Goats: An overlooked pasture-raised animal

[marmar]

from the Ethicurean:




Goats: An overlooked pasture-raised animal
By Marc R. aka Mental Masala @ 6:00 am on 12 June 2011.


Goat meat is already very popular around the world – the Washington Post claims that goat makes up almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally – and its popularity could increase in the U.S. because of the convergence of several things: renewed interest in grass-fed animals; openings of new butcher shops or revitalization of old shops (such as Avedano's in San Francisco's Bernal Heights), and increasing numbers of U.S. residents from Latin America and South Asia. With a bit of education and experimentation by farmers, butchers, chefs and home cooks, this adaptable animal could become a key part of a return to meat raised on pastures.

Goats were the focus of a recent one-day festival at the Rockridge Market Hall in Oakland – an upscale European-style collection of food shops with a bakery, butcher, fish shop, and more. The "Go for the Goat!" festival included tastings of goat milk ice cream, goat milk caramel, goat cheese, a butchery demonstration, and a panel discussion about goat cheese, milk and meat. I attended the panel, which was moderated by Sibella Kraus, director of Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), and comprised panelists Bob McCall, Sales & Marketing Manager for Cypress Grove Chevre (maker of the legendary Humboldt Fog); Lynn Huntsinger, Professor of Rangeland Ecology & Management, UC Berkeley (and owner of two goats); David Evans, owner of Marin Sun Farms.

Pasture's little helpers

David Evans, who raises grass-fed cattle in northern California, depends on lush pastures to put weight on his animals and keep them healthy. Goats can play a part in that by improving the quality of pastures, he said. While cows and sheep are basically biological lawnmowers – eating grass almost exclusively – goats are browsers, eating bits of grass, bits of brush, bits of trees. And since goats happen to like consuming certain problem species for rangelands, herds of goats can be deployed to areas of pasture that are being overrun by milk thistle or poison oak, giving grass a fighting chance to return.

Goats don't like water, so they cause little damage to stream beds, according to Evans, and therefore can be released close to waterways. Although Marin Sun Farms’ lease with the federal government (through the National Park Service) doesn’t currently allow goats on their lands in Marin County, through co-production arrangements, Evans sources goats from a partner in Dixon, CA, that follows Marin Sun Farms’ strict protocols for animal and ecosystem treatment. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ethicurean.com/2011/06/12/goats/

[Poll_Blind]

1. I eat goat about once a month. It's good stuff!

PB

[greytdemocrat]

12. Yes it is.

Very tasty.

[alfredo]

40. Their milk is very good, and their skin make nice drums.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Dixon, CA. Home of the Lambtown Festival.

Lambs, Goats, Llamas, Alpacas, all are welcome at the Dixon Lambtown Festival!





http://www.lambtown.com/

:hi:

[Brother Buzz]

14. Dixon area is home to a lot of goats

They are rented out for fire control, and are mostly gone during the summer months earning their keep knocking down vegetation. I watched the bands grow from dozens, to hundred, to thousands, over the last twenty years. Niche marketing for sure, yet the meat hasn't found the commercial market yet.

Dixon is the Judas Gate to sheep; we operate the only lamb slaughterhouse west of the Rockies.

[Retrograde]

22. If you're in the area, go just to see the sheepdog trials

Those dogs are amazing!

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Abe Lincoln's kids had pet goats in the White House

I always thought that was very cool.

[suffragette]

4. Mmm - cajeta lollipops

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The FAO says the '70%' number is rubbish

And I certainly can't believe it - goat meat may be the most common in some countries, but remember that those tend to be poorer countries that eat far less meat overall.

The most common sources of meat are domesticated animal species such as cattle, pigs and poultry and to a lesser extent buffaloes, sheep and goats. In some regions other animal species such as camels, yaks, horses, ostriches and game animals are also eaten as meat. To a limited extent, meat is also derived from exotic animals such as crocodiles, snakes and lizards.

For thousands of years, poultry supplied meat and eggs, cattle, sheep and goats provided meat and milk, and pigs provided a source of meat. These species are the main sources of animal protein for humans. The meat derived from cattle is known as beef, meat derived from pigs as pork and from chickens as poultry. Pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world accounting for over 36% of the world meat intake. It is followed by poultry and beef with about 33% and 24% respectively.

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/en/meat/backgr_sources.html

2006 figures (and 07 and 08 predictions) here: http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/en/meat/background.html

Production (million tonnes)
Bovine meat 65.7
Poultry meat 85.4
Pig meat 101.7
Ovine meat 13.3

('ovine meat' meaning sheep and goat combined - see eg http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/ai482e/ai482e08.htm#34 )

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. They're too cute and sweet. I'm against it. nm

[Cleita]

7. I agree. They are too cute to eat.

However, some locals here make great cheese from their milk.

[Shagbark Hickory]

16. I'm cool with that.

Their milk products and whatever else they'd like to bless us with.
Killing them is not a good way to say thanks for all the benefits goats provide.

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. Cute? Sweet? Let's look at the figurative meanings

A licentious man.
Fool.
Dupe.

What are goats known for? Being smelly, eating anything, and angry.

Their one positive attribute is climbing ability:

[Cleita]

44. You could say the same for pigs other than the

climbing ability, however, pigs make great pets and are very clean if you treat them right.

Also, they don't smell any worse than the dogs and horses that my neighbors also own. I can smell my nearest horse owning neighbor's horses ten acres away.

[csziggy]

8. Problems with goats

I'm not an expert on goats, but I did own a small herd of them years ago when we first got the farm. They were great for clearing the underbrush, but that was one of the problems with them. They eat EVERYTHING. If you leave goats on a pasture any length of time, there will be nothing but bare dirt. They will then eat the bark off mature trees, killing the trees.

They are notoriously hard to keep in a pasture. They can jump fences almost as well as deer do, so a four or five foot tall fence that will keep horses and cows in are little obstacle to goats.

The need for really good (expensive) fencing does help with the next problem - goats cannot defend themselves very well from even domestic dogs. Coyotes consider them an easy lunch. The kids are small enough large birds of prey can carry them off. Bobcats can take down small goats. One of our dogs, which was normally not aggressive at all, get excited by the goats fleeing behavior and kill one of them.

Male goats stink. If you intend to use a male goat for meat, it needs to be castrated early along so that nasty odor does not get into the meat.

On the good side, goats are pretty easily trained. It took two days for our heard to learn to come to a bell ringing. They reproduce rapidly which is good and bad. Their milk is very good and can be made into a number of different cheeses and other products. Goat breeds come in various sizes from dwarf to large, so even a small farming operation can have room for a goat or two.

And goats are way, way too smart, which makes them very hard to deal with if you do not learn how to work with them.

[Gregorian]

11. I love it. Thanks for posting this.

I've always thought goats were great. Before I start up with them, if I ever find my next place, I'll be forewarned, thanks to your experiences.

Goats are weird. I just like them because of that.

[Marrah_G]

13. We are looking at nigerian dwarves.

Research says they are easy to handle and friendly. I figure since we are only providing for our family the size should be okay. Also looking a a highland cow for milk...good in cold weather and have a high butterfat content.

Would a dwarf still be able to jump a 5 foot fence?

Thank you for the info about the male goat smell!!!!

[csziggy]

21. I haven't owned dwarf goats so I am not sure

But all goats can climb - see the response to my post with the picture of the goats in trees! A friend has dwarf goats and she has better fences than anything we've ever had to have for the horses.

[On the Road]

18. "They Can Jump Fences Almost as Well as Deer"

The ones in Morocco can even climb trees:

[Cleita]

30. Their natural habitat in the wild seems to be as

cliff dwellers, so not only are they sure footed but can jump from ledge to ledge to evade predators. I've seen them in the mountains of the north west along with Big Horn Sheep that have a similar make-up for hanging on cliffs.

[jwirr]

19. A long time ago I read that the reason some country in the Caribbean

was denuded was because they had too many goats that ate everything. I do not remember which country _ Haiti, maybe - but that was seen as one reason they were so poor. I do not know how true this was.

[formercia]

20. In Hawaii, Goats are Vermin

I like goats, they are intelligent and playful, but let them become Feral and they can destroy the Environment quicker than Brazilian Loggers.

[csziggy]

23. My retired veterinarian went to Haiti for several years

To teach the farmers how to castrate their goats and to improve their management. The idea was to convince them to have better quality but fewer goats and to keep them confined so their did not turn their environment into a desert.

He spent several years down there but had to leave because of his health - he had a heart attack and had to be emergency air lifted back to the US for open heart surgery. By the time he healed, another coup had happened and he never went back.

One of the islands off California was denuded by goats, but animal lovers screamed when the authorities wanted to have goat hunts to rid it of the invasive animals. I don't know whatever happened - that was a very long time ago when I saw it in the news.

[Retrograde]

24. Unfortunately too common an occurance

during the age of European exploration, ships would leave goats on various unpopulated islands so future ships could get fresh supplies of meat. The goats did fine, the local flora and fauna not so well.

As a farmed meat and dairy animal they have advantages over cattle, but someone or something has to keep their numbers in check or they quickly become an environmental disaster. There are some cute varieties, though, and they don't seem as dumb as sheep.

[Johnyawl]

32. Not a bad idea...

...except they planted the goats on islands that had no predators. So there was nothing to control the goats population, except starvation, which of course only came about when the vegetation was gone.

The English also did this with pigs, notably in the Falklands and Hawaii.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

26. There is an old Fergerian myth that the reason that the moon is empty

is because goats lived there in olden times and ate everything
and then ate each other.

[csziggy]

37. I had that theory about Northern Africa until I learned about climate changes

In the distant past.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

38. I prefer to leave the distant past where it belongs.

That's why they call it the distant past.
All theories should be based on the present
or the imagination.

[alfredo]

41. Population and intensive farming didn't help either. I lived in Eritrea leading

Up to the great drought of the 70's.

[csziggy]

47. The archaeological reports I have seen about the Sahara population

During the time before it became completely barren desert do not show farming, just herding. But I have not kept up will all the archeology for that area.

There almost certainly would have been periodic droughts before the full desertification of North Africa.

[alfredo]

48. I was thinking of recent desert encroachment in east Africa. In the

Sixties we were aware that the Sahara was widening.

[csziggy]

49. Yeah, That is one of the consequences of climate change

I was an archeology major - I tend to think about ten thousand years ago or so.

[alfredo]

50. There's just too many people using too much stuff. There will be

A cull of our herd.

[Cleita]

28. Also, my goat raising neighbors tell me that they are

very affectionate and need to be loved. They tell me goats are very tough and can survive a multitude of dire conditions, but if they don't get affection, they can become vulnerable to diseases and will die. I don't know how true this is but it is an intriguing suggestion.

[csziggy]

36. Now I didn't know that!

Our goats were pretty wild and we never handled them. We bought them solely to clear the underbrush - this place had been semi-abandoned for six years when we bought it. Except for the place where the pig pens were, it was covered with weed filled corn fields.

I know my friend with the dwarf goats considers them part of her family and she probably treats them like pets.

[MedicalAdmin]

33. A friend of mine has goats and sheep in herds on his farm. He rotates pastures.

He also rents them out to other farms. The way he dealt with the running part and especially with coyotes was to pair each herd with a llama, which are expert coyotes stompers.

The problems seem to occur with leaving them in one place too long. And yes, male goats smell like old goats, thus the saying "smelly old goat."

Cheers.

[csziggy]

35. Yes, any grazing animals should be rotated among pastures

To let the ground cover recover. But too many people don't do that. I can point to horse places that have small, bare ground fenced areas they call "pastures" that never get any rest.

We have not been rotating our pastures, but we have one horse per 2-4 acres so the ground is not over stressed. And the horses get supplemental feed and hay all year round to further reduce the stress on the pastures.

[Kali]

46. good post

one other negative to add when they get out is climbing all over your vehicles:mad:

a positive for handling one or two - they can be tied/staked pretty easy, just make sure predators can't get to them along with the other things one needs to do when tying an animal out

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. poor goats

[Marrah_G]

10. We are planning to raise a small herd of goats.

Goats, chickens, ducks, a milk cow.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

15. Almost clipped two of them running from a field and then across the highway a couple

of weeks ago... laid on the brakes pretty hard, managed to let them cross in front of me. I almost got my own goat, sort of.

[shanti]

17. curry goat, yum!

not hard to make either, with a pressure cooker. after my jamaican ex-bf's mother died, a "nine nights" (extended wake) was held, and a couple of goats were butchered for all to eat. goat is very popular in the caribbean.

[RebelOne]

43. Had it many years ago by a Jamaican cook, who was a friend of mine,

but would not touch it now because I have been a vegetarian for 15 years. But if I remember, it was quite tasty.

[ThomWV]

25. We raised goats for a couple of years. If there is one animal I have come to despise its a goat.

Forget about your garden, forget about any fruit trees you may have planted. And then there are the goats, mean spirited in most cases, more stubborn than any mule, and generally bad smelling too - the males piss all over themselves to make them more attractive (scent wise) to females. They can't be contained and there is no money in them unless you raise purebreads and then you have to be willing to kill most of the males shortly after birth - and I can tell you, a person can only eat so many baby goats before he gets tired of it (pretty good bar-B-qued).

Anyway we got rid of them and have never been in the least bit tempted to have them again.

[Odin2005]

27. Bad idea. Goats are weapons of environmental mass distruction.

They eat everything and leave the land bare.

[ThomWV]

34. A goat will starve to death in a field of grass

They can't eat bent over, they have to eat pretty much at head height - which means that no young trees stand a chance.

[H2O Man]

29. When I was single,

I dated a woman who raised goats. Fascinating animal. She had several good dogs -- I can't think of the name of the breed (old age), but they look like a white St. Bernard. Kept the coyotes away.

My father told me stories about his brother's "pet" goats. They can break right through barn boards, which can make them as difficult to pen as folks are saying here.

[Kali]

45. dogs were probably Anatolian Shepherds

[Cleita]

31. Some of my neighbors raise goats and they use them

not only to make cheese, but they rent the herds out to other ranchers as tractors to clear brush and groom the land. They do remove them before they strip everything. It's a compromise that enables the goats to graze on land without being confined to the neighbors' limited acreages.

[felix_numinous]

42. You could rent them out to clear kudzu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kZVGwGLF9o