Perfect Storm for Ennoblement Program

We believe that there is a perfect storm of events that are causing many breeders to give up trying to get their animals ennobled with ABGA. This may likely change the thinking of many breeders on the real value of the Ennoblement label in the future. This Ennoblement phase is just one of many different marketing phases the industry has gone through in trying to add value to an individual animal. Some of the phases have been:

• The Boer goat breed is the premiere breed to have

• The "New Genetics from South Africa" are the main genetics a breeder should have

• The traditional color animal is superior to the non-traditional colored animals

• The Non-traditional colored animals are as good as the traditional colored animals.

• The more Ennoblement animals listed in a pedigree the better the animal

• The longer the body, neck and more tubular look an animal has, the better they are

• The wider an animal is, the better they are.

Lets compare two different animals in the future.

• Animal 1 - a New Genetic traditional animal with a long body, slim neck, tubular body with a wide front that has 12 ennoblements in their pedigree.

• Animal 2 - a typical looking good quality goat with no ennoblements in the pedigree.

Which is more valuable if:

• typical animals like Animal 1 are dying on a regular basis because of stomach worms and no dewormers are working any more and there are no new dewormers coming in the future.

• typical animals like Animal 2 are thriving and are going years without requiring to be dewormed

We now have several animals in our herd that are around 20 months old at the time of writing this article and they have never been dewormed and have dark pink eyelid membranes, (see 2008 resistance update article)

Here are the main Perfect Storm events that we believe are turning many breeders, including us, away from trying to get their animals ennobled. We are not calling for the ABGA to change anything because we believe the breeders have always been the driving force for changing what is important in the industry. This is especially true because ABGA is a show-oriented association and the future of the industry will rest in the hands of breeders focusing on the health issues of the breed that are now in a crisis point related to the worm problems.

• The increased price of gas

• U.S. in a recession and loss of jobs

• The increased number of shows across the country

• The increased number of ennobled animals

• Double Visual Inspections required

• The reduced prices that quality Boer goats are selling for.

• ABGA reducing the show points awarded at shows

The dramatic increases in gas prices has significant impacts on breeders trying to get an animal ennobled. When gas changed from $1.50 a gallon to $3-$4 a gallon, the cost of traveling to a show increased two to four times. It also increased the cost of feed. Diesel was worse. Even if prices are coming down at this time, few people believe that it won't be going back up soon. This will affect the number of breeders going to a show, how far they will go to a show and how far other breeders will travel to participate in a Production sale.

The U.S. is in a recession at this time and no one knows how long it will last or how fast we will recover. A recession results in many people losing their jobs or worrying that they may lose their job. As breeders are more concerned about their money during a recession and their job, they are less likely to travel to shows or production sales.

The number of shows has increased dramatically compared to the number of shows in the 1990s. Also there are more shows across the country instead of just in the Texas, Oklahoma area. The more shows that are offered means that breeders can be more selective in which shows they attend. There is less requirement to travel long distances to attend a show, especially with increased gas prices. However, with more shows available, there will likely be fewer animals per show because breeders are not traveling as far to attend. Fewer animals per show results in fewer animals per class. The show points awarded at a show are dependent upon the number of animals per class. With fewer animals in a class, the fewer points an animal will receive even though the cost of attending the show has dramatically increased.

As of October 29, 2008, there are 480 ennobled animals listed on the ABGA web site. Originally, breeders were proud of that ennoblement and would write a brief description of the animal and provide a picture of it for ABGA to post on their web site. Now, over 75% of the ennobled animals don't have any write-up or picture available on the web site.  The ennoblement label is no longer unique or special because there are so many animals with the label.  While many breeders focus on how many ennoblement labels are on a pedigree, they may be finding out that it is not adding the marketing value that it once did.

Several years ago, ABGA started requiring every animal to have at least two visual inspections done in order for any of their show points to be acceptable for ennoblement.  A visual inspection is where a judge checks an animal to see if they meet the "minimum standards requirements". Animals are awarded show points in competition for being selected as the best in their class and meet all standards. The same judges that award an animal the show points are the judges that do visual inspections. ABGA decided that a judge may not be trustworthy enough to do the visual inspection correctly so they decided to require two different judges to inspect an animal before the show points are valid. A judge is considered to be trustworthy enough to evaluate the animals at a show and award show points to selected animals as the best in the show however they may not be trustworthy enough to determine if an animal meets the "minimum requirements". Each visual inspection cost the breeder money. The breeder has to either travel to a show to meet with a judge or the breeder will have to pay travel expenses for the judge to come to their farm. Breeders have traveled many hours to a show just to have their animal inspected by the judge only to find out the judge did not bring their visual inspection kit and their animal can't be inspected. It is much more difficult for breeders to find two different judges when they live in an area where there are few judges or shows. We have heard from breeders that have waited a year for some judge to be within traveling distance for them and if something happens to the animal before both inspections have been done, all the points are lost. We have had several animals that had many show points but died before we could get them inspected.  Thus all of the show expenses for showing them was wasted.

As more and more Boer goats are available in the U.S., the prices for them have gone down dramatically. When they  were a unique breed, there was a big premium paid for them. When there were only a few ennobled animals, premiums were paid for their kids. Many years ago, it was common to see animals sell at production sales for tens of thousands of dollars. Now it is common to see animals selling at the same production sales for only hundreds of dollars. Several years ago, breeders were excited to see what an ennobled animal would sell for. Recently, I saw an ad where a breeder was offering three different ennobled animals for only a few thousand dollars and I don't know if they got their asking price.  The industry has changed and so have the prices. Breeders are starting to find out the Boer goat really is a meat goat and not everyone can be just raising breeding animals. The prices are starting to level off to where many of the animals are now selling by the pound.  Animals will only sell at  a premium if there is some valuable and unique characteristic related to the animal. Having 9 ennoblements in their pedigree is losing the ability to demand a premium price.

This year, ABGA reduced the number of points awarded according to the number of animals in the class. This has been a significant reason many breeders are no longer putting any focus on trying to get ennoblement show points. Classes of less than 10 animals will now get fewer points than before. After 15 years of awarding show points by one set of rules, ABGA has now changed the requirements for current breeders to get their animal ennobled. One example is in our effort to get our doe named Beauty ennobled. Last year she had all the points she needed for ennoblement except for one animal to get the minimum show points awarded at any show. Last year, if we would have taken one of her kids to a show and won the minimum points awarded, 5 points, she would now be ennobled. However, we did not start showing again until 2008 when the new requirements were implemented. Her daughter Royal Beauty, has participated in three different shows winning three first places and getting Sr. Reserve Grand Champion doe. For that, she was awarded a total of 4 points. If this would have been last year, she would have 15 points and really would not have had to go to the last two shows. Before 2008, the requirement was at least three offspring have 30 points total between them with no requirement as to how the points were divided. In 2008, there is a requirement for each animal to have at least 5 points. Here are some examples of costs involved in showing.

• $25 for entry fee plus shavings

• $100 for gas

• $100 for motel

• $100 for meals

• Total $325 for a local show

Last year, I would have taken Royal Beauty to one show, received 5 points at the cost of $325 and her dam would be ennobled. This year, I have gone to three show, received 4 points and it is still not enough to ennoble her dam. That is a cost of $975 and still no ennoblement.

Because of increased price of gas, fewer breeders are going to the shows. Because there are more shows, fewer breeders are likely to travel to the more remote shows thus reducing the number of animals at the show. Because of the recession and loss of jobs, fewer breeders are attending shows. Because having an ennobled animal is no longer that unique, it means you are likely to get less of a premium for having them ennobled. Because the prices are lower for animals, it is more important to reduce the additional expenses such as going to shows for ennoblement points. Because ABGA reduced the amount of points awarded for shows with fewer animals, it can take 4-5 times the number of shows to get an animal ennobled compared to before 2008.

There have been many events occurring over the last year or so that have resulted in a Perfect Storm in the industry to stop many breeders from worrying about trying to get their animals ennobled. I went to a show last week where one breeder told me he would no longer focus on getting any of his animals ennobled. He said that he would attend some local shows to try and get some wins that he could use for marketing but he had no more interest in the ennoblement program.

We just spent around $1,000 traveling to three shows and ended up with 4 points which was not enough for the minimum amount of points for an offspring to have to help her dam get ennobled. I can compare that to staying home and not doing any shows but documenting our monthly maintenance we do on our animal. The interesting thing is our doe,Royal Beauty that we were taking to the shows, has a record of not requiring or being dewormed in over 24 months. That 24 months included kidding in a very wet spring which is when a doe normally is most likely to have worm problems. This is when many of the other does with her, were having serious worm problems.  This is a clear sign of her having  genetics of being resistant to worms.

Now is it more important for us to spend thousands and thousands of dollars trying to get her or her sire/dam ennobled or for us to focus on creating a herd of animals that are highly resistant to worms? We now have several animals that were born in early 2007 that have never been dewormed. We have a few does born in 2006 that have kidded and their kids have shown signs of being worm resistant.  We believe that the marketing phase of Ennobled Animals has passed and is no longer financially justified for us. Our total focus now is on working to continue to increase the worm resistance in our herd and understand how to reproduce that in our future kids. We have a new buck kid that we are using in our breeding program this fall that so far has shown similar worm resistance in his 7 months of life. He has bred several of the does that have not been dewormed in over 20 months.  2009 will be an exciting year as we continue to watch our worm resistant animals and see how their kids do. I think that will be more valuable to us than saying we had the 631th ennobled animal.

Royal Beauty
Has not been dewormed in 24 months!!!!