Goat - unpretentious, clean, very comfortable and profitable animal for the household. Of course, she needs conditions of detention, care and attention, even the fulfillment of certain whims, for which she will pay the owner a hundredfold. Healing milk, tasty meat - that's what dairy goats are. Breeding them is a painstaking, but uncomplicated, quick payback business. The cost of feed, the device stall is much less than a cow. It’s easy to care for them, a lot of time is not required. Watching the behavior of goats is interesting. Children love to play with kids - this is a real circus at home.
Goat feed and cure
Goat milk is nutritious and dietary, an analogue of female breast milk. Compared to cow, it contains more protein, calcium and phosphorus salts - the “building material” of the skeleton and teeth, it is fatter, and most importantly - hypoallergenic. Therefore, there is no better product than goat's milk for artificial children, for people allergic to cow. In the old days, when there were no mixtures that are now resorted to for feeding infants, infants were given goat milk. Elderly people who have problems digesting food also speak approvingly. Animal therapy (animal healing) recommends getting a goat suffering from hypertension, bazedovoy or gallstone disease. Milk and communication with a pet can cure these ailments.
One need not go far for an example of the usefulness of goats. Recall Robinson. With goats he was full, dressed and shod, communication with them brightened up many years of loneliness in a foreign land. Dairy goat is traditionally called the "poor cow". But in recent years, goat’s milk is valued more than cow’s milk; moreover, it is rarely found on sale.
Numerous tribe
Goats are one of the first pets with a long service to humans - 9000 years. According to the productive direction, they are divided into 5 groups: wool, down, meat, dairy and mixed (wool, down, meat and milk). On every continent there are representatives of a small-horned tribe for various purposes. In Southeast Asia, goats are mainly grown for meat, downy frolic in the Altai mountains. In Europe, breeds of dairy goats are predominantly bred. They contain not only the population for milk and for the preparation of products from it. There are many goat farms supplying raw materials to enterprises of the food industry. For others, the specialization is raising goats for sale. Going on selection experiments to improve the quality of milk and the constitution of animals, to breed new breeds.
Consider the breeds of dairy goats - the most productive and more adapted to cold winters than African Nubian goats. These are the Saanen, Toggenburg, Alpine (Swiss, French, British), Megrelian and Gorky dairy goats. A photo of each representative is accompanied by a listing of signs of the exterior, a characteristic of productivity.
Saanen goats
The most common and most prominent of the dairy goat breed are Saanen. Their homeland is the Saanenthal Valley in Switzerland. Breeding in mountain alpine meadows with a wonderful climate lasted several centuries. First exhibited in Paris in 1856 under the name Goat Saanen white hornless. Gradually, the breed spread to European countries, where it was exported to improve the milk production of local goats.
These are the largest goats in the world: tribal uterus at a height at the withers of 75-80 cm (sometimes 85), their live weight is 60 kg (some individuals are 90 kg); goats-producers with a height at the withers of 82-86 cm weigh from 70 kg (some 100 kg). Newborn goats an average of 3 kg, goats - more than 4 kg. At 2 months, their weight reaches 10 kg in goats and 12 kg in goats. One-year-old goats of 30 kg each, goats up to 35-40.
Exterior of the Saanen goat
Appearance - a sample of goats in the milk direction. The constitution is dense or tender dense, the skeleton is strong with moderately developed muscles. The skin is strong and thin, covered with awn without down-undercoat. The head is dry average, hornless, ears "horn" directed forward and slightly to the sides. The neck is long flat sometimes with “earrings”. The body is deep, long, wide enough. Legs are strong, set correctly. The hooves are light yellow. The suit is white. On the skin of the ears, the udder is sometimes black pigmentation in the form of spots. A good supply of ball or pear-shaped udders with well-developed nipples.
Lactation up to 330 days a year. Summer goats are milked continuously for several years. Milking from 600 and more liters per lactation with a milk fat content of at least 4%. The record of 3507 liters has not yet been defeated. Milking goats must be kept away from the goat-manufacturer, otherwise milk will be of unpleasant taste and smell.
Zaanensky goats are prolific, hasty and hardy. In the absence of closely related cover thoroughbred traits are transmitted to the offspring in full.
Goats from Toggenburg
In the 18th century, the Toggenburg goat breed was created by the Swiss using the method of folk selection. Over the next 3 centuries, as a result of crossing this breed with representatives of local breeds in different countries, brown Czech, noble Toggenburg, British Togenburg goats were bred. A few togenburg goats came to Russia for the first time at the beginning of the last century.
The exterior of the breed stands out for its brown color, but there are also spotted animals. Toggenburg goats are recognized by a pronounced sign - white marks: 2 stripes parallel to the muzzle, ears rim at the edges, the lower part of the tail and legs from hooves to the hock joints are also white. The constitution is strong and dry, the body is harmonious with a height at the withers of 0.6 m. An elongated head on a long neck. Straight slightly flat profile. Toggenburg goats are hornless, goats with horns, but there are also hornless ones. Straight back, bulging ribs. The limbs are strong, moderate in length, set correctly, the hooves are strong, steady. The sacrum is wide, the udder is large. The coat is silky, on the back and hips it grows up to 20 cm. The weight of the producers is up to 70 kg, in the queens up to 55 kg.
The Toggenburg breed of goats is prolific (in the offspring the kids are usually 2-3), it easily acclimates to winter and mountain conditions, prefers coolness and shade in the summer, but it is demanding on the diet, which determines the taste of milk.
Lactation up to 300 days a year. Milkiness at the first goat is 500 l, with subsequent lambing milk yield increases to 1000 l without volume reduction in the winter. Fat in milk 3-4%. Cheese of excellent taste.
Alpine goats
Breeding of animals of this breed began in the mountainous regions of Switzerland by the method of folk selection. Then selection continued in France and England. Swiss alpine goats were exported there and crossed with the best local breeds.
Common Alpine Traits
Large animals: at the age of 4
years, a goat at the withers 76 cm high weighing 61 kg, a goat 81 cm and 77 kg.
The neck is long, the head is dry with erect ears, the profile is straight. There are hornless and horned ones. Milk productivity and fertility are high - from 1200 to 1600 liters of milk per year with good feeding and favorable conditions, several kids in one lamb. Milk is tasty, fatty (up to 5.5%) and nutritious (protein 3%).
Alpine goats are unpretentious to the diet, adapt quickly in the new climatic conditions, strive to become leaders in the herd (you need to make sure that others do not fight off the feeders), are understanding, affectionate to the owner, friendly. Alpine breeds of dairy goats are indispensable in the mountains - they are graceful and dexterous, real "climbers" and will get their own food where the cow does not climb, and in the evening they will bring milk to the owner. Of course, the milk yield will be smaller, but what useful, created from medicinal plants. These goats are also suitable for stall keeping.
Distinctive color
The Swiss breeding alpine goats joke that with each goat they get a “colorful gift” - such colored kids are born. The classic colors are “white neck” - head to the middle of the body are white, and the rest is gray or black, or “red neck” - brown head-neck-shoulders and black color of the back. There are variegated (white spots on a black background and vice versa), brown with black spots, brown with a black stripe along the ridge and black legs. There are also such goats - from the head to the middle of the body black, and then to the tail white. Pure white and brown for the breed of Alpine goats are not considered - this color is characteristic of the Saanen and Toggenburg breeds.
Alpine species
French Alpine goats are dairy, the photo of which is presented to the reader on the slopes of the French Alps from the best local breeds crossed with thoroughbred Swiss goats. Adapted to the conditions of the mountains. The suit is different - white, spotted, under the color of chamois. There are horns and without them. Average productivity up to 900 l from lamb to lamb. In France, some households keep a population of 1,000 goats. Breeding work is carried out to improve the composition of milk and the suitability of animals for machine milking.
The British Alpine breed, often called the black Toggenburg breed, was registered at the beginning of the last century in England. A pure black coat with white “Swiss marks” - stripes on the muzzle, piping of the ears, “stockings” on the legs, “knocking” at the bottom of the tail. The goat is tall and slender, a light long head on an elegant neck, erect ears are slightly directed forward. Daily milk yield up to 4.5 liters.
Breeds of dairy goats in Russia
A worthy representative is the Gorky goat. The history of the breed is not precisely established. But it is known that her ancestors were Russian white dairy goats and foreign zaanenki, brought at the beginning of the last century to the
Nizhny Novgorod province, which was called Gorkovsky in Soviet times, which is why the breed was given the name. Currently, these goats are kept by the population and farms of farmers in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Among domestic Russian breed is considered the best and the efforts of folk breeders continues to develop in the direction of milk productivity.
The exterior of the Gorky goat is similar to the Saanen goat, but the animals are slightly smaller in size and weight: goats are up to 50 kg, goats are more massive - 60 kg or more in live weight. White color with short hair and undercoat is characteristic - up to 10% of down. In different parts of the body, wool of different densities and lengths. Fertility is good: usually a goat brings 2 goats, but there are cases of goats 4-5 kids.
Lactation up to 10 months per year with an average inflation of 500 l during this time. With good care, the milk yield reaches 1000 liters or more. After a half-year goat, the daily milk yield is kept in one volume, then it is noticeably reduced.
From goats, fluff is obtained - up to 250 g per cheska, an excellent goat used for high-quality chevron skin.
The pedigree dairy goats popular today, the price of which, frankly, is fantastic (a monthly purebred goat costs 30 or more thousand rubles), is not accessible to everyone. Beginners can be advised: buy an inexpensive Gorky goat, adapted to the cold, unpretentious to feed, prolific and with good productivity of tasty and fat milk.
Megrelian goat
In western Georgia, in Megrelia, dairy goats of Megrelian breed of low and mountain type are bred. On the flat terrain, the inhabitants of the settlements keep animals of the first type on leashes and in stalls. They feed them with prepared vegetable feed, waste from fruits and vegetables. The lowland type goats are small, the average weight of the uterus at the withers 60 cm high is 33-37 kg, the goats are larger and heavier - under 50 kg. For 200 days of lactation, an average of 300 liters of milk is infused from a goat, and record holders are given 750 each. Fertility is small: only 20 out of 100 queens bring 2 goats, the rest one at a time.
Mountain goats are larger than their counterparts, with a strong constitution and a rough skeleton, more massive. Weight of goats up to 50 kg, goats up to 70 kg. They graze on high mountain pastures from spring to late autumn, for winter time they are lowered from the peaks into mountain valleys, where they are kept on pasture. Productivity on average from 200 to 250 liters per six-month lactation. Fertility is small - 110 kids from 100 queens.
The suit of Megrelian goats is white, red and gray. Short coat is coarse. All animals with well-developed curved horns in the form of the letter S on a slightly elongated head, with beards of medium length.
Megrelian goats are resistant to disease. Relocation of these goats to other areas will improve the endurance and productivity of local goats.
Goat breeding
It is difficult to find adult thoroughbred goats per tribe and it will be expensive to pay for them. You can go the other way - to select goats and goats from thoroughbred parents in different farms, following the most important rule - the ban on closely related crosses. It is most reliable to contact breeder goat breeders. Do not forget the good old rule: it’s expensive and sweet, but if it’s cheap - you yourself understand, the “trick” may not work.
Inspect the goat-producer and goat-mother - thoroughbred signs must be obvious in them. Check the seller’s words about the high productivity of the uterus in practice - let the goat stand out in your presence. Try milk for taste and smell.
Unsuitable kids from the lamb, in which there were more than two. Particular attention to the future manufacturer. The goat on the tribe must be hornless. Check the development of the genitals of the kids.
Ask the seller how the feeding went. Important: until two months of age, the mother’s milk should be their main food. About growth and development is judged by weight, appetite, appearance, condition of the coat and agility of the property.
And the kids got to a permanent place of detention. The rest (successful breeding) depends on proper feeding and caring for the animals.