American Dairy Goat Association

The American Dairy Goat Association or ADGA is a United States not-for-profit corporation dedicated to dairy goats. Its purpose is to promote the dairy goat industry, by providing and circulating sound information about goats and goats' milk; maintaining and publishing herd books and production records of milk goats; and issuing certificates of registration and recordation; improving and developing the milk goat breeds; and providing publicity and service for the goat dairying industry. The principal operation of the corporation is in Columbia, Missouri, and its headquarters are in Spindale, North Carolina.

The association was organized in 1905 as the American Milch Goat Record Association, and published its first herd book in 1914. It published Volumes 11-23 of the American Milch Goat Record in 1921; a comprehensive compilation of details on its registered animals. According to the Missouri Secretary of State, the nonprofit corporation was created on January 15, 1944, as the American Milk Goat Record Association. On 22 July 1965, its board accepted a proposal to change the name of the organization from its original name to its present name.

Many of the historical records kept by the association were in bad shape from age and mold. The association transferred these records to the United States Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Library Dairy Science Collection for historical preservation. The records date from 1914 to the 1950s with some dating as late as the year 2000.

As of 2009, membership in the ADGA included 8,000 regular members and 5,000 junior members.

The ADGA maintains separate official herd books for purebred herds and American breed herds. These are official lists of registered animals. A purebred goat is one that has been born of a purebred sire and a purebred dam of the same breed and conforming to breed standards. An American breed goat is one born to a sire and dam of the same breed, going back a minimum of three generations for does and four generations for bucks.

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