Choosing a Goat for the Farm - A Collection of Articles on Breeds, Characteristics and Signs of Health

By Read Books Ltd.

This vintage book contains a collection of classic articles on selecting a goat for the farm, with information on breeds, characteristics, signs of health, and many other related aspects. With a wealth of invaluable information and helpful illustrations, this is a book that will be of considerable utility to farmers wishing to add goats to their livestock, and one that would make for a useful addition to collections of agricultural literature. Contents include: “Choosing a Goat for the Farm”, “A Collection of Articles on Breeds, Characteristics and Signs of Health”, “Goat Farming”, “What Breed to Buy?”, “How to Buy a Good Doe”, “Getting Your Goat”, and “Choosing a Goat”. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on farming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473391093

Book preview

Anon

What Breed to Buy?

DON’T rush off now and buy the first goat you see, much as you would buy a bag of salt. Take it easy, and first learn something about goats.

By the way, learn that the proper term for a female goat is doe, for a male, buck, and if you would have the goodwill of goat lovers don’t refer to them as nanny goats and billy goats. Goat people hate this just as you would hate hearing your children called brats.

Noah was a good man, and he was also a wise man. When he equipped the Ark he put into it two animals of each species. His primary purpose, of course, was propagation, but he also knew that no animal can be happy alone. You will find that your goat will be happier with a companion and will make fewer demands on your attention. You might buy two milkers, if you need that amount of milk, or you might get a milker and a yearling—a debutante, so to speak—one just reaching maturity. Goats are seasonal milkers, milking usually for eight or ten months. By breeding the yearling so that she will have a baby kid and begin to give milk—which is called freshening—before the milker goes dry you can keep a supply of milk throughout the year. Or you might buy a milker and a kid. But be sure it is a doe kid.

After you have held a family council and decided that you want goats, visit the goat breeders in your section of the country, look over their stock and talk goats with them. Most goat raisers love their animals and love to talk about them and, generally speaking, will give you freely of their knowledge. It is preferable to buy your goats from such a source, for these people know how to feed and care for the goats, their animals have been tested for TB and Bang’s disease, just as cows are tested, and you will know that the milk is safe for use.

You will find, as you go about, that each breeder specializes in raising one or more types of goats, and that there are four popular breeds. These breeds are Toggenburg, Saanen, Nubian, and Alpine.

Toggenburgs, originating in Switzerland, are almost uniformly some shade of brown, with a white stripe at either side of the face from eye to muzzle, a white area around the tail and white hocks. There are, however, occasional variations toward grey coloring, or even spots of white on the coat infrequently. Their faces are slightly concave between the eyes—dished they are called—their ears are prick