We mentioned the new goat collars in the post about our goat photoshoot, but we didn’t explain why the collars all look different, and why that’s important.

When we were talking about getting collars for our goats, we realized that we could use them as a tool. We figured out a system, and now, just by looking at a goat, I can tell you who the parents of that particular goat are. The color of the collar tells us who the dam is, and the color of the words tell us who the sire is.

We began by taking the older goats and assigning them a color.  We chose pink for Zuzu – the matriarch of one of our goat families.  And made her letters brown because we like how that looks. LOL

But other than the senior does, everybody’s collar color is based on their heritage.

For example, Tapioca’s collar is light blue, with green letters. The light blue tells me that she’s out of the Payton line (since Payton’s color is light blue) and the green tells me that her sire is Panini. (If you really want to get detailed, her Dam is Thalia, Payton’s daughter, and I know that because her name starts with a T.)  Tapioca is chewing on her twin’s collar, which is the same color as hers. The only difference is that her twin’s collar says “Tempest” instead of “Tapioca”!

Now that you know what the different colors mean, take a look at this picture. Each group of collars is a different family. If you see a collar that is a different color, it just means that goat has an identical twin and we made the collar slightly different so we could tell them apart more easily. I’m holding our buck collars – see how they’re brown, with different colored letters? The letter colors tell us the buck’s color.

What do you think of our system? Do you think it’s too complicated, or do you think it’s cool?

I love it, because all I have to do is memorize which color belongs to which of our senior does, and with a glance at a goat’s collar, I can tell you who they are. It’s really handy when we’re working on breeding plans, because we can see who the goat can’t be bred to with just a single glance.

We’ve only had the collars on the goats for a few days, but it’s been great!

When people come on tours they can see the names of the goats, and call them by name. Both the goats (yes, they do know their names) and the people love it!

UPDATE: See the video and get a coupon code!