzerland. A black variant, the Sable, was recognized in New Zealand in the 1980s and has been registrable in the United States since 2005.

The largest of the Swiss breeds. The ADGA standard sets minimums of 30 inches and 135 lb for does, 32 inches and 170 lb for bucks. The coat is short, white to light cream, over pale skin; small pigmented spots are allowed. Horned and hornless kids both occur.

The production figures are the breed's argument: in the Swiss recording, an average of about 1,850 lb of milk over a 264-day lactation, at a minimum of 3.2 percent fat and 2.7 percent protein.

Calm is ADGA's word, and it gives the calm temperament alongside high production as the reason commercial dairies favor the breed. The American Goat Society adds ease of management, herd compatibility and a mellow, eager-to-please temperament.

Bucks are the exception to easy handling in every breed. Penn State Extension describes them as tending to be aggressive and carrying a strong, urine-like odor, worst in the breeding season from September to early January.

ADGA's show rules bar animals with natural horns, so horned kids meant for showing are disbudded young; Mississippi State University Extension recommends 4 to 14 days of age.

Fluid milk at commercial scale. The milk is lower in butterfat than a Nubian's, about 3.2 percent against 4.8, so it suits fluid milk and volume-priced contracts more than cheesemaking.

That is a market fact, not a defect. Where the contract pays by the hundredweight, the Saanen is the standard answer.

Shade. A white goat with pale skin sunburns, and Saanens are less tolerant of intense sun and heat than the eastern breeds.

Wikipedia is blunter: the breed is not well suited to extensive management and does best raised intensively. This is a barn and parlour animal, not a brush goat.

Registration is with the American Dairy Goat Association. Ask for the dam's production records; volume is the breed's entire case, so the numbers matter more here than anywhere.

Match the goat to the contract. If your buyer pays on butterfat, a Saanen loses to a Nubian or a Nigerian Dwarf; if it pays on volume, nothing beats her. And look at your summers: the further into heat and open sun you farm, the more the pale skin costs.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.