What does a goat look like: a general description and varieties of breeds, how to choose

When buying a pet, you need to know what a he althy goat looks like. After all, it makes no sense to buy a sick or old individual. Goats are bred for milk, meat or wool (fluff). Animal productivity depends on age, he alth and feed. Goats live up to 15 years. True, the peak of their productivity falls on the 5-year-old age. Old animals are usually sent to slaughter or try to sell on the market.

General description of the animal

Goat is a domestic animal from the class of mammals and the genus - mountain goats. The bezoar goat is considered her ancestor. True, other representatives of this genus (Alpine, markhorn) also participated in the creation of various breeds.

In ancient times, these animals lived in southern and western Asia, in the steppe, desert and wooded regions. They were domesticated many thousands of years ago. Currently, they are bred in different parts of the world. All European domestic goats are descended from Asian ancestors. Animals are raised for meat, milk, wool, down, skins.

Domestic goats reach a height (at the withers) of 0.5-1 meters. The length of the body is 0.6-1.2 m plus the tail 10-20 cm. The weight of the animal, depending on the breed, is 25-130 kilograms. Goats have a narrow-bodied, angular exterior. Legs - straight, strong, with hooves. The body is covered with short or long hair. Color - white, black, brown, red, spotted.

Animals have a beard (both sexes), horns (males are longer). Only female dairy breeds have outgrowths on the neck - earrings.

Male have a very strong smell during the breeding season. Goats with dark hair smell stronger than those with white hair. Animals willingly go to mating.Goats reach sexual maturity at 5-8 months. True, they are allowed to mate at 1-1.5 years. Pregnancy in females lasts 5 months. Usually they give birth to 1-4 cubs, which are fed with milk for up to 3 months.

After lambing goats begin to be milked. They give 1-5 liters of milk per day. The female udder consists of two lobes. It has 2 or 4 nipples. The shape of the udder is pear-shaped or cup-shaped. Females are covered annually to prolong lactation. The productive period is 7-9 years. These animals are in excellent he alth. They are immune to plague, scabies, and rarely get sick with tuberculosis. At 3 months of age, they are vaccinated against anthrax, brucellosis, foot and mouth disease, rabies, and parasites.

Goats are also profitable to breed because they eat less than cows. True, their productivity is lower than that of cattle. The diet consists of grass in summer and hay in winter. As top dressing, they are given vegetables, grain mixtures, branches of trees and shrubs.

Varieties of goat breeds

Animals are mainly bred for milk, meat, down and wool. A huge number of breeds have been bred. Every corner of the world has its own species, the most adapted to living in a particular area.

Dairy

In our area, mainly alpine dairy goats are bred. These include: Saanen, including Russian White or Gorky, as well as Toggenburg, Appenzell, French, British or Italian Alpine. There are other dairy breeds: Megrelian, Spanish, Nubian, M altese.

All goats of this type give 2-5 liters of milk per day, 3-6% fat. Productivity per year - 500-700 kilograms. Record holders give up to 8 liters of milk per day. Such animals weigh about 50-60 kilograms. They are kept only for 7-9 years, at an older age, milk yields fall.

Meat

Beef goats differ from dairy goats in that they quickly gain weight. Goats are born weighing 4 kilograms. They eat, like all ruminant pets, grass and hay. By 10-12 months they weigh more than 100 kilograms. The most common meat breeds are Boer and Kiko. True, in our area they are rarely bred because of the high cost of breeding individuals (1-1.5 thousand dollars).

Woolen and downy

The most valuable downy breeds are the Don and Orenburg. Such animals give about 500 grams of fluff per year, and up to 300 liters of milk. Their color is white, blue, black, brown or gray. In Orenburg goats, the down is shorter than the awn, while in the Don goats, on the contrary, it is longer.

Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Volgograd, Kashmiri are downy. There is also a Gorno-Altai breed with a black awn and plain dark gray down.Representatives of this type also have a light color. Animals are also bred for wool, which is used in the knitting and textile industries.

The most common breeds: Angora, Soviet wool, Tajik, Kazakh with white wool, black with black wool.

Mixed type

Most often, mixed-type goats are grown in private farms, from which milk, meat, wool and skins are obtained. These are mestizos, that is, animals obtained from different breeds (woolen, downy, dairy). They have a medium length coat, a large udder. One animal produces up to 350 liters of milk per year.

Dwarf goats

There are also ornamental pygmy goats that look like young kids. They grow to only 0.5 meters in height (at the withers) and produce about 1 liter of milk per day. The most common are Cameroonians, Nigerians, Lamanches, and Dwarf Nubians.

Most popular representatives

In Russia, in rural areas, mainly short-haired goats are grown: Russian, Gorky, Zaanen. These are animals with good immunity, they are adapted to the climate of the middle zone, they start milking at the age of 2 years, they give 2-4 liters

a milk per day. For the sake of fluff, Orenburg and Don long-haired animals are kept in Russia. Summer residents often give birth to dwarf ornamental goats. Animals belonging to mini-breeds can even live in an apartment.

Recently, local farmers have begun to breed oriental long-eared goats (gulabi, bitals, kamori). Such animals have an unusual appearance: long hanging ears. Adult goats weigh about 90 kilograms and produce very tasty, sweetish and rich milk.

How to choose the right goat

An animal is bought for milk, meat, wool or down. Common dairy breeds are best bought from a local farmer or an ordinary villager.They cost about 50-100 dollars. Tribal individuals are bought from breeders on special farms. These animals cost $300 and up.

For home breeding, they usually buy first-cat or goats after 2-3 lambing. Young animals are more productive and quickly get used to a new owner. They give the most milk at 5 years of age. It is advisable not to buy animals older than 7 years. With age, milk yields fall. When buying a dairy breed, pay attention to the udder. It should be elastic, pear-shaped or cup-shaped. The udder should not sag and the teats should not look out. The asymmetrical shape indicates the consequences of mastitis or injury.

The ideal udder has a high position, good attachment. Teats are medium length, comfortable for milking. After milking, the udder should fall off, and the skin on it should gather into folds. There should be no seals in the lobes, their presence indicates mastitis.

A he althy goat has a good appetite, a voracious eater, a barrel-shaped body and a large udder. Dairy breeds have an angular, cone-shaped body, while meat breeds have a square one. Goats that are raised for meat eat a lot but produce little milk. All nutrition goes to the development of muscle mass. Dairy goats have soft and fine hair, meat goats, on the contrary, have coarse hair.

You can look into a goat's mouth. In sick animals, caries is noticeable on the teeth. The length of the incisors wears down with age. Old goats have loose teeth. There are gaps between the incisors on the lower jaw. A he althy young goat at 3 years of age should have 32 teeth in its mouth.

Most often they sell not dairy goats, but kids at the age of 3-5 months. After all, animals are covered every year to prolong lactation and increase milk yield. Up to 3 months, kids eat milk, and then switch to plant foods.

When buying small animals, it is advisable to get to know their mother in order to understand how much milk they will give.True, such goats will be milked only after the first lambing, that is, somewhere in the second year of life. But the he alth and future productivity of kids are completely dependent on the new owner (on the diet and conditions of detention).

When buying down and woolen goats, first of all, pay attention to the condition of down and wool. Such animals are bought before the start of combing and haircuts. For example, when buying Orenburg goats, they look at the density of wool. Down must be at least 5 centimeters long. In the best representatives of this breed, the entire body is covered with wool. The legs of the Orenburg goats should be straight, the hooves should be large, shiny, the body should be barrel-shaped in shape. When choosing an animal of any breed, criteria such as age, condition of the teeth and the shape of the udder are taken into account.

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