Golden Guernsey goats born by artificial insemination
THE first Golden Guernsey goats in the Channel Islands to be conceived by artificial insemination have been born.
They belong to Peter and Mandy Girard who began building their herd at Les Sages, St Peter’s, in 2000.
The couple currently have 24 adult females, six adult males and 16 kids.
‘The Golden Guernsey is a docile breed, very laid back and friendly,’ said Mrs Girard. ‘They’re a bit like dogs and they will rub their heads against you.’
Mr Girard is president of The Guernsey Goat Society which, about 10 years ago, ran a course for people who wanted to be trained and licensed to do artificial insemination.
Importing semen in to the Channel Islands requires the donor animal to be monitored for scrapie – a disease of the brain that primarily affects sheep but can affect goats. Last year when States vet David Chamberlain was in the UK, he met Golden Guernsey breeder Steve Bennett, who told him he had a billy that was about to go to a government-approved centre for semen collection.
The animal was to be put down afterwards and this meant that the necessary tests could be carried out.
Tests were done and Mr Chamberlain was able to approve importation of the semen to Guernsey for which Mr and Mrs Girard said they were very grateful.
‘It enables us to start a new breeding line,’ said Mrs Girard.
‘If we could do it more often it would mean we could strengthen the island’s stock generally and people would not need to keep so many billy goats.’
Twenty straws of the semen were brought to Guernsey in a liquid nitrogen flask in about October. Seven of Mr and Mrs Girard’s goats were inseminated, of which three became pregnant.
‘It was good result for us as only about 25% of artificial insemination of goats are usually successful,’ said Mr Girard.
One of those to give birth was carrying twins. The two girl kids have been named Faith and Hope while Ezra is a male.
There are about 1,200 Golden Guernseys in the world, the majority of which are in The British Isles. About 80 of them are in Guernsey.
Mr and Mrs Girard occasionally conduct full farm tours with bottle feeding and they advertise when they are happening via their Facebook profile Golden Guernsey Goats Cheese.
n Further details of the breed and other goats can be found at www.theguernseygoatsociety.org
