Our Polka Princess, T4 Polka Dot, is quite a living legend. Unique in her color pattern as well as her regal personality, she is quite a conversation piece, whether you regard her markings as desirable or not. Having long been bitten by the bug to breed for Non-traditional Boer Goats, the possibilities of breeding for “Polka Dots” opened up a whole new frontier in unraveling the mysteries of the color genetics of Boer Goats.

If you compare Polka Dot’s coat to an empty canvas, her background is a solid brown, the shade of dark caramel. The round spots that pattern the solid canvas are white, dark red, tan, and some spots appear to be white with roan. Let me just say that the frame this canvas is stretched upon is an excellent example of a Senior percentage doe. She is structurally correct, sound on her feet, deep bodied and level topped. Large in overall frame-size and wide from front to back, she strikes an elegant profile and a substantial head on view. Most importantly, she is an excellent mother, having kidded naturally three times, producing 7 offspring, six of which bore her Polka Dot markings.

It is the inheritability trait of this coat that has me fascinated. In reading studies of color genetics on fiber and dairy breeds of goats, color and coat patterns are determined by The Agouti Locus. This is the most important gene in coat color genetics. There are 14 known different alleles of the A gene (Agouti) probably more. This gene controls the patterns of deposition of melanin in the coat. The pigment in the hair and skin of all mammals is made from this protein, melanin. Melanin comes in two types, Phaeomelanin and Eumelanin. Phaeomelanin is responsible for tan, cream, yellow, red, and reddish brown colors. Eumelanin is responsible for black, blue-gray, and chocolate brown colors. Various genes control how much of each type of pigment is made and where it is deposited.

Whether the spotting is a dominant or recessive gene is questionable. On the surface, it would appear to be a dominant gene based upon phenotype of offspring. However, is it possible it is a recessive gene that must be paired with a buck carrying a recessive gene that is not phenotypically observed? Having the concrete answers to these basic questions certainly gives more predictability power in determining breeding program outcomes. Since most data of Non-Traditional Boer goats is primarily collected by individual breeders, and most viable research of color genetics has been conducted on breeds outside of Boer Goats, individual breeders take some giant leaps in hypothesizing how to predict color in progeny.

In T4 Polka Dots’ pedigree, she was born from a Traditional half blood doe and Rojo Grande, a solid red buck of solid South African stock that appears to have a traditional phenotype pedigree. Her Dam, T4 Angelina is a daughter of Stones Martin 7E and a Spanish dam. At this point you have to ask, did the Spanish influence of variant colors contribute the spotting or did the solid red sire contribute the allele designating the direction of the melanin distribution? Who knows!

Under the W.E. and Carolyn’s Whitehead’s breeding direction, T4 Polka Dot was bred to T4 Scorpio, another solid red buck from the cross of T4 Doocey (out of Apache Rio and Bosker’s Place Cora) and T4 Roulette (out of TNTP Linxx and T4 Evian). Both Doocey and Roulette were paint Boers. Her first kidding produced Pocahontas and Pokemon, both spotted. Her second kidding produced Kaluhua, Bahama Mama, and Chantica. Chantica is a solid red doe with a white barrel band, while her sisters are spotted, although the patterns varied significantly.

Our current solid red herd sire is a son of T4 Scorpio, T4 Redneck. His dam is T4 Déjà vu, from a cross of T4 Doocey and T4 Mancini. T4 Redneck has Doocey’s paint lines on both sides of his pedigree. He is a beautiful red buck, his strength lying in his solid top line and elegant head and neck, a trait that is often times hard to find in solid red bucks due to a previously limited gene pool.

We flushed Polka Dot to T4 Redneck last November and retrieved 8 grade 2 embryos. We lost a recip doe two weeks prior to her kid date and one solid red doe was born dead, however we were blessed with three spotted does. All three are quite diverse in their coat color and markings. Polka Dot then went on to kid naturally from a breeding with T4 Redneck and produced a buck and doe pair, both spotted.

At this point I was still leaning toward spotting being the dominant factor, and lo and behold, T4 Redneck produced another spotted doe from a natural breeding to a solid brown Spanish doe! So, the question remains unanswered. Is it the Spanish influence, or was it the influence of the solid red buck’s allele makeup that determines spotting, or is it the contributing pair of both? Another example that leaves me shaking my head about predictability factors is another Boer cross percentage doe that was bred to T4 Redneck. She was traditional but had heavy spotting on the red areas of her head and neck. I fully expected to have a spotted kid of some sort, but wound up with a correct buckling. Go figure!

It would be interesting to outcross T4 Polka Dot to a Traditional buck with no apparent color gene in his pedigree and speculate on the results. However, given her history, it is difficult to miss out on a chance to replicate her with a proven mating. Our current plans are to flush her once more this fall along with Kaluhua and Chantica, all three crossed back to T4 Redneck. After that, she will be bred naturally for as long as her health allows at which point she will live out her days at Fern Hollow Farm.

I have been taken by surprise with the excitement these unusual color patterns have caused among fellow breeders. The success stories of certain breedings continue to fascinate me and I sincerely hope breeders that produce spotted offspring (whether by deliberate programming or by surprise) keep excellent records of these bloodlines that contribute to this particular gene pool. Eventually I plan to breed for spotted Full-bloods, but they will have to compare to the graceful and gorgeous T4 Polka Dot in terms of breed standard. It would be a grave disservice to the spotted gene pool as well as the Boer Goat industry to breed and sell mediocre spotted goats purely for the sake of having spots. For this unchartered territory or niche market, the spotted trend would collapse before the merits are realized if the quality is not present to begin with.

Much work needs to be done by myself and other breeders as we continue to observe and collect data about colored genetics of Boer Goats. As much as my passion lies in collecting and breeding for spots, it is also my pleasure to introduce this latest generation of spots that may just stir up your own passion for Polka Dots!