Our Spring Cherry Tree Pans Place Our Spring Cherry Tree
Back Home About Pygora Goats Our Bucks and Wethers Our Does Lessons Learned About the Greek God Pan Links to Other Web Sites Other Miscellaneous Stuff
Goats

There are two sections to this page.

PICK ONE

Common Goat breeds

Text about GOATS in general




These are a few of the more common goat breeds.
Angora Angora Goat Angora goats may be the most efficient fiber producers on Earth. These makers of mohair came from and were named after Ankara, the Turkish province where they have thrived for centuries. Now the United States has become one of the two biggest producers (along with South Africa) of mohair - the long, lustrous, wavy hair that goes into fine garments.The Angora is pretty laid back and docile. Although Angora goats are somewhat delicate, they grow their fleeces year-round. About 90 percent of the U.S. mohair clip originates in Texas, but the goats are raised over wide areas of the United States. They adapt well to many conditions, but are particularly suited to the arid Southwestern States.
Boer The Boer goat is primarily a meat goat with several adaptations to the region in which it was developed. It is a horned breed with lop ears and showing a variety of color patterns. The present day Boer goat appeared in the early 1900's when ranchers in the Easter Cape Province started selecting for a meat type goat.
LaMancha LaMancha is a new, young breed developed in California from Spanish origin and Swiss and Nubian crossings. They are known for excellent adaptability and good winter production. They are also producing fleshier kids than the Swiss, but are not milking as much. They have straight noses, short hair, hornless or horns, and no external ear due to a dominant gene. They are more the size of Toggenburg. Their milk fat content is higher than that of the Swiss breeds.
Nubian Nubian is a breed developed in England from native goats and crossed with Indian and Nubian which have heavy noses and long, drooping, pendulous ears, spiral horns and are shorthaired. They are leggy and as tall as Saanen, but produce less milk, though higher milk fat levels and are more fleshy. They are less tolerant of cold but do well in hot climates. They ''talk'' a lot, and are in numbers the most popular breed in USA and Canada. They have a tendency for triplets and quadruplets. They are horned or hornless and have many colors.
Oberhasli Oberhasli, a western Swiss breed, usually solid red or black, horned or hornless, erect ears, not as tall as Saanen, very well adapted for high altitude mountain grazing and long hours of marching; popular in Switzerland, but milk production is variable. They are also called Swiss Alpine, Chamoisie or Brienz.
Pygmy The Pygmy goat is becoming popular in the United States. Recognizing their inherent values, breeders, formed the National Pygmy Goat Association (NPGA) in 1975, developed a breed standard, and established national registries for the preservation of pedigrees. The Pygmy goat is an unusual domestic animal. It is very hardy, alert and animated, good-natured, and responsive. It is smaller than other recognized breeds of goats in the United States. On the average a full grown male (buck) stands at about 50 cm (20 inches). Their size makes them delightful animals for children to handle. As smaller animals, they require less in the way of space and feed than the other large goats in this country.
Sannen Saanen originate from Switzerland and are totally white. They are mostly short haired. Saanen have been exported around the world as leading milk producers. An Australian Saanen doe holds the world record milk production of 7,714 lbs in 365 days. Saanen have been bred in Switzerland for odorfree milk long ago.
Toggenburg Toggenburg, brown with white facial, ear and leg stripes, straight nosed, horned or hornless, mostly shorthaired, erect eared goat has been very popular in the USA, comes from N.E. Switzerland, but is 4 inches shorter in height and 18 lb lighter in average than the Saanen. They have been bred pure for over 300 years, longer than many of our other domestic breeds of livestock. They are reliable milk producers summer and winter, in temperate and tropical zones.
To Top of Page
General Information About Goats
Distribution:
The goat is one of the smallest domesticated ruminants which has served mankind longer than cattle and sheep. It is managed for the production of milk, meat and fiber. There are more than 460 million goats worldwide presently producing more than 4.5 million tons of milk, 1.2 million tons of meat along with mohair, cashmere, leather and dung; and more people consume milk and milk products from goats worldwide than from any other animal. In the United States, there are between 2 and 4 million head; with Texas leading in Angora, meat and bush goats; and California leading in dairy goats.

Goats can survive on bushes, trees, desert scrub and aromatic herbs when sheep and cattle would starve. Over-grazing has destroyed many tree and woodland areas which caused erosion. On the other hand, goats are valued by cattle and sheepmen in the fight against brush encroachment on millions of acres of open rangeland.

Swiss goat breeds are the world's leaders in milk production. Indian and Nubian derived goat breeds are dual-purpose meat and milk producers. Spanish and South African goats are best known for meat producing ability. The Turkish Angora, Asian Cashmere and the Russian Don goats are kept for mohair and cashmere fiber production. In addition, there are Pygmy goats from Western Africa of increasing interest as pet animals.

Breeds of goats vary from as little as 20 lb mature female bodyweight and 18 inches female withers for dwarf goats for meat production up to 250 lb and 42 inches withers height for Indian Jamnapari, Swiss Saanen, Alpine and AngloNubian for milk production. Some Jamnapari males may be as tall as 50 inches at withers. Angora goats weigh between 70 to 110 lb for mature females and are approximately 25 inches tall. Birthweights of female singles are between 3 and 9 lb; twins being often a pound lighter and males 1/2 lb heavier. Twinning is normal in goats with a high percentage of triplets thus giving several breeds an average annual litter size above 2 per doe. Females are called doe, young are called kids, males are bucks; wethers are castrated.

Goat milk casein and goat milk fat are more easily digested than from cow milk. Goat milk is valued for the elderly, sick, babies, children with cow milk allergies, patients with ulcers, and even preferred for raising some orphan animals. Goat milk is higher in vitamin A, niacin, choline and inositol than cow milk, but it is lower in vitamin B6, B12, C and carotenoids.


Differentiation:

Morphologically, goats may have horns of the scimitar or corkscrew types, but many are dehorned in early age with a heated iron, caustic or later on with a rubber band or surgical saw. Goats may also be hornless genetically. They can be short haired, long haired, have curled hair, are silky or coarse wooled. They may have wattles on the neck and beards. Some breeds, particularly the European, have straight noses, others have convex noses, e.g., the Jamnapari and Nubian breeds or slightly dished noses (Swiss). Swiss and other European breeds have erect ears, while pendulous, drooping, large ears characterize Indian and Nubian goats. The American LaMancha breed has no external ear.

Goats come in almost any color, solid black, white, red, brown, spotted, two and three colored, blended shades, distinct facial stripes, black and white saddles, depending on breeds.

Teeth in goats are a good guide to age. Six lower incisors are found at birth and a set of 20 ''milk teeth'' are complete at 4 weeks of age consisting of the eight incisors in the front of the lower jaw, and 12 molars, three on each side in each jaw. Instead of incisors in the upper jaw there is a hard dental pad against which the lower incisors bite and cut. With progressing age, the permanent teeth wear down from the rectangular crossectional shape and cores to the round stem which is a further distinguishing mark of age.

The digestive tract of the goat after nursing has the typical four stomach compartments of ruminants consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum (true stomach). The intestinal canal is about 100 feet long, or 25 times the length of a goat. The total blood volume of the goat approximates 1/12-1/13 of bodyweight; it takes about 14 seconds for goat blood to complete one circulation.

Among diseases, goats are not too different from cattle and sheep in the same regions. Goats tend to have more internal parasites than dairy cows, especially in confined management. They tend to have less tuberculosis, milk fever, post partum ketosis and brucellosis than dairy cows and their milk tends to be of lower bacteria counts than cow milk. They have more prepartum pregnancy toxemia than dairy cows, and are known to have laminitis, infectious arthritis, Johne's disease, listeriosis, pneumonia, coccidiosis, scours, scabies, pediculosis, liver fluke disease and mastitis.


Reproduction:

The skin of the goat has sebaceous and sweat glands besides growing the hair cover, horns, hooves and the two compartmented mammary gland (udder). In contrast to sheep, the teats of goat's udders are conveniently long and large for hand milking.

Tails, scent and horns distinguish goats easily from sheep and cattle. The goat tail is short, bare underneath and usually carried upright. Major scent glands are located around the horn base. They function in stimulating estrus in male and female goats, improving conception. The goat odor is, however, a detriment to goat keeping and milk consumption if not properly controlled. Many goat breeds are seasonal breeders, being influenced by the length of daylight. Artificial insemination is commercially practiced in regions where numbers of females make it economical. Goats are in puberty at 1/2 year of age and can be bred if of sufficient size. Does come into estrus in 21 day cycles normally, lasting approximately 1 to 2 days.

In temperate zones, goats breed normally from August through February. Nearer the equator, goats come into estrus throughout the year. Thus more than one litter per year is possible, considering the length of pregnancy of 150 days. Five days after ovulation one or several corpus luteum form to protect the conceptus from abortion. If no conception occurred, the corpus luteum disappears and new ovulation takes place.


Origin:

Truly wild goats are found on Creta, other Greek islands, in Turkey, Iran, Turkmenia, Pakistan; in the Alps, Siberia, Sudan, Caucasus; the Pyrenees, the Himalayan, Central Asian, Russian and Tibetan mountain ranges, and prefer rocky, precipitous mountains and cliffs. Goats can not be herded as well with dogs as sheep; instead they tend to disperse or face strangers and dogs headon. Relatives of true goats are the Rocky Mountain goat, the chamois of the Alps and Carpathian, and the muskox.

Goats belong, scientifically, to the Bovidae family within the suborder of ruminants (chevrotain, deer, elk, caribou, moose, giraffe, okapi, antelope), who besides the other suborders of camels, swine and hippopotamuses make up the order of eventoed hoofed animals called artiodactyla. They have evolved 20 million years ago in the Miocene Age, much later than horses, donkeys, zebras, tapirs, rhinoceroses, who make up the order of uneventoed hoofed animals; and the hyrax, elephants, manatees who make up the ancient near-hoofed animals. All these are herbivorous mammals, meaning they live from plants and nurse their young with milk from an external gland after the young is born, having been carried in pregnancy to term relatively long in an internal uterus.

Goats and sheep make up a tribe within the Bovidae family called Caprini that include six goat, six sheep and five related species. Goats have a 2n chromosome set number of 60 while domestic sheep have a 2n set of 54.


To Top of Page