Goats
Probably first domesticated in the East, perhaps during prehistoric times, the goat has long been used as a source of milk, cheese, mohair, and meat. Its skin has been valued as a source for leather. In China, Great Britain, Europe, and North America, the goat is primarily a milk producer. By good management its limited (six months per year) breeding season and the consequent difficulty of maintaining a level supply of milk throughout the year, can be overcome. The goat is especially adapted to small-scale production of milk for the family table; one or two goats supply sufficient milk for a family throughout the year and can be maintained economically in quarters where it would not be practical to keep a cow.
| name | use | distribution | characteristics | comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Angora | wool | originally Turkey, now also South Africa, United States | small body; thick, flat fleece | thrives in temperate regions |
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Boer | meat | originally South Africa | horned; lop ears | extended breeding season |
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Cashmere | wool, milk, and meat | originally China, now Asia and Middle East | small body; large ears; small horns | wool obtained from its undercoat |
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LaMancha | milk | originally United States | distinct ear types: “gopher ears” (up to one inch in length but preferably nonexistent) or “elf ears” (maximum length 2 inches) | hardy |
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Nubian | milk | originally North Africa, now also India, Middle East, United Kingdom, United States | long legs; long ears; large nose | several varieties |
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Oberhasli | milk | originally Switzerland | medium-sized; chamois in colour with two black stripes on face | alert in appearance |
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Saanen | milk | originally Saanen Valley, Switzerland | white or cream-coloured; short hair | consistent milk producer |
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Toggenburg | milk | originally Toggenburg valley, Switzerland, now also United Kingdom, United States | light to dark brown | important dairy goat |
Pure-white goat’s milk compares favourably with cow’s milk in flavour and keeping qualities under sanitary conditions. It has certain characteristics differing from cow’s milk that make it more easily digested by infants, invalids, and persons with allergies. Goat flesh is edible, that from young kids being quite tender and more delicate in flavour than lamb, which it resembles. Goat flesh is much prized in the Mediterranean countries, particularly in Spain, Italy, the south of France, and Greece. The Angora and Cashmere breeds are famous for their fine wool or mohair.
The many breeds may be roughly grouped: the prickeared—e.g., Swiss goats; the eastern, or Nubian, with long, drooping ears; and the wool goat—e.g., Angora. While it is usually easy to distinguish goats from sheep, certain hair breeds of the latter are, to the layman, only distinguishable from goats by the direction of the tail, upward in goats, downward in sheep.
Of the Swiss goats, from which many of the best modern breeds are derived, the Toggenburg and Saanen are most important. The French breeds have much Swiss blood. In Germany the many varieties trace to Swiss breeds, which are also popular throughout Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
The Maltese goat, an important source of milk on the island of Malta, probably contains eastern blood. Many goats are found in Spain, northern Africa, and Italy, among them the Murcian, Granada, and La Mancha.
Nubians are African goats, chiefly Egyptian. They are usually large, short-haired goats with large lop ears and Roman noses. They may be of solid colour, parti-coloured, or spotted. The goats in Israel and Syria have long hair and large lop ears and most commonly are solid black or with white spots. Most Indian varieties, the best of which come from the Yamuna River area, have lop ears.
In Britain, the native goat was small, with short legs, long hair—usually gray but of no fixed colour—and with no definite markings. The widespread use of pedigree males, mostly of Swiss extraction, to improve the milk yield, has resulted in the almost total disappearance of the native types.