Goats

Key facts

Goats are one of the oldest domesticated species. Goats have been used for their milk, meat, hair, and skins over

much of the world Life expectancy for goats is 15- 18 years Female–nannies Males –billies Young- kids. Castrated males - wethers. Goat meat

– from younger animals is called kid or cabrito, – older animals is sometimes called chevon, or “mutton”.

Nutrition

Goats are reputed to be willing to eat almost anything, except tin cans and cardboard boxes.

While goats will not actually eat inedible material, they are browsing animals, not grazers like cattle and sheep, and (coupled with their natural curiosity) will chew on and taste just about anything resembling plant matter in order to decide whether it is good to eat

Goats are extremely curious and intelligent

They are easily trained to pull carts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv0eVYqtX

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Escapology

They are also known for escaping their pens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDSYQUrj

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Mountains

Goats are very coordinated and can climb and hold their balance in the most precarious places.

Alpine Ibex goats Italy 160ft dam wall. It is thought the goats are actually grazing, licking the stones for their salts.

Goats in trees

Goats are also widely known for their ability to climb trees, although the tree generally has to be on somewhat of an angle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQev3UoGp2M

Where’s Bob?

The vocalization goats make is called bleating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woobL2yAxD4

Bob

Boer Goat

Bred for meat

Myotonic Goats originate in Tennessee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

Goat milk (Israeli Organic farm)

Goats produce approximately 2% of the world's total annual milk supply

It is commonly processed into cheese, butter, ice cream, yoghurt, and other products.

Goat cheese is known as chèvre in France, after the French word for "goat".

Some varieties include Rocamadour and Montrachet

Angora Goats

A domestic goat that originated in Ankara (formerly known as Angora), Turkey The locks constantly grow and can be four inches or more in length

Mohair silk-like yarn made

from the hair of the Angora goat.

The word "mohair" was adopted into English before 1570 from the Arabic mukhayyar,

Cashmere Goat

Produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine soft downy winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity

In 1994, China had an estimated goat population of 123 million goats and is the largest producer of cashmere down.

Changthangi Goatsپشمینه

The name comes from Pashmineh

The wool comes from changthangi or pashmina goat, which is a special breed of goat indigenous to high altitudes of the Himalayas

Pashmina shawls are hand spun, woven and embroidered in Kashmir, and made from fine cashmere fibre.

They are raised for meat and cashmere production and used as pack animals.

They have large twisting horns.

Charity goats

http://www.presentaid.org/reskin-pages/how-it-works/page/howitworks/

A gift of a goat

In Afghanistan goats are distributed by Christian Aid's partner CRDSA to village cooperatives to provide milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter to consume or sell, as well as wool which can be woven into carpets or household items, again for use or sale.

Abdul Rahman Sultani, is part of the men's village cooperative that was established by CRDSA, Christian Aid's partner. He received 3 goats and basic veterinary training from CRDSA, providing food and an income for his family of nine.

He says: 'To start with, it was CRDSA who said we should form a cooperative because it would be better for us to work together. It makes sense to work in a cooperative, because while we each own our own goats, it's only all together that we can produce enough milk to make butter and yoghurt and cheese to sell. Then we share the profits."

A goat gift costs just £15.00 or you could buy a whole herd of goats for £60.00.

Practical Action UK

Gorgeous Goat - £20 In Sudan and Bangladesh a goat

can be a lifesaver, providing enough milk to keep the whole family healthy.

Goats can also be bred and sold, allowing poor parents to generate income to pay for food, education and vital medicines for their children.

Oxfam unwrapped

Positive outcomes

Increased crop production through manure use, Increased female empowerment Reduction in need to buy fertlizer household income through goat sale, US$10 and

US$50 for each full-grown goat kid sold. – to pay for school fees, – medication for household members with chronic illness

use of goats/goat products to offset food shortages

June 2010 Buying goats- Kenya drought

Hussain Mohammed leaving with his goat, Sambar, that was rejected by the vet.

"I’ve come 25kms. I brought three animals… two have been accepted for de-stocking but the vet rejected this one.

I think it’s a good programme and it will help, as I’ll be getting money from an animal, which would have died leaving me with nothing. I’ll use the money to buy food and water.

God knows what I would have done... Because of the drought it’s had little to eat and has become emaciated, and now it’s too sick for de-stocking."

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/east_africa.html

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/ethiopia-animal_health-photostory.html

Criticisms

My principal criticism, is that the aid charities are marketting goats to the world as a way out of poverty in Africa, without making it very clear, that goats and over-grazing are also one of the major causes of poverty over much of subSaharan Africa.

Nor do any of the charities promoting goats explain what happens when the next drought comes along.

None of the defenses for promoting goats, put forward by the aid charities, have convinced me that Africa needs more goats.

The number of hoofed animals in subSaharan Africa went from around 275 million in 1961 to over 655 million by 2005 (FAO Statistics) -- and the levels of poverty have not decreased - they have escalated.

The map on the UN website showing desertification shows the problem.

www.fao.org/desertification/default.asp?lang=en

Overgrazing in Ghana

Overgrazing in Ecuador

Nigeria

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is losing 351,000 hectares (867,000 acres) of rangeland and cropland to desertification each year.

While Nigeria’s human population was growing from 37 million in 1950 to 148 million in 2007, a fourfold expansion, its livestock population grew from roughly 6 million to 102 million, a 17-fold jump.

With the forage needs of Nigeria’s 16 million cattle and 86 million sheep and goats exceeding the sustainable yield of grasslands, the northern part of the country is slowly turning to desert.

If Nigeria continues toward its projected 289 million people by 2050, the deterioration will only accelerate.

Iran

Iran, with 73 million people, illustrates the pressures facing the Middle East.

With 8 million cattle and 79 million sheep and goats—the source of wool for its fabled rug-making industry—Iran’s rangelands are deteriorating from overstocking.

In the southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan, sand storms have buried 124 villages, forcing their abandonment.

Drifting sands have covered grazing areas—starving livestock and depriving villagers of their livelihood

China

China’s desertification may be the worst in the world. Wang Tao, one of the world’s leading desert scholars, reports that from 1950 to 1975 an average of 600 square miles turned to desert each year.

By century’s end, nearly 3,600 square kilometers were going to desert annually.

Over the last half-century, some 24,000 villages in northern and western China have been entirely or partly abandoned as a result of being overrun by drifting sand.

China

Scientists in China have said that increasing desertification is costing the country more than US$40 bn a year.

They blamed the increase on harsh environmental conditions and industrial activities.

The scientists said that desertification is severely harming agricultural production, communication and transportation networks and even burying whole villages.

China

Shortage of farmland China now has more than 2.62 million square kilometres of land under desertification, twice the amount of the total available farmland in China.

Satellite pictures show that desertification is on the increase in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Qinghai, and the autonomous regions of Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia.

Huang He 黃河 ;

AKA Yellow River

China

Duststorms choke northern China nearly every spring, often blown off the dry expanses of the Mongolian desert plain.

The desert is now less than 250 kilometres from the capital Beijing

Alien invasion on the Galapagos islands - BBC Environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ3q79rD_9U&feature=fvwrel