First off, congrats Jacque!! Here goes my ranting I'll describe it best I can:
Linear Appraisal is an evaluation system. It evaluates I forget how many points of a dairy goat but each point gets assigned a score for how correct or incorrect it is. I don't know how they figure out the final score after all the points have been evaluated. Anyway, 93 is the highest a goat can get(the highest a yearling milker can get is an 89), a goat can get a 94 only if they are brought before a panel to see that that goat is truly a 94. The 4 letters(3 letters for Bucks and kids) are for General Appearance, Body Capacity, Dairy Character and Mammary(on freshened does) E stands for Excellent, V stands for Very Good, + stands for Good Plus, F stands for Fair, A stands for Acceptable, and P stands for Poor. On a milking doe and kids, you want to see everything a + or above and E or V mammaries are preffered. If a goat is under 3 months fresh, they do not qualify for an E mammary. Here's something I copied that might explain it a little easier:
"In a nutshell.... Linear Appraisal is a program offered by ADGA. A person signs up for appraisal from January-Feb for best prices, March for a bit more $, and then april is only if they can fit you in the schedule.
A trained appraiser- there are about 5 to 7 of them in the US, will come to your farm if you are a host, or you go to a host location (you must obtain permission from the host to come).... Your goat in theory, is scored agains the 100 point scorecard of the perfect goat. This is not like a show where your goats are compared with what happens to come that day... the goat is compared to what the 'ideal' mature 4 yaer old goat would look like. So take that into consideration on young stock and younger milker scores, as scores generally improve (generally!) as the goat matures.
There are 4 catagories they get scores in (see your guidebook if you ahve one) General appearance, dairy character, body capacity, and mammary system (obviously only the milkers get scored on mammary). F is fair, A is average, + is good plus, V is very good, and E is excellent.
If I can get all +'s and above on kids I feel like I'm on the right track. On a high school report card that would be like a B or better goat (E would be an A on a report card). If I can hit at least an 80 on a yearling milker then I feel good as well, as I've seen several 80's mature into pretty 90 LA scores. 90 is generally the score we like to break if we can :O), but an 88 or 89 mature goat is still a nice goat and if they have the genetics I want I'll work with them and see if I can't improve their daughters just a bit more
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so a 4-1 89 VEVE would be a goat that at age 4 years, 1 month old scored an overall score of 89 with a V in general appearance, an E in Dairy character, a V in body capacity, and an E in mammary system. The scores will always be in that order.
The highest score that they will award a first freshener is an 89. They will not 90 a first freshener as they want to see that udder worked a year and how it will hold up... highest score they can award is a 93 adn those are rare. 92's aren't very common either, a few more 91's, and more 90's. It's neat to see the lm's improve to the point where 90's are becoming more common than they were even 7 years ago....
We have learned a GREAT DEAL from appraisal and believe we are breeding better goats than we would have had we not utilized this program. I can appraise my whole herd for less money than is costs me to go to a show where I only take a few goats: entry fees, pen fees, diesel always hit me for at least $200, and I can do my whole herd for around that and get someone to pick through nearly everything on each goat"
