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antipodi
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Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:44 pm
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 Domestic Goats ...Care and a Potted History
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Domestic Goats
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The domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) is a domesticated subspecies of the Wild Goat of south-west Asia and eastern Europe.
Domestic goats are one of the oldest domesticated species. For thousands of years, they have been utilized for their milk, meat, hair, and skins all over the world. In the last century they have also gained some popularity as pets.
Female goats are referred to as does or nannies, intact males as bucks or billies. Castrated males are wethers, offspring are kids.
History
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Goats seem to have been first domesticated roughly 10,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains of Iran.Ancient cultures and tribes began to keep them for easy access to milk, hair, meat, and skins. Domestic goats were generally kept in herds that wandered on hills or other grazing areas, often tended by goatherds who were frequently children or adolescents, similar to the more widely known shepherd. These methods of herding are still utilized today.
Historically, goathide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale. It has also been used to produce parchment, which was the most common material used for writing in Europe until the invention of the printing press.
Goat Products
A goat is said to be truly useful both when alive and dead, providing meat and milk while the skin provides hide. In fact, a charity is involved in providing goats to impoverished people in Africa. The main reason cited was that goats are easier to manage than cattle and have multiple uses.
Milk and Cheese
Goat milk is more easily digested than cows' milk and is recommended for infants and people who have difficulty with cow's milk. The curd is much smaller and more digestable. Moreover it is naturally homogenized since it lacks the protein agglutinin.
Contrary to popular opinion, goats milk is not naturally bad tasting. When handled properly, from clean and healthy goats, in a sanitary manner, and cooled quickly, the flavor is unremarkable and inoffensive. Also, it is necessary to separate the strong smelling buck from the dairy does, as his scent will rub off on them and will taint the milk.
Goats milk is also used to make popular cheeses such as Rocamadour and Feta
Fiber
Cashmere goats produce a fiber, Cashmere wool, which is one of the best in the world. Cashmere fiber is very fine and soft, and grows beneath the guard hairs. Ideally there is a proportionally smaller amount of guard hair (which is undesirable and cannot be spun or dyed) to the cashmere fiber. Most goats produce cashmere fiber to some degree, however the Cashmere goat has been specially bred to produce a much higher amount of it with fewer guard hairs. The Angora breed produces long, curling, lustrous locks of mohair. The entire body of the goat is covered with mohair and there are no guard hairs. The locks can be six inches or more in length. Goats do not have to be slaughtered to harvest the wool, which is instead sheared (cut from the body) in the case of Angora goats, or combed, in the case of Cashmere goats. The fiber is made into products such as sweaters. Both cashmere and mohair are warmer per ounce than wool and are not scratchy or itchy or as allergenic as wool sometimes is. Both fibers command a higher price than wool, compensating for the fact that there is less fiber per goat than there would be wool per sheep.
In South Asia, Cashmere is called pashmina (Persian pashmina = fine wool) and these goats are called pashmina goats (often mistaken as sheep). Since these goats actually belong to the upper Kashmir and Laddakh region, their wool came to be known as cashmere in the West. The pashmina shawls of Kashmir with their intricate embriodery are very famous.
Feeding Goats
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Goats are reputed to be willing to eat almost anything. Contrary to this reputation, they are quite fastidious in their habits, preferring to browse on the tips of woody shrubs and trees, as well as the occasional broad leaved plant. It can fairly be said that goats will eat almost anything in the botanical world. Their plant diet is extremely varied and includes some species which are toxic or detrimental to cattle and sheep. This makes them valuable for controlling noxious weeds and clearing brush and undergrowth. They will seldom eat soiled food or water unless facing starvation.
They certainly do not consume garbage, tin cans, or clothing, but they will occasionally consume items made primarily of plant material, which can include wood. Their reputation for doing so is most likely due to their intensely inquisitive and intelligent nature: they will explore anything new or unfamiliar in their surroundings. They do so primarily with their prehensile upper lip and tongue. This is why they investigate clothes by nibbling at them.
Reproduction
In some climates goats are, like humans, able to breed at any time of the year. In northern climates and among the Swiss breeds, the breeding season commences as the day length shortens, and ends in early spring. Does of any breed come into heat every 21 days for from 2-48 hours. A doe in heat typically flags her tail often, stays near the buck if one is present, becomes more vocal, and may also show a decrease in appetite and milk production for the duration of the heat.
Bucks (intact males) of Swiss and northern breeds come into rut in the fall as with the doe's heat cycles. Rut is characterized by a decrease in appetite, obsessive interest in the does, fighting between bucks, display behavior, and, most notably, a strong, musky odor. This odor is singular to bucks in rut--the does do not have it unless the buck has rubbed his scent onto them or the doe is in actuality a hermaphrodite--and is instrumental in bringing the does into a strong heat.
In addition to live breeding, artificial insemination has gained popularity among goat breeders, as it allows for rapid improvement because of breeder access to a wide variety of bloodlines.
Gestation length is approximately 150 days. Twins are the usual result, with single and triplet births also common. Less frequent are litters of quadruplet, quintuplet, and even sextuplet kids( BabY Goats). Birthing, known as kidding, generally occurs uneventfully with few complications. The mother often eats the placenta, which gives her much needed nutrients, helps staunch her bleeding, and reduces the lure of the birth scent to predators. After kidding, the kids conceal themselves in small places and lay immobile for hours at a time while their dam feeds. Upon her return, she calls for them and they come out to nurse and play.
Freshening (coming into milk production) occurs at kidding. Milk production varies with the breed, age, quality, and diet of the doe; dairy goats generally produce between 660 to 1,800 L (1,500 and 4,000 lb) of milk per 305 day lactation. On average, a good quality dairy doe will give at least 6 lbs of milk per day while she is in milk, although a first time milker may produce less, or as much as 16 lbs or more of milk in exceptional cases. Meat, fiber, and pet breeds are not usually milked and simply produce enough for the kids until weaning.
Goat breeds
Goat breeds fall into four categories, though there is some overlap between them; meaning that some are dual purpose.
Dairy
* Alpine:French Alpine,British Alpine,American Alpine
* Golden Guernsey
* La Mancha
* Nigerian Dwarf
* Nubian
* Oberhasli
* Rove
* Saanen
* Sable Saanen
* Toggenburg
* Kinder
Fibre
* Angora
* Cashmere
* Pygora
Meat
* Boer
* Kiko
* Rove
* Spanish
* Fainting
Pet
* Pygmy
* Nigerian Dwarf
Wild
* Tahr
* Cretan kri-kri (Capra aegagrus creticus)
* Ibex, including the Alpine Ibex
Showing
Goat breeders' clubs frequently hold shows, where goats are judged on traits relating to conformation, udder quality, evidence of high production and longevity. People who show their goats usually keep registered stock and the offspring of award winning animals command a higher price. Registered stock in general is usually higher priced if for no other reason than that records have been kept proving its ancestry and the production and other data of its sire, dam, and other ancestors. A registered dairy doe is usually less of a gamble than buying any dairy doe at random (as at an auction or sale barn) because of these records and the reputation of the breeder.
Children's clubs such as 4-H also allow goats to be shown. Children's shows often include a showmanship class, where the cleanliness and presentation of both the animal and the exhibitor as well as the handler's ability and skill in handling the goat are scored. In a showmanship class, conformation is irrelevant since this is not what is being judged.
The Dairy Goat Scorecard (milking does)- is the system used for judging shows in the U.S. and is as follows:
General Appearance: 30 points (This includes breed characteristics, head, shoulders, legs and feet, and topline- the back and rump)
Dairy Character: 20 points (the doe should be lean and angular, not meaty, and show evidence of high production).
Body Capacity: 20 points (the doe should be large and strong with a wide, deep barrel).
Mammary System: 30 points (udder should be productive and very well attached so as to be held up high away from possible injury, teats should be of a good size and shape for easy milking).
In all the perfect dairy goat would score all 100 points, and this is the standard the goats are judged by. Young stock and bucks are judged by different scorecards which place more emphasis on the other three categories; general appearance, body capacity, and dairy character.
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