ADGA Pedigree: How to Read Goat Registration Papers, Plus a Free Goat Pedigree Template

An ADGA pedigree is the record of a dairy goat’s ancestry as the American Dairy Goat Association holds it: the goat’s name, registration number and herd book, tattoos, color, and its sire and dam with their own lines behind them. When goat people say “ADGA papers” they usually mean the registration certificate, which proves the goat’s identity and parentage; ADGA also produces a longer four-generation performance pedigree that adds milk records, appraisal scores and earned titles for each ancestor, per the ADGA registration application.

This guide shows how to read both, line by line, including the stars, plusses and score strings that confuse new owners. If you want a clean three-generation chart to hand buyers with each kid, the free Creatures goat pedigree maker builds a printable PDF without an account. The guide also covers the parts of ADGA papers that chart does not have boxes for, so you know when to give buyers the official papers as well.

Registration certificate, performance pedigree, or breeder’s chart?

Three different pieces of paper get called a goat’s “pedigree”, and they carry different weight.

• The ADGA registration certificate is issued by the registry. It is based on the breeder’s application, and ADGA’s 2025 Guidebook is blunt that entries made through “error, misrepresentation, or fraud” are void, along with any registrations of that goat’s offspring. This is the document that has to change hands, through an official transfer, when the goat is sold.
• The ADGA performance pedigree is a four-generation printout of the goat’s ancestry with the performance data ADGA holds for each animal: milk test records, linear appraisal scores, awards and genetic evaluations. It comes with a buck registration, and for does it is an extra option on the application.
• A breeder’s pedigree chart is a summary the breeder writes or prints. It is useful and normal to hand one to buyers, but it is only as reliable as the breeder’s records, and it is not a registry document.

The American Goat Society (AGS) is the other main US dairy goat registry. It registers nine breeds, including the Pygmy, per its breeds page, and its certificates follow its own format, so the details below are ADGA’s. Meat and fiber breeds such as the Boer have their own breed registries; the Creatures goat page has breed profiles for dairy, meat and fiber goats alike.

How to read an ADGA pedigree, line by line

The fields on an ADGA certificate come straight from the registration application, so the application’s own instructions are the best key to what each line means.

Name and herd name

The name is limited to 30 letters and spaces and begins with the breeder’s registered herd name, so in a made-up example, “Sunny Acres Lily” would tell you the goat was bred by the herd registered as Sunny Acres. ADGA’s youth guide notes that a goat whose breeder has no registered herd name gets the word “THE” in front of its name instead (ADGA youth services page). Once registered, a name cannot be changed, which is why the same goat keeps its name through every later owner.

Registration number and herd book

The registration number is the goat’s permanent key in ADGA’s records; show, milk test and appraisal results are all linked to it. The certificate also shows which herd book the goat is in, and that matters more to a buyer than the breed name alone:

• Purebred. Both parents are registered Purebreds of the same breed (with exceptions for LaMancha, Sable and Guernsey written into the rules).
• American. Same breed on both sides and correct to the breed standard, but with a grade doe somewhere in the line. ADGA’s youth guide puts the minimum at three generations of conforming ancestors for does and four for bucks.
• Experimental. Usually a cross between two ADGA breeds, or a registered goat with a disqualifying defect for its breed. Experimentals show in the Recorded Grade class.
• Recorded Grade. A doe that does not qualify for either breed herd book, issued on a brown certificate. ADGA does not record grade bucks.

Tattoos and microchips

Every goat must be tattooed before ADGA will register it, and the tattoo, not a collar tag, is the goat’s primary identification. The breeder’s assigned herd letters go in the right ear (or tail web), and a letter for the birth year plus a number for the kid’s birth order that year go in the left ear (or tail web), with a limit of four characters in each location. If the tattoo on the certificate is not actually on the goat, ADGA says the certificate becomes voidable, so checking the ears against the paper is the single most useful thing a buyer can do. Since January 1, 2018, ADGA has accepted an electronic ID (EID) microchip as a supplement to the tattoo under specific conditions, per the tattoo policy in the 2025 Guidebook.

Birth date, breeder and owner

The breeder on an ADGA certificate is the person who owned the dam on the date she was bred, which is not always the person who owned her when the kids were born. The owner is whoever holds the goat now according to ADGA’s transfer records. If the owner of the sire and the owner of the dam were different on the breeding date, the registration needed a service memo signed by the buck’s owner. A birth date that does not sit about five months after the breeding date is on ADGA’s list of common registration mistakes; the goat gestation calculator projects the due date from a breeding date if you want to check one, and the goat gestation guide explains how much a normal pregnancy varies.

Color, horns and ears

The color and markings description is limited to 69 letters and spaces. ADGA asks Toggenburg breeders to state the shade of brown and the color of the markings, and Oberhasli breeders the shade of bay. (The UK’s British Toggenburg is a separate breed with its own British Goat Society herd book, not an ADGA breed.) Horn status is one of polled (naturally hornless), disbudded, dehorned or horned, and ear type is erect, pendulous, elf, gopher or airplane. Those lines are worth reading against the goat, because ear type is part of breed conformation: a registered American LaMancha buck, for example, must have gopher ears. For Nigerian Dwarfs, the Nigerian Dwarf goat coat color calculator helps you work out what colors a pairing can produce.

The symbols and numbers on a performance pedigree

The registry publishes a one-page key, Reading an ADGA Performance Pedigree. These are the entries you will meet most often.

• *M, 2*M, 3*M: A star milker: a doe that met ADGA’s production minimums. 2*M means the second straight generation of her doe line to earn a star, 3*M the third.
• *B: A star buck: earned because his parents’ production records met ADGA minimums.
• +B: A plus buck: earned through his offspring meeting ADGA requirements.
• AR, ST: The production volume the star was earned in: Advanced Registry (Dairy Herd Improvement testing) or STar (one-day tests, owner-sampler testing, or pedigree or progeny).
• CH, GCH: Show wins. GCH (Grand Champion) combines show wins with a milk star earned under AR or Star minimums.
• SG: Superior Genetics: the goat ranks in the top 15% of its breed on a production and type index.
• ELITE: After the dollar figures, the goat is in the top 15% of its breed for milk, fat and protein dollars.
• LA 5-04 91 VEEE: A linear appraisal score: age at appraisal (5 years 4 months), final score 91, then letter grades for general appearance, dairy strength, body capacity and mammary. E is excellent, V very good, + good plus, G good, F fair, P poor.
• DHIR line: An official milk record: age, times milked per day, days in milk, pounds of milk, butterfat percent and pounds, protein percent and pounds.
• PTA, PTI, ETA: Genetic evaluations computed with the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding. Positive numbers predict above-breed-average daughters; a reliability figure says how much data stands behind them.

A few practical points follow from that key:

• Titles belong to individual animals. A star on a grandam says that doe produced well; it does not say the kid in front of you will. Look for stars and appraisal scores repeated across both sides and several generations.
• Blank lines are normal. Many good goats were never milk tested or appraised, especially in small herds. A blank is missing information, not a bad mark.
• Letters come with a date. Appraisal scores and evaluations carry the goat’s age or a calculation date. Recent data on close relatives is worth more than one famous name four generations back.

Purebred, American or grade: what the percentages mean

The registry lets a line “grade up” into a breed herd book over several generations of breeding to registered bucks of the same breed, as long as each generation looks right for the breed. The Guidebook sets out the steps:

1. A doe with one registered parent and one unrecorded or unknown parent can be recorded as 1/2 American of that breed, if she conforms to the breed standard.
2. Her daughter by a registered buck of the same breed can be recorded as 3/4.
3. The next daughter by a registered buck of the same breed is 7/8, and does in that group can enter the American herd book if they meet the breed standard.

Two rules catch people out. First, the breed-type requirement applies to the ancestors too: a correct-looking doe whose parent was off-type goes into the Experimental register, not the American herd book. Second, a doe of unknown pedigree can still be recorded as a grade if a non-family ADGA member signs a statement that she conforms to a breed type (Native on Appearance), or if she earned a milk star on test (Native on Performance). Either way she starts at the bottom of the ladder.

For bucks, ADGA added a DNA rule: the 2025 Guidebook requires DNA on file for all bucks born on or after January 1, 2024 before their progeny can be registered, and ADGA sends a DNA request when such a buck is registered without one. (The 2022 edition gave the date as January 1, 2023, so check the current Guidebook if a date matters to you.) If you are buying a young herd sire to register kids from, ask whether his DNA is already on file.

What to check on the papers before you buy a goat

Before you pay for a registered goat, go through the certificate with the goat in front of you:

• Match the tattoos. Read both ears (or the tail web) and compare them with the certificate, character by character.
• Match the description. Color and markings, horn status and ear type should all fit the goat you are looking at.
• Check the herd book and the breed. A “registered Nubian” might be Purebred, American or Experimental, and those are priced differently for good reason.
• Look up the goat. ADGA’s public pedigree search on the ADGA Genetics site lets you search by name or registration number and filter by breed and herd book, so you can compare the paper in your hand with the registry’s record.
• Get the transfer done. The seller signs the transfer section on the certificate. ADGA asks for transfers to be recorded within six months of the sale, and progeny of a goat cannot be registered until the transfer to the buyer is on ADGA’s books. A goat sold without its registration being transferred is treated by ADGA as unregistered.
• Buying a bred doe? Ask for the service memo. Without it, you cannot register the kids she is carrying.
• Remember what papers do not tell you. Registration covers identity and parentage, not health. Ask about disease testing and herd health as covered in where to buy a goat, and budget with how much a goat costs.

Make a printable goat pedigree for the kids you sell

The Creatures goat pedigree maker is a fill-in-the-boxes template for a three-generation chart. Making the chart and downloading the PDF are both free, and neither needs an account.

What it asks for (from the live page on September 30, 2026):

• Your goat: name and sex (required), and optionally breed (a long list that includes the ADGA breeds, the miniature dairy breeds, Pygmy, Boer, Kiko, crossbred and unknown), date of birth, color, and registration number.
• Ancestors: 14 boxes laid out as the sire’s side and the dam’s side, from sire and dam back to each great-grandparent. Each ancestor has a name, a registration number and a color. Fill in what you know and leave unknown spots blank.
• Chart details: an optional registry name (for example ADGA or AGS) and a paper size, Letter or A4.

Select Make pedigree and the printable chart and PDF appear on the page. The chart is marked as not registry-certified, which is accurate: only ADGA or AGS issues their pedigrees. For a litter, keep the parents and grandparents filled in, change the kid’s name, sex and color at the top, and download a new PDF for each kid.

What the maker does not have boxes for. Compared with ADGA papers, the chart has no fields for tattoos, herd book (Purebred, American, Experimental or grade), ancestors’ birth dates, horn and ear type, breeder and owner, or the performance data: stars, plusses, titles, appraisal scores and milk records. So it is a buyer-friendly summary, not a replacement for the certificate or the performance pedigree. Two practical workarounds:

• Type titles and stars into the name box the way they appear on the papers, such as “GCH Sunny Acres Lily 2*M”. The name box takes up to 64 characters.
• Add the tattoo after the registration number in the same box if you want buyers to be able to match ears to the chart.

For a registered goat, give the buyer the transferred ADGA certificate and, if you have it, the performance pedigree. The printed chart is most useful alongside them, for kids whose registrations are still being processed, for grade and crossbred goats, and for breeds outside ADGA. There is also a general pedigree chart maker for other species, and every free calculator is on the Creatures tools page.

Keeping your herd’s pedigrees online

A printed chart is a snapshot. On a free Creatures account the pedigree is built from linked goat profiles, so a correction to one ancestor shows up everywhere that ancestor appears, and each new kid’s pedigree fills itself in from its parents.

• Profiles for your goats. Add each goat and link its sire and dam. The Pedigree tab draws the family tree, lets you show more or fewer generations, and can highlight repeated ancestors, which is the quickest way to see linebreeding. Details such as registration, birth date and color appear under each name when there is room (pedigree, family, and lineage).
• Ancestors you never owned. Grandparents from another herd can be added as reference animals, marked as lineage only, and their owner can be invited to claim them.
• Papers and tattoos. Keep each ADGA certificate as a Registration record with the file attached, and tattoos or microchips as Identification records, as described in care, growth, and identity records. The goat record keeping guide covers the health and breeding records that sit alongside them.
• Existing paperwork. Upload a pedigree PDF or a photo of one and review what Creatures reads before anything is saved (add an animal by importing its pedigree). If your herd lives in Goat15, there is a dedicated import for Goat15 exports.
• Kidding. When you record the birth and create a litter from the doe’s Breeding tab, the kids stay connected to the doe and, when the buck is linked on the breeding record, to him too. The goat kidding guide covers the birth itself.
• Printing and sharing. From Pedigree Studio you can download the pedigree as a PDF or PNG with a free account, or share a link that shows only what a signed-out visitor may see.
• Inbreeding. Public records in the Creatures Herdbook can show a coefficient of inbreeding (COI), and Pedigree Studio can check a possible pairing privately before you breed it. The sister article on the coefficient of inbreeding explains what that number means and why a three-generation chart can understate it.

When you sell a goat, transferring it on Creatures moves its records and pedigree to the buyer’s account. That is separate from the ADGA transfer, which still goes through ADGA.

Mistakes that hold up a registration

The registry’s instructions list the errors it sees most often. The ones that affect the pedigree:

• Grandparents’ registration numbers entered as the parents’. Copy the sire and dam numbers from their own certificates.
• No color description. Every application needs one.
• A birth date that does not fit the breeding date. It should be about five months after the breeding.
• The wrong tattoo. The certificate must list the herd tattoo of the herd the kid was born into, exactly as it appears on the goat.
• No service memo when the buck belonged to someone else on the breeding date.
• A second buck within ten days. If a doe is rebred to a different buck within ten days, her kids can only go in the Experimental herd book unless DNA parentage verification is done.

The same care pays off on the chart you make yourself: copy names, numbers and colors exactly as they appear on the parents’ papers, and leave a box blank rather than guessing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get an ADGA pedigree for my goat?

The goat has to be registered with ADGA first, which needs registered parents (or a qualifying grade line), the breeder’s application, tattoos, and any service memo or transfer paperwork. A four-generation performance pedigree comes with a buck registration and can be ordered for a doe on the same application. Current fees are on ADGA’s rates and services page.

How many generations does an ADGA pedigree show?

The performance pedigree covers four generations. The Creatures goat pedigree maker prints three generations, which is the usual length of a breeder’s sale pedigree.

Can I look up a goat’s ADGA pedigree online?

Yes. ADGA Genetics has a public pedigree search by name or registration number.

Is a breeder’s pedigree chart the same as ADGA papers?

No. A chart the breeder prints, including one from the Creatures goat pedigree maker, is a summary. The registration certificate issued by ADGA is the official record, and it is what has to be transferred to you.

What does *M mean on a goat pedigree?

It marks a star milker, a doe that met ADGA’s production minimums. 2*M and 3*M mean the second and third straight generations of her doe line earned a star.

Is there a free goat pedigree template?

Yes. The Creatures goat pedigree maker is free, needs no account, and downloads a printable three-generation PDF in Letter or A4. A free account lets you save the goats and keep building the line online.

Do these rules apply to Pygmy or Boer goats?

No. The rules above are for the dairy breeds ADGA registers. Pygmies can be registered with AGS, and Boers and other meat breeds have their own registries, each with its own rules and certificate layout.

Do this next on Creatures

Whether you are printing sale pedigrees for this year’s kids or putting a whole herd’s lines online, these are the next steps.

Planning your first show with registered goats? The sister guide on goat shows explains how ADGA-sanctioned dairy shows and market goat classes work. For a very different kind of goat, the Nachi goat profile covers the Punjab breed known for its dancing gait.