Goat breed
Saanen
Saanen
The world's best-known dairy goat, from Switzerland's Saanen valley: white, short-haired, calm, 600–800 kg of milk per lactation.
White Saanen goat lying low. Photo: „This white Saanen Goat prefers to lie low” – shankar s. · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr · Resized and converted to WebP
Description1
The breed's cradle is the Saanen valley in Switzerland; today it is the best-known dairy goat breed in the world. It has a strong, robust build and a calm temperament, and copes well with housing. Purebred, it suits intensive and semi-intensive milk production; it can be kept on pasture, but reaches really high yields only under intensive conditions.
An early-maturing breed: with proper rearing, doelings can be bred at 7–12 months. Milk yield is 600–800 kg, reaching 1000–1300 kg in a 270–300-day lactation under good conditions. The breeding goal is 900 kg per lactation with even persistency and better milk solids.
The coat is short and uniformly white. The forehead is broad and flat, the nose line almost straight, and the ears may not hang below horizontal. Typical are strong withers, broad shoulders and a straight topline; the chest is deep, wide and long, and the udder is capacious, hemispherical and well attached.
Breed standard and breed society
The official breed description, breeding goal and herdbook rules are published by the recognised breed society (MJKSZ).
- MJKSZ – Szánentáli kecske fajtaleíráshttps://mjksz.hu/tenyesztes/fajtak/szanentali-kecske
- NÉBIH – Elismert tenyésztő szervezetek fajtanyilvántartója (2026. 10. 15.)https://portal.nebih.gov.hu/documents/10182/379191/Honlapra_NEBIH+fajtanyilvantarto.pdf/b9c77093-8ccb-1547-b870-e676112487d8?t=1781163930044
Photo gallery
All photos are freely licensed (Wikimedia Commons, Flickr); author, source and licence are shown under each image.
Sources
- MJKSZ – Szánentáli kecske fajtaleírás
- NÉBIH – Elismert tenyésztő szervezetek fajtanyilvántartója (2026. 10. 15.)
Accessed: 2026-10-18.