Yorkshire Dairy Goats

Yorkshire Dairy Goats is a commercial dairy goat milk producer and breeding company employing 30 people. YDG produces raw goat’s milk from a herd of 7000 high yielding dairy goats, across two sites in East Yorkshire, UK. All production is sold to a local processor where most is sold as liquid milk however cheese, yoghurt and butter are all made.

YDG use genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) in its breeding programme to increase the rate of genetic gain in both production and health traits. Traits recorded include Milk Yield, Fat Yield, Protein Yield, Mastitis Resistance, Longevity and Feed Intake as well as 10 conformation traits. Over 16000 genotypes have been collected so far. YDG is responsible for the creation of, and maintains, the herd-book for, the nationally recognised Yorkshire Dairy Goat breed. This is a composite breed originally comprised of Saanen, Toggenberg and British Alpine breeds and bred to form a stable commercial hybrid. YDG also export goats, semen and embryos to the EU and internationally. Recent exports destinations include Germany, Italy, New Zealand and U.S.A.

YDG is contributing phenotype and genotype data to the SMARTER project from its well recorded herd.