Genetics humor

April 4, 2015 • 2:15 pm

Courtesy of reader Doris. I won’t explain this, as it would take too long and involve showing why the caption, though funny, is wrong. If you know genetics, you can have a muted chuckle:

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These are weird goats, you must admit. And there is at least one goat farmer among the readers who can explain this breed and the weird pattern.

32 thoughts on “Genetics humor”

  2. They are Valais goats, a Swiss breed, originating in the Valais area of western Switzerland.

    They are primarily a fiber breed, but are also used for meat. Some people milk them, too, although they are not a dairy breed and don’t give nearly the amount or quality of milk that the dairy breeds do. They also have impressive horns, and their skulls with horns are often used for decoration.

    An attempt was made several years ago to develop them in the US, by inseminating “cou noir” pattern French Alpine dairy goats with Valais semen. The first generation, there were a few kids with the correct color pattern, but, of course, they lost the fiber quality. I don’t know what happened after the first generation, but I think the breeder gave up on it.

    Anything else? L

    2. An attempt was made several years ago to develop them in the US, by inseminating “cou noir” pattern French Alpine dairy goats with Valais semen.

      Why wouldn’t they just breed Valais with Valais? That is, import a complete breeding population?

      b&

      1. You can import semen, but not goats, without an extensive quarantine procedure. Importing one would be prohibitively expensive; importing a whole herd would be next to impossible.

        Many years ago, Harvey Considine, a Saanen breeder, imported a buck into the US from New Zealand. He wrote about it in a couple of the goat mags. The buck had to be quarantined for sixty days before he could have any contact with animals on American soil. L

        1. Hmmm. Not disputing the quarantine regulations (it’s relatively recently that Britain has dropped the 6-month quarantine for cats and d*gs coming from the Continent, due to fear of rabies. While a PITA, I accept the logic of quarantine as a principle, though individual cases may require regular review), but couldn’t the hazard of importing disease be managed by bringing in a (very) pregnant nanny, delivering the embryo by Caesarian section under sterile conditions, then fostering the kid onto a resident nanny while the dam (?) goes home?
          Would that reduce the risk of importing disease (the logic for quarantine), without the costs of keeping the nanny (or kid) in quarantine for months? Or would the vet fees nullify the cost savings?
          I’m basing the procedure on those use to develop germ-free lines of lab animals.

          1. Not sure what the vet fees would be, but they too are probably prohibitive.

            Embryo transfer technology has come a long way since Harvey Considine brought his buck from NZ.

            But, I know that African Boers, Nigerian Dwarf goats, Oberhasli, and now Golden Guernseys have all gone the semen route rather than bringing in animals, so I’m sure it’s a lot easier and cheaper to do it that way. Each of those was crossed with American goats which most closely resembled the type they wanted to end up with, and it was only a few generations before they got to where they wanted to be. L

          2. Lovely that quarantine. Several years ago the quarantine in Hawaii for dogs and cats was 4 months. We had to keep our cat in the jail at over $400 a month. Oddly the quarantine was right next to the state prison. Seemed just a bit primitive but they were probably attempting to discourage people from bringing in pets.

        2. Somehow, I’m not surprised it has more to do with red tape than anything else. Seems quite pointless, too…it’s not like goats are going to turn feral and become an invasive species, and quarantine shouldn’t mean more than simple boarding at a vet.

          …but how else are bureaucrats supposed to justify their existence, eh?

          b&

    3. As driven through the main street of Zermatt each day, for the appreciation for the tourists:

      2. Squeeee! Look at their lovely horns and their fluffy “pants”. I love how a couple goats went up to the guy with the camera to see if the strap was food. 🙂

    4. Why wouldn’t the breeder just get a small herd and forget about cross breeding?

  5. These goats look like they didn’t pull their shirts on all the way. 🐐

  7. Well, according to Genesis 30:37, these goats were conceived in front of black and white painted walls.

    “37 Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38 And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.”

    See? Make perfect sense.

    And it works with speckled walls, and striped walls, too, right? Right?

        1. The last time this happened, I put the exact same comment. It’s good to be consistent, but clearly not very much makes it to my long term memory anymore!

          1. The last time we had a dupe, I linked to the old article. I like consistency, but I’m not sure how many of these dupes I remember well enough to notice!

            I just hope my short-term memory is in better shape than my long-term memory.

            b&

  11. In SA we have a lot of sheep (not goats) that have a black or dark brown head, and a white body.
    They are not as impressive as the Valois though, but still pretty weird (but then we have zebras that beat all of them in the ‘weird pattern department’).
    Im sure ‘epigenetics’ plays a role in these colour patterns.
    The word ‘epigenetics’ has sadly nearly become a swear-word, due to unfounded claims of Lamarckian inheritance by some over-enthousiastic authors and journalists. Nevertheless, it is understanding what controls gene expression that will allow us to make any sense and use of the various ‘genome projects’.

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