Semtech ABS
    Trinity Stud

Recessive brown is a very rare gene imported into Australia from the USA.

The gene entered Australia by accident when a buck bred by Mrs Donna Elkins in 2013 was imported into Australia by Sue Ludwig in 2018.

​

The bucks name is  Proverbial Pygmy’s Bad Company Inc., or Bad Co as we know him.

Pygmy breeders in Australia were very excited to have him arrive, as he was the first buck showing the Caramel pattern successfully imported into Australia. 

The Caramel gene is a dominant characteristic. The individuals who display this pattern need only to have one copy for it to be expressed. For the first time we had the opportunity to diversify away from our largley black based gene pool.

​​

Prior to going into quarantine Bad Co produced over 110 progeny, with only 3 of them brown in colour out of grey parents. These Cinnamon kids both came out of the same stud, indicating the gene was floating around in the background again waiting to come out when Bad Co was used. Bad Co's father also produced a Cinnamon kid when mated to a grey doe.

To date I personally have not been lucky enough to produce a cinnamon without it also bringing along the caramel gene with it. Other studs have been able to seperate the pattern from the colour (see photos Below)

​​As far back as the early 80's the colour can be seen to appear, jumping a generation and appearing again. The gene obviously entered the USA gene pool through the African imports or foundation does designated as unknown or white. ( white covers all colours like paint).

​​​

​

Any kid born from PP Bad Co has a 50% chance of inheriting the Cinnamon gene he carries from him. Of course, no one knows who is and who is not carrying the gene. But when breeders cross Bad Co's  close relatives together the magic can happen. It wasn’t long after, that two other breeders in Australia discovered the hidden gene in their line bred pygmy's as well. (Photos below)

​

The understanding of goat colours and patterns have been documented accurately by Dr Phil Sponendberg the leading academic authority on goat colour genetics : 1995. Even today new breeder’s can often mis-represent an animals pattern and colour to registrars, due to the complexity of the subject. Dr. Sponenberg documents recessive brown as a legitimate Brown locus allele present in goats broadly, and the colour has been observed and described specifically within Pygmies. Seven colour variations in the American Pygmy breed standard exist: caramel with black markings, caramel with brown markings, brown agouti, grey agouti, black agouti, black with white markings, and solid black are accepted by NPGA USA. Medium/recessive brown as a distinct solid base colour is absent from their list entirely.

 

Australia's Pygmy goat population has developed along a different trajectory than the US herd. Because upgrading from non-Pygmy foundation animals has been permitted, and because the colour standard is open, the Australian gene pool is genuinely broader. Recessive brown alleles that do show up in USA herds are quietly culled or ignored, because they produce "wrong" coloured animals that can't be shown. In Australian herds the same gene that would not have been allowed to persist in the USA, is allowed and can accumulate. This is almost certainly why professionals in Australia are beginning to notice the trait emerging with greater frequency. The animals expressing or carrying the gene haven't been systematically removed.

 

Australia has separated the question of imported US full-blood standard from the broader population of Pygmies bred here. That policy creates a protected space where recessive brown animals can be registered, shown, and bred without disqualification. NPGAA breeders are in a unique situation, where what we are observing is not a curiosity or an anomaly, it is a recessive gene, present in the original West African Dwarf foundation stock, surfacing in our population. This situation is actually an extraordinary opportunity for the Australian Pygmy goat community, to document cases of medium brown - cinnamon kids born from two black parents amassing evidence that is very difficult to argue with.