1. Distribution - The goat is one
of the smallest domesticated ruminants which has served
mankind earlier and longer than cattle and sheep.
It is managed for the production of milk, meat and
wool, particularly in arid, semitropical or mountainous
countries. In temperate zones, goats are kept often
rather as supplementary animals by small holders,
while commercially cows or buffaloes are kept for
milk, cheese and meat, and sheep for wool and meat
production. Nonetheless, there are more than 460 million
goats worldwide presently producing more than 4.5
million tons of milk and 1.2 million tons of meat
besides mohair, cashmere, leather and dung; and more
people consume milk and milk products from goats worldwide
than from any other animal. Cheese production, e.g.,
from goat milk even in France, Greece, Norway and
Italy is of economic importance. Goat herds, on the
other hand low producing though, are an expression
of capital assets and wealth in Africa and Asia where
they are found in large numbers. 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.
2. Goats can survive on bushes, trees, desert scrub
and aromatic herbs when sheep and cattle would starve
to death. Goat herders often have neglected a rational
numerical balance between goat numbers and sparse
vegetation. Over-grazing has destroyed many tree and
woodland areas which was blamed then on goats rather
than man, and this has caused widespread ecological
and political concerns, erosion, desertification and
even ban on freely grazing goats in some areas. On
the other hand, goats are valued by cattle and sheepmen
in the fight against brush encroachment on millions
of acres of open rangeland.
3. 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
wool production. In addition, there are Pygmy goats
from Western Africa of increasing interest as laboratory
and pet animals.
4. 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 orphan foals or puppies. Fat globules
in goat milk are smaller than in cow milk and remain
dispersed longer. 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. The
shorter chain fatty acids (C6, C8, C10, C12) are characteristically
higher in goat milk than in cow milk. Otherwise milk
gross composition from goats or cows is similar except
for differences due to breeds, climate, stage of lactation
and feeds.
5. 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 and
more than 200reproduction rate. Females are called
doe, young are kids, males are bucks; one speaks of
buck and doe kids, and doelings, and of wethers or
castrates.
6. 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. A ''gopher'' ear rudiment in
LaMancha is less than 1 inch long with little or no
cartilage; an ''elf'' ear is less than 2 inches long,
but bucks can be registered only with gopher ears.
The responsible gene for rudimentary ears is dominant,
thus sires with gopher ears will always have gopher
or elf-eared offspring, no matter what the genotype
of the dam is to which he was mated.
7. 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.
8. 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.
Some goats have an undesirable inherited recessive
condition of ''parrot'' (overshot upper jaw) or ''carp''
mouth (undershot upper jaw) which does not interfere
with barn feeding conditions but handicaps the goat
severely in pasturing and browsing, because the lower
incisor teeth cannot cut correctly against the upper
dental pad. 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. Furthermore, there are pregnancy rings
marking horns and telling age.
9. The digestive tract of the goat after nursing
has the typical four stomach compartments of ruminants
consisting of the rumen (paunch) (4-6 gallon), the
reticulum (honeycomb) (1-2 liters), the omasum maniply)
(1 liter), and the abomasum (true stomach) (3.5 liters).
The intestinal canal is about 100 feet long (11 liters),
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.
10. 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.
11. 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).
Before the first pregnancy, the udder is underdeveloped,
but with sustained repeated gentle massaging, a small,
normal milk producing gland can be stimulated in virgin
does and even in goat bucks. In contrast to sheep,
the teats of goat's udders are conveniently long and
large for hand milking.
12. 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.
13. 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 concept
us from abortion. The goat pregnancy is corpus luteum
dependant in contrast to cattle. If no conception
occurred, the corpus luteum disappears and new ovulation
takes place. A buck ejaculates normally 3/4 - 1 1/2
ml of semen with 2-3 billion spermatozoa each. The
life of an ovum after ovulation is about 8-10 hours.
As the ovum travels down the goat's oviduct, it is
fertilized by semen which traveled up through the
uterus. The fertilized embryo becomes firmly attached
to the uterine walls and surrounds itself with a nourishing
placenta starting at 52 days after conception. Semen
of goat bucks freezes as well as that of bulls and
may be stored for years in 1 ml ampules or 1/2 ml
straws in liquid nitrogen tanks for artificial insemination
use.
14. Origin - Wild goats or escaped feral goats are
found in many countries and islands and can be harmful
to the vegetation if numbers are left uncontrolled.
15. 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.
16. 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, i.e., 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 with a complex, nourishing placenta.
17. 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; yet living hybrids of the two genera have been
reported. The six species of goats can be distinguished
by their horn shapes:
1. Capra aegagrus, the wild (or bezoar) goat of Near
East Asia has scimitar-shaped horns with a sharp anterior
keel and a few knobs in- terrupting it.
2. Capra ibex, the ibex of the Alps, Siberia and Nubia
has scimitar shaped horns with a flatter front and
many transverse ridges.
3. Capra falconeri, the markhor of Central Asia has
sharpkeeled horns that are twisted into open or tight
spirals.
4. Capra pyrenaica, the Spanish goat has outward-upward
curving horns with a sharp posterior keel.
5. Capra cylindricornis, the Dagestan tur of the Caucasus
mountains has round outward-back inward curving horns.
6. Capra hircus, the domestic goat evolved principally
from capra aegagrus, except for Angora, Cashmere goats,
and Damascus types who descended from capra falconeri.
18. Breeds
Domestic goat breeds are many. Swiss breeds are distinguished
in milk producing ability and have influenced significantly
milk production from goats around the world, especially
in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
A few breeds kept mostly for meat are the South African
boer goat, the Indian beetal, black Bengal, the Latin
American criollo, the US ''Spanish'' goats and most
of the small or nondescript goats. Fiber producing
goat breeds are the Angora in Turkey, USA, South Africa;
the Cashmere in Afghanistan, Iran, Australia and China;
and Don breed in Russia.
19. The major breeds of US goats are:
20. Saanen originate from Switzerland (Saanen Valley),
are totally white, with or without horns. The white
color is dominant over other colors. They are mostly
short haired. The ''Appenzell'' is a similar breed,
but partially related to the Toggenburg is from Northern
Switzerland, longhaired, white and hornless. 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.
21. Toggenburg, brown with white facial, ear and
leg stripes, another straight nosed, horned or hornless,
mostly shorthaired, erect eared goat, as all Swiss
are, 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. Mrs. Carl Sandburg,
wife of the famous US poet had several world record
Toggenburg does on official USDA tests.
22. Alpine (including French, Rock and British),
another Swiss breed (French Switzerland), horned or
hornless, shorthaired, as tall and strong as the Saanen,
with usually faded shades of white into black, with
white facial stripes on black. They are second in
milk production to Saanen and Toggenburg.
23. LaMancha is a new, young breed developed in California
from Spanish Murciana 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.
24. (Anglo)-Nubian is a breed developed in England
from native goats and crossed with Indian and Nubian
which have heavy arched ''Roman'' 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 that may be
''Appaloosa''-like spotted.
25. 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.
26. Angora originated in the Near East. The long
upper coat (mohair) is the valuable product in the
Angora in contrast to the Cashmere, where the fine
underwool is the valuable product. Head has a straight
or concave nose, thin, not very long; pendulous ears
and twisted horns, in both sexes. It is a small breed,
usually white. The haircoat is long with undulating
locks and ringlets of fine, silky hair. The top quality
fleece of purebreds may be 1-2 lbs, but slightly more
in males and wethers. They are bearded. Spring moult
is natural and shearing occurs just before. They are
not very prolific and twinning is less frequent than
in other breeds.
27. Pygmy are dwarf, short legged goats from West
and Central Africa and the Caribbean. Their growth
rates and milk production are relatively respectable,
although low, twinning is frequent and they are breeding
all year usually. They are adaptable to humid tropics
and resistant to trypanosoma.
28. Others. There is little known about the so-called
Spanish or bush goats that are kept on the open range
in the Southwest mostly. Also, a few minor breeds
exist in this country, e.g. the Sables, which are
a colored variety of the Saanen. It would be profitable
to know more about the other at least 60 goat breeds
in the world and their comparative values under US
conditions.
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