Breeds are inbred populations; that is, animals of the same breed tend to be more closely related than the general population of goats in the world. Inbreeding occurs when individuals more closely related than the average of the population are mated.

Genetically speaking, we expect individuals of the same breed to share a higher frequency of the same genes than individuals of a different breed. This is what makes the characteristics of animals of the same breed more or less uniform and somewhat predictable generation to generation. Generally it takes a new breed about five generations to become established and to become sufficiently homozygous at all the loci controlling important traits that function and form are reasonably predictable.

Within the U.S. goat sector there are several breeds from which to choose. Each breed has certain average characteristics, some of which will be useful in achieving breeding objectives and some that may not be of much use or even detrimental to the objectives. Not only characteristics but availability is a factor that determines which breed(s) are used in the enterprise. Availability includes physically and financial components.

Selecting specific breeds will be based on an understanding of their characteristics (both positive and negative attributes), personal preference, and most importantly the needs of end users — for breeders that would be the commercial producers, and for commercial producers that would be the consumers. The breeds most often used in commercial goat meat production are listed alphabetically and briefly discussed in Appendix A.

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