White, white with patches of dark, or both? We are expecting in several weeks, and the doe I've bred to a Saanen is a Togg/Alpine cross. Her coloring is kind of beige/fawn light brown with the white Togg facial markings. What have been your experiences with breeding Saanens?

-- gita (gita@directcon.net), January 18, 2002

Answers

When we bred a purebred Togg to a Saanen, we got twin girls, one who looked exactly like mom, one who looked exactly like dad. When we bred a very dark Nubian to a Saanen, we got one all white, and one that was a very pretty beige color (with airplane ears).

I'm sure if it's a goat, if will be beautiful not matter WHAT the color :)

-- Kim Bailey (bailey@hilly-acre.com), January 18, 2002.

Hey! That's exactly what I have, the Nubian/saanen. What happens next? How should I breed her?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.

What are the weaknesses of your doe? Does she produce the amount of milk you want? Does she have weak pasterns or a poor topline. I would find a buck of any variety that had positive qualities where she has poor or fair ones. Your not breeding to show, so breed to get the best animal for your uses.

My saanen kindergoat kids from last year were both beige. One had upright ears and one had droopy ears.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), January 18, 2002.

My original 6 goats were saanan nubian crosses and they were all solid white except one and she had black legs, stripes on face, down here back and her body was whitish beige tipped with black. The first year I bred them was to a 7/8 Boer buck and I got mostly white kids with a couple of brown and white spots. The second year I bred to a nice saanan buck and had all white babies except for two . The doe with the black had a doe like her and one of the does and a beautiful black and white spotted that looks alot like pictures I've seen of sables. After breeding to the saanan buck I didn't have any airplane ears, they look like saanan even the ones with color.

-- sherry (chickadee259@yahoo.com), January 18, 2002.

We had a Saanen/Alpine for awhile in Texas. She looked Saanen, though, sadly, did not develop a nice udder and had impossible to milk little teats. We bred her one time, to our red Nubian buck. Her kids were a very pretty cream color, with brown markings. Their ears were not quite Nubian, not quite Saanen.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), January 18, 2002.

My saanan doe bred to an angora buck and I got the cutest fuzzy little white buckling ever but he grew up into a big fuzzy white buck yuck Bred her to a boer buck and got white kids with a spot or two and a thicker nose. Bred to a Oberhasli so waitin to seeeeee Cindy

-- Cindy (hollo@bitwisesystems.com), January 18, 2002.

Question: What do you get when you cross Saanens with other goat breeds?

Answer: baby goats

-- (imashortguy@hotmail.com), January 19, 2002.

well , personally i havent crossed my non registered , but still purebred saanens with anything yet , but next year , my buck also , a purebred , non reg saanen, will be very happy , i just hope he doesnt have an ear fetish , since we will be getting a couple of lamanchas and some nubians ,

i want to get away from the saanens , because of the skin cancer thing , i have seen some really bad ones , so i am hoping by crossing my lovely orrin with some ladies of other backgrounds i can ge the bestof both worlds, i know , pie in the sky dreams , but one can hope :)

i want nice big goats and good milkers :) we currently have just the saanens and boers Beth

-- Beth Van Stiphout (willosnake@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.

White is the dominant color in dairy goats, so I would expect white or cream depending on the % of saanen.With as many things as you have going breed-wise there is no telling for sure, but they should be cuties. Good luck.

-- Kacy (kcjp@earthlink.net), February 12, 2002.

A Sable? :)

In LaMancha's our cross with Saanens were hands down our best milkers. They were always white, no matter what the color of the doe was. We did end up with some red does, but we never did have much color in our LaMancha herd. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

Two Saanans bred to big reg. black Alpine, one set of pure white boys, one set of pitch black boys, all ears up. 1 Alpine/Saanen doe, classic black/white markings had kid exactly like herself, 3/4 Alpine. Sable Saanen and Cream Saanen both had pitch black bucks from same Alpine buck last year.

My reg. Alpines havn't had kids yet, they are young. I like the Saanen/Alpine cross, seems to be really hardy and strong here, and grows fast. My Alpine/Saanen doe had a fantastic bag last year, her first year, really high bag and lots of milk. Now I have another reg. Alpine buck, he's kinda chocolate, and reg. Alpine does and my Saanan does, and 2 Alpine/Saanen does.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), February 12, 2002.