Report of the September Meeting of the CGS Board

The latest CGS Board meeting was held on the evening of Friday, September 24, 2021.

Participants: Ed Cavanagh; Karen Cavanagh; Sandy Howell; Callum McLeod; Arnie Steeves; Susan Frazer and Russell Gammon

Regrets: Catherine Lord

In terms of finance, CGS actual investments have now reached $20,000. The board agreed that moving forward at least $25,000 would be needed in ongoing investments to ensure there are enough finances for changes and development.

New Business

A discussion regarding the growth of Nigerian Dwarf popularity was had. Within the past two years Nigerian Dwarf owners have been very active in One Day Milk testing participation. The Secretary Manager will provide comparisons of activity levels by breed to the Board before their next meeting.  

A draft letter regarding a request for a copy of breeding records from one member in each region had been circulated and reviewed. The letter was to be sent immediately to six members. By Oct 22 responses and information had been received from all six members.  

Regarding work with Heritage Livestock Canada on a genetic diversity project the request for samples from each breed for testing  is out in public.

The Steering Committee for the Integrated Database project has been very active since inception last year. Hopefully an announcement re funding sources can be made soon.

There are definite plans to move forward in the relaunch of classification in 2022.

 

A call for nominations to host a Judges Licensing Conference will be made in a newsletter/Facebook/website.

With only two conferences required, it was decided that it would be best if they were located within West and Central Canada. The deadline for applications for nominations to host will be January 31, 2022. A letter will be sent to all current licensed judges when locations/times are determined.

 

The 2022 AGM of the CGS will be held Saturday February 19,2022 by Zoom. Initial notice of the meeting will be made in the October newsletter with full notice in the December newsletter.

Work on by-laws amendments will be re-ignited. Board members were asked to study the recently revised by laws of the Canadian Speckle Park Association as an example of concise, well-worded by-laws.

Work will continue for information and applications for Select Doe Awards, Master Breeder and Silver Master Breeder on the CGS website.

2021 Annual Meeting minutes will be loaded to the website.

 

The next CGS board meeting will be held on Friday, October 29th at 8:00pm EST.

Prepared by Ontario Director Karen Cavanagh

Results of CGS Director Elections

The Board of Directors of CGS are sharing the following information regarding the results of the elections for director positions held this year:

ALBERTA

Chris Grab                      19 votes
Callum McLeod             14 votes

Chris Grab is elected with term beginning at the time of the next CGS AGM.

ONTARIO

Jonathan Dugdale            34 votes
Edward Cavanagh            27 votes
Tanya McCarthy               26 votes
Steven Hunter                     8 votes

Jonathan Dugdale and Edward Cavanagh are elected to the two positions that were open. Again, terms begin at the time of the next CGS AGM.

CGS Newsletter Advertising Deadline

Notice for all CGS members!

We will have another edition of our newsletter off to the printers soon!
There is a definite opportunity to advertise in this publication. 
Ads must be submitted in camera ready form.

Deadline for ads for this edition is:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH AT NOON EASTERN.
They can be submitted to the CGS email address info@goats.ca.  

In coming days we’ll supply info on rates. Rates remain the same as in previous newsletters and quarterly issues.

This vehicle provides a great means of reaching all current members of CGS and celebrating accomplishments of your goats and breeding program!

#onward #growthphase

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!