Elections for CGS Director Positions

Results are now in for the elections for one Director position in Alberta and two positions in Ontario.

In Alberta Chris Grab has been elected.

In Ontario Edward Cavanagh and Jonathan Dugdale have been elected.

Terms for current directors in these regions run until the next CGS AGM. The newly elected directors will begin their term at the time of the next CGS Annual meeting.

Congratulations to Chris, Ed and Johnathan. Thanks to everyone who let their name stand for election.

CGS Memberships are at the Highest Level Since 2002!

Yes, you read that headline correctly!

CGS memberships to the end of August 20210 are 12% higher than the same period in 2020 and already 6.5% higher than all of 2020!!!

In addition the total is second highest in the past two decades! Call that growth!

And more 2021 year to date stats compared to 2020 YTD:

  • New members up 22%!!
  • Herd name registrations are up 16%!
  • Transfers are up 14% over 2020!

Registrations are surging upward after a dip earlier in the year!   

Stay tuned and THANKS to all CGS members and clients who are part of this remarkable growth and revival!

ONWARD!!!!  GO AND GROW!

OMAFRA Goat Genetic Improvement Webinar Series

The Goat Genetic Improvement Webinar Series was held on July 20th to 29th, as part of a webinar series presented by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Below are the supporting materials included. 

Slides –  Click to view or download:

Keep or Cull?

Scrapie and Goat Genetics in Canada

Raising Goats Smarter Not Harder

Accelerating Goat Genetic Improvement With Genomic Selection

Canadian Dairy Goat Genetic Improvement Program

Introduction to CGS Classification

Real Approaches to Genetic Improvement 

Webinar Recordings:

Heritage Livestock Canada in partnership CGS and the Animal Genetics Resource Centre undertake a project to establish genetic diversity of registered purebreds

Heritage Livestock Canada in partnership with the Canadian Goat Society and the Animal Genetics Resource Centre (AnGRC) are undertaking a project to establish the genetic diversity of registered purebreds, within the following breeds : Angora, Oberhasli, Toggenburg, Nubian, Alpine, Saanen, LaMancha and Nigerian Dwarf.
 
Producers are asked to collect hair samples from differing dam lines within their herds (for example a dam line, not dam/daughter). The study will be used by HLC to focus on specific breeds and by CGS to gain valuable, fact based information on genetic diversity within our breeds as genomic testing of goats expands.
 
Samples may be sent to:
Rebecca Lange: Angora, LaMancha
Callum McLeod: Nubian/Saanen/Toggenburg
Sandy Howell: Alpine/Oberhasli/Nigerian Dwarf
 
If there are any specific questions, please direct those to Rebecca Lange.
 
Contact information

Director Elections: Alberta (1) & Ontario (2)

Ballots for the Election of two Directors from Ontario and one from Alberta went into the mail Friday.

Please disregard and destroy the first mailing of ballots.

The materials for the second round of ballots was presented to the leadership of CGS for review of content and they also consulted on the process of balloting.

If you have any questions please contact your elected representative on the CGS Board.
 
Ballots must be returned to arrive by August 31, 2021.
 

CGS Registry Work Year to Date (End of July 2021)

Breaking news that will have you breaking out in smiles!
Thanks to Jack, an IT whiz at CLRC we now have access to activity levels for CGS registry work to the end of July 2021.
Crunching data for comparison to 2020 year to date (YTD) stats has been a great joy!
 
Here’s the lowdown:
Registrations: Down 19.3% YTD!
Where, oh where is the good news in this?
Well a very few months ago registrations were down well over 30% compared to the same period last year. So, we’re gaining!
Our tabs on income on our bank account at Ottawa and comments from the CGS registry team at CLRC indicate that work is flowing in at a great rate and being processed at a good clip now too!
 
UNITS: Overall we are down 5% from the YTD stats in 2020 and no surprise given the drop in registration processing in early 2021. Thankfully it is less of a drop than it has been in recent months! Heading the right way, recently!
 
TRANSFERS: On the other hand this aspect of our business is up over 7% from 2020. Quite the feat given that 2020 was a year of strong growth in transfer numbers!
 
MEMBERSHIPS: Again, growth city! Up 11.7% over 2020 YTD. With only 7 months in we have exceeded the 2020 year end total by a few percent and 14 memberships!!! That’s right higher than all of last year, already!
Not surprisingly we have racked up the third best year in the last two decades and are within kissing distance of the second best year in the last two decades!! Whooweee!
 
NEW MEMBERSHIPS:
Up 26% , yes, over a quarter, well over 100!
Closing in on the total for all of 2020!
 
NEW HERD NAMES AND TATTOO COMBINATIONS:
Herd names up 15.7% and tattoo combo registrations up 14.4% YTD!
And both over 100!
 
Looking forward to continued growth!

OMAFRA Webinar on Genetic Improvement Programs

Recently the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs sponsored a series of four webinars on goat topics with a particular emphasis on genetic improvement.

CGS will eventually have access to recordings of these webinars.   

Herewith we present copies of two presentations that were presented in one of the four webinars.

The presenters in this webinar were Brian Sullivan, Manager of the Canadian Center for Swine Improvement (CCSI) and Callum McLeod, CGS Director. CCSI is responsible for working with CCSI to manage genetic evaluations for dairy goats in Canada.

Both of these people went to a lot of work to create their presentations.

Please enjoy and profit from studying these presentations and if you have questions or comments please direct them to National directors of CGS or the CGS office.

We’ll let you know when the recordings are accessible!

CGS Classification Presentation OMAFRA

OMAFRA Presentation Canadian Dairy Goat Genetic Evaluation Program

Nominations for Director Elections

CGS is thrilled by the amount of interest that openings for nominations for positions on the CGS Board has stimulated! More than 100 nominations were received for four open positions.

 

Here are the candidates who were nominated for the positions:

 

 

ALBERTA
Chris Grab
Callum McLeod 

ONTARIO (two positions)
Edward Cavanagh
Jonathan Dugdale
Steve Hunter
Tanya McCarthy

 ATLANTIC REGION
Arnold Steeles

 

 

Details re: the actual election process will be released in coming days.
Democracy in action!