# Alpine breeders, let's talk coat patterns



## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

I am bringing home a new Alpine buckling this week from a very prestigious herd(I had reserved him over a year ago) and due the breeder's herd coming down with sore mouth this year, as well as having a doe year with lots of extra girls and almost no bucks, she cut me a great deal on a doe to keep the buckling company while I quarantine him. In our correspondence she said she does not like belts or cou blancs, with the doe being a belted cou blanc.

I love the different Alpine coat patterns, but I try really hard to not be swayed by them and to judge the goat on conformation, milk production, and pedigree. I don't want to keep a dud just because they are pretty. That being said, I am partial to cou blancs and would really like to have some more sundgaus in my herd, all things being equal.

What is your preferred Alpine coat pattern?

For those that are unfamiliar with Alpines, here is a link that explains the different coat patterns.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm no help because I like them all;-)


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Hmm... my favorite is Cou Noir, then Cou Blanc. It's a hard decision, because they're all beautiful patterns!


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## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

You will be very hard pressed to find a cou noir. They are rare and basically an inverse of the dominant coat pattern.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

My favorites are two-tone chamoisee's, and pied's.


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

FarmerInaDress said:


> You will be very hard pressed to find a cou noir. They are rare and basically an inverse of the dominant coat pattern.


Well, thanks for stomping on my dreams! Jk,but I was actually thinking to myself "if I get into alpines, I want cou noirs" . Oh well, I guess cou blancs will do


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Yeah, they are super rare! They were slightly more common in the 80's, but I've only EVER seen one. And hardly any in pictures even.
But cou blancs are a dime a dozen!


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

The sundgau alpines are interesting, they almost look like toggenburgs...


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

I like Cou Blancs. I have a Chamoisee and her daughter is a Sudgau right now. If I see an Alpine with excellent conformation (or not so great, for that matter), my color preferences go out the window pretty quick anyways.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I like Saffron and Lavender two-toned chamoisee.


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## Summersun (Apr 24, 2014)

The link to the colors is missing. I would really like to see the different colors because I'm used to pygmy colors and I want to purchase some dairy breeds.


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Did you click on the words "here is a link" in green?


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

I forget who but someone has an avatar picture of a gray and white spotted alpine or maybe alpine kiko cross with horns. But that would be my favorite. I love actual gray toned alpines. The only one I ever had got a hernia and now lives with my vet...


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

I think you mean Spidy1, he's a kiko buck and is for sale right now if you want him


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

i always get drawn to sundgaus the most, but honestly....i like them all the best. 

i wonder if to get more cou noirs in, if you breed an alpine with a black headed boer, and breed them back up to American..... i only say that since boers are so dominant with the coloured heads and white bodies..... would that work??


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Nope, it would be against ADGA rules. I'm sure that there are some Boer crosses registered from dishonest people but, I wouldn't do it. 

The Swiss didn't give away their best breeds. The true pieds are amazing looking with blue dapples on a blue roan body. Each color used to be a separate breed. They each came from different closed herds. The Saanens as well, they were called town goats because they never had horns.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

oh...I didn't know that was against ADGA rules. well...it was an idea.

I can only imagine that the best goats are still in France and Switzerland. it wouldn't be smart for them to give up the best, now would it? maybe if I end up that way I could smuggle a baby or two back to the New World..... lol


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

That could be fun. Maybe you could pretend you're pregnant with twins? The hard part would be explaining why you're feeding your stomach to keep it quiet


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

the bf said to wear them like a backpack or like one of those fox scarf thingies (they freak me out...) and tell people that it dispenses Glosettes. :ROFL:


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## Emzi00 (May 3, 2013)

I like cou noirs, but as mentioned.... probably not going to happen. :lol: Next, snowbird chamoisees, two tones, blacks/ broken blacks, then cou clairs. I like the pied ones too, but there aren't a ton of them out here.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I like them all, have most of the different colors! This last kidding group, I got 2 all black kids, from 2 different lines! A doe with a small "L" of white and
a buck kid with about 8 white hairs on his nose! Even among the Chamoisee, there are differences! Yes, it is hard to not judge by color!


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

I love all alpine patterns but i seriously love alpine's with random markings or pied because they are so out of the ordinary. I do love a deep, sleek black sundgau, cou noir, and broken chamoise. 


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

I had bought a few French alpine's many years ago and they were all pied and dappled. They were purebred and the most awesome colors but the woman lied and told me they were cae neg and they weren't so they went to auction. 


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

^^ oh darn. that must have sucked...


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## thegoatgirl (Nov 27, 2011)

I like Cou Noirs, Sundgaus, and Pieds  One of my buck kids from last year threw Cou Noir!! :shock:









Photo courtesy of Golden Delta Alpines


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Oooh, gimme gimme gimme!! He's so handsome, I want him! ! Cou noirs are def my favorite now 

Or her...it doesn't matter!


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## SugarBush Farms (Apr 19, 2012)

I love Sundgaus and true, clean Cou Blancs(a lot end up more Cou Clair, losing that bright white) I actually ended up buying an American doe in my absolute favorite color. She'll probably darken some more over her hindquarters, but I'm in love with her color, breeding and personality.


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## thegoatgirl (Nov 27, 2011)

LOL! I also like blacks 

Katherine, I like that color! Really pretty  It would be interesting to see what she looked like later on


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## BlaqueUnicornAdventures (May 14, 2014)

My barn name is "Blaxploitations", and I breed black Arabians, blue roan half-Arab sport horses, black Llamas, Alpacas, exotic poultry (Sumatra/Modern Game/Silkie/Ameraucana chickens and Bali ducks) Dobermans and now I have a couple goats... 

Alpine is my favorite breed, but as I am somewhat new to the goat scene (I have only previously had companion goats for stallions) I am not certain if some of my favorite colors exist in my favorite breed.

I of course am partial to the good basic solid black (IronRod Alpines has a couple I drool over on their website).
I also have a fascination with the Black and Tan (not sure how common it is in Alpines though, but it is very common in LaManchas, but the LaMancha ears freak me out) because I had this rather entertaining vision of my two Dobermans running with a small herd of "DoberGoats" that matched them. I think that would be fun. 
Also the Blue roan is a color I think would be fun to have just so they could match my roan horses... "visual continuity" is a thing for me clearly.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

canyontrailgoats said:


> I think you mean Spidy1, he's a kiko buck and is for sale right now if you want him


Thank you! yes he is Kiko, but he throws mostly snudgau babes! 5 out of 10, the others are cou clair-2, chamoisee-2, and a red, out of mixed dairy and Kiko does! He actually is gray in winter and chamoisee in summer!
Here's a link if you need it http://www.alpinesinternationalclub.com/breed_standard.html


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## mistydaiz (Jan 28, 2011)

That cou noir Alpine Ariella posted, is my doeling born here this year.
Her sire is solid black and her dam is light chamoisee with excessive white.
I may be keeping this girl. We will see after appraisal here on June 30.

I also just had a chamoise buckling born last week, but his swiss markings are tan, not white. 
You may get a black and tan from him.
His sire is dark bezoar chamoise, and his dam is tan cou clair.
He is for sale.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

mistydaiz, I love how colourful those babies are!


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## Hurkett_Hill_Farm (Jan 12, 2014)

These are our little alpine bucklings that were born in April. One has a lot more white with panda spots over his eyes. He looks like a little moose, lol. Mom is a cou noir and I've attached a photo of the buck (crazy wild looking guy) but he throws beautiful babies! We've had 5 kids from him - 1 doeling, 4 bucklings...... It would be mice get a few more does!






ours aren't registered. We had more interest in out Toggenburg twins than these alpine twins. Thinking about breeding our alpine doe with the Toggenburg buck. We'll see what colour we get with that!

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## mistydaiz (Jan 28, 2011)

You will most likely get a Toggenburg color.

We also had solid blacks born here on our farm this year.
One solid black Alpine buckling is for sale! He has a little white on his feet, and a partial belt.
I like the cou blancs with black trim, sundgaus, blacks, and oberhasli chamoises.


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## BlaqueUnicornAdventures (May 14, 2014)

I'm also kind of loving my "Lavender" one...


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## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

Okay, I have a question about registering one of my kids. She is a chamoisee with white legs, pretty sure not bezoar, though I've never been super clear on the distinction, and white swiss facial markings over a black face. My question is, she is basically belted on one side and the other side has two good sized, rough edged, disconnected patches of white on the body. Is this broken chamoisee or pied? Sorry, I don't have a good pic of her right now, as the white patches got a little bigger since the last photos I took. I'll try to get one.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I would say broken.

Here are 2 different shades of Bezoar so you can see the face stripes and the ring around the shoulders.


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## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

goathiker said:


> I would say broken.
> 
> Here are 2 different shades of Bezoar so you can see the face stripes and the ring around the shoulders.


She does not have the shoulder ring. Sounds like broken chamoisee it is. These are the best pics I could find of her. The first shows her belted side, but the markings on both sides are a good bit larger now at 3 weeks or so later. She's a cutie. She's one of my wattled twins.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

So cute! I have a doeling just like her, except for the spots and wattles!


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

My doe is registered as a chamoisee, but I have heard that she doesn't really fit the color description. I have seen a lot of other goats with her coloring though. Any thoughts?


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## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

OakHollowRanch said:


> My doe is registered as a chamoisee, but I have heard that she doesn't really fit the color description. I have seen a lot of other goats with her coloring though. Any thoughts?


It is kind of hard to tell from that pic, but she looks like possibly a two-tone chamoisee with white legs.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

FarmerInaDress- Yes your doeling would be a broken chamoisee 

OakHollowRanch- Your doe is a chamoisee, like her papers say.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

Here is a slightly better picture from late Spring of last year.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Yep, chamoisee.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

Okay, thanks! Last year I really started second guessing myself when the judge ask me what color my goat was during showmanship. I told him she was a Chamoisee very confidently, and he kind of gave me a strange look. The he ask the girl behind me what color her very obviously brown Nubian was and she very hesitantly said, "ummmmm broooowwwnn?" He then proceeded to move her up in line in front of me and she won 4-H showmanship. I never quite understood what was up with that!


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Maybe it was the way you pronounced it? :shrug: Because she's definitely a chamoisee.


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## mistydaiz (Jan 28, 2011)

I would call her chamoisee with swiss markings. That color can produce sundgaus.


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## OakHollowRanch (Jun 6, 2013)

mistydaiz said:


> I would call her chamoisee with swiss markings. That color can produce sundgaus.


Her daughter is a Sundgau.


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