How did the first domestic goats appear? Domestic goat

Many of us, even in early childhood, loved to listen to fairy tales - about a goat, about a wolf and seven kids. People have written many stories, proverbs and sayings about the goat, a clever and cunning goat. This animal has always been highly respected by many peoples.

Goats are bred in all regions - mainly for milk. They live near humans for 8-9 thousand years.
Goats have well-developed organs of taste and smell. She is very picky about food - she won’t eat anything. Consumes stems, leaves, plant roots, tree bark, and is very fond of root vegetables - beets, carrots, as well as mushrooms and berries.

The goat is an extremely clean animal; it lies down, choosing the cleanest and driest place, and drinks only uncontaminated water. He really does not like loneliness; he may even refuse food if he is deprived of his neighbors. He becomes very attached to one house and owners, and suffers greatly if he has to change them. Goats love children very much, follow them around and can even protect them from danger.

If a goat is worried about something, it immediately runs away. But if the “enemy” is insignificant, small, bows his head, puts out his horns - and into battle!

Once a year, a goat gives birth to 1-2 small kids. They are born helpless, but after a few hours they rise to their feet, and a day later they run after their mother.

Goats live 7-8 years.

Goat breeds

Nowadays they are known different breeds goats in Europe and Asia, America and Oceania. They give people, in addition to milk, meat, wool, fluff, and skins.

Modern breeds of domestic goats are famous for their long hair and valuable down (Angora, Orenburg), as well as high milk yield (Saanen, Toggenburg) - up to 5-6 liters of milk per day.

Goat meat is not inferior to lamb in its nutritional qualities.

Carpets, blankets, and knitwear are made from semi-fine and fine white wool of Angora goats - mohair. Strong, elastic goat skins are a valuable raw material for high-quality leathers.

Wild relatives of domestic goats are bezoar and horned goats. The latter are found in the western Himalayas and northern Afghanistan, and bezoars - in Western and Central Asia, on most islands Mediterranean Sea and in the highlands of Greece.

Benefits of goat milk

Goat's milk is nutritious and full-fat. It is useful for sick people, especially cancer patients, and young children to strengthen immune system, as well as those suffering from rickets and those with injuries to the musculoskeletal organs.

In home cosmetology, goat milk is used as a base for preparing anti-aging lotions, creams and scrubs, and mixed with black bread, it is used to cleanse the skin.

High-quality cheese and various fermented milk products are made from goat milk.

Goat's milk is highly bactericidal and, when raw, does not turn sour for several days.

You will learn more about the benefits of goat milk by watching the video:

Why do they say "scapegoat"?

The Jews had the custom of transferring their sins onto goats. On the designated day, they chose the largest goat, beat it, cursed it, and with prayers drove the poor animal into the desert.

Now the expression “scapegoat” is usually used when talking about a person who is constantly responsible for the guilt of someone else.

Goat weather forecaster

If animals walk calmly and graze in the meadow, it means that the weather in the coming days will be clear and windless. The goat is looking for shelter - therefore it will rain. A lover of running and jumping, the goat usually jumps headlong out of the barn as soon as the door is opened slightly in the morning. But if the weather suddenly worsens - colder temperatures, rain and thunderstorms - the animal cannot be pushed out of the room.

Goat surfer

They say that in California there lives a goat that has mastered the extreme sport of surfing, and enjoys catching waves just as well as its owner, who has great respect for the hobby of his beloved pet, providing him with appropriate clothing for swimming in the water and the necessary sports equipment.

Igor Nikolaev

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It is not for nothing that the goat is considered the most ancient representative of domesticated animals (after the dog). For more than nine thousand years, these domestic animals have provided humans with such valuable products as milk and meat. In addition, their wool and skins make beautiful clothes, shoes, and other household items that are so necessary for humans.

Home breeding Goats (even in the country) are much easier than other types of livestock.

It is not for nothing that the goat has long been considered the most unpretentious of all useful pets.

In addition, natural and healthy foods benefits that this wonderful animal provides will help you and your family maintain youth and health for a long time.

The most popular breeding of these animals is for milk and fluff. However, it should be remembered that, depending on the priority product, dairy and meat-down goat varieties are distinguished.

Depending on how many animals you plan to keep, at the first stage you can buy either grown-up kids or a pregnant goat. The second option will immediately allow you to get both milk and offspring, but it is only suitable for a person who is at least a little familiar with goat breeding. In the first option, you will have time to get to know these animals, get used to them (after all, they grow before your eyes) and gain experience for subsequent breeding.

Because the best qualities are transmitted from goats through the maternal line, it is better to first purchase a female (adult or young - decide for yourself). Be sure to inquire about the milk yield and quality of the coat of the parents of the animal you are purchasing. This will allow you to understand the quality of future products from your goat.

Before buying a goat, take care of a place to keep it. Despite its unpretentiousness, caring for the animal is still necessary. The organization of such a room does not require special material costs and physical effort.

In the warm season, goats most spend time on pasture, and winter period are content with an ordinary barn. However, such a shed must meet certain requirements. Firstly, it must be dry. Secondly, under no circumstances should there be drafts. The floor must be covered with a thick layer of bedding, as well as an elevated place (for example, a low, wide bench) so that the animal can always lie down dry and clean. You should also equip the correct feeders and drinkers in advance. Never tie a goat in a barn! These animals love freedom of movement even in confined spaces.

In the summer, as already mentioned, the goats are grazing, that is, they feed on pasture. In winter, the basis of their diet is hay. Do not pour it into the feeder with a reserve! It is important that there is exactly as much hay, as well as water in the drinking bowl, as the animal needs.

If a goat is pregnant, each goat breeder must calculate the approximate time of the onset of labor. If you keep several animals of different sexes, uncastrated males should be separated from the rest of the goats. The first mating can be carried out when the female reaches the age of one and a half years.

IN different time years, as a rule, feeding and housing conditions differ.

IN summer period goats are kept on grazing lands.

If this is not possible, then feed them with freshly cut grass. However, in the second case, the goat must be walked for at least four hours every day. This is due to the fact that her hooves are constantly growing, and walking wears them down.

With the onset of cold weather, goats are transferred to stall housing.

In this case, it is necessary to pay special attention to their care. Since there is no fresh grass in winter, they are fed hay, the preparation (or purchase) of which should be taken care of in advance. These animals willingly eat feed and root vegetables, but hay should form the basis diet.

Stalls for keeping these animals must be strong and well closed.

A free-loving animal will definitely crawl into all corners and try to escape at every opportunity. If there are several goat breeders in your village (village, village), then it is easier to hire a shepherd and herd them together. This will save you and your neighbors time, nerves and, of course, money on feed. If your goat is the only one in the whole area, tie it to a peg on a fairly long leash. At the same time, the animal must be controlled so that it does not eat all the available grass and does not return home hungry. In other words, periodically move the stake to another grassy location. Goats love affectionate treatment, especially if you have a salted crust of bread with you.

Since goats are very unpretentious in food, they can be fed:

• weeded garden weeds;
• kitchen waste;
• finely chopped vegetables and root vegetables;
• hay, straw and simply freshly picked meadow grass.

In fact, to get started, you need minimal knowledge, which can be taken from the ubiquitous Internet. In the future, you will gain the necessary experience yourself, and if problems arise, you can always get advice from an experienced specialist.

Domestic goat. Reproduction

If you want to get offspring and increase your livestock, remember - best time for the birth of kids - early spring.

To match this time, mating must be carried out in early autumn.

The main thing is that the goat and the goat have no relationship with each other.

If conception does not occur, a new period of hunting begins 15 to 22 days after the first attempt. A goat bears its young for about five months.

It is usually not necessary to help a goat during childbirth, but it is advisable to be present (especially if the animal is giving birth for the first time).

If something goes wrong, you can always help or at least call a specialist. If the temperature in the room where the goat is giving birth is below 15 degrees, the newborn kids should first be allowed to be licked by the mother, and then taken to a cooler place. warm room. At first, the cubs are completely fed on mother's milk, and then gradually begin to switch to the usual diet for goats. During the feeding period, you cannot milk a goat, since there must be enough milk for the kids for healthy growth and development.

It has long been noted that offspring fed with mother's milk are healthier and more viable.

There are artificial formulas and other substitutes for feeding newborn goats, but they are not able to fully replace the natural product.

At the age of three months, the kid can be considered an “adult”, since he can freely do without maternal feeding. Sexual maturity in females occurs already at five months, but it is not yet possible for them to occur, since they are not yet able to bear, let alone feed, healthy offspring. One and a half years is the optimal age for the first mating

Starting from two months, goat kids are gradually fed early cereals, root vegetables and concentrated feed. At three months, the young animals completely switch to the normal diet of an adult animal.

More detailed information information about the feeding and maintenance of these undoubtedly useful animals can be obtained on the World Wide Web, but nothing can replace personal experience And real advice competent goat breeder.

Goats- good-natured, intelligent, loving and knowledgeable of their owners, animals. They were domesticated more than 9 thousand years ago - before domesticated cats, hard-working donkeys, fleet-footed horses and many other animals that have long been no longer considered wild.

Goats originated not from one species, but from a mixture of several breeds of mountain goats. The main characteristics of the breeds were introduced by the bezoar goat, which lives in the Caucasus, Asia Minor and Central Asia. Marked goats and alpine goats also contributed.

Goat habitat

For the first time, goats began to be domesticated by the peoples of Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, that is, the center is Asia Minor. These animals were domesticated there several thousand years BC.

Their own breeds were developed in the countries of Southern Europe and Africa, as well as the Middle and Near East.

They were brought to Asia and Africa for the purpose of breeding in dry conditions. climatic conditions, in which not every livestock can live.

Now they make up the largest population there. In Germany, France and Switzerland, the most valuable breeding stock is concentrated today.

Because domestic goats- the ancestors of mountain goats, then these animals subconsciously strive for the same living conditions in which their ancestors lived.

They love hills and climb various buildings, on fallen trees, stones. They can jump 1.5 meters in height.

In addition to stationary obstacles, goats can jump on the back of a horse or donkey, and sometimes even their brothers and sisters.

They do this more out of curiosity and love for “climbing” than out of any necessity.

You can find many photo, Where goats climb various obstacles, or even graze on a tree.

Features of a goat

Agricultural breeds goats are divided into dairy, meat, wool and down. The best breed bred for milk is the Saanen milk goat.

This animal, bred in Switzerland, is quite large in size. Height at withers 75-89 cm, weight 60-90 kg.

Almost all goats of this breed have a white color, short hair, small erect ears, sometimes earrings, and they do not have horns.

On average, these goats produce 5-6 liters of milk per day. Moreover, with an abundance of food, goats spend all the energy obtained from it on the production of milk, and not on weight gain.

The most common of meat breeds- Boer goat. It was bred by South African farmers, and the weight of young specimens is 90-100 kg, and adult animals weigh 110-135 kg. The largest herds are concentrated in New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA.

Surely many have heard about Angora wool. Goats of the same breed are its main suppliers.

Their fur is long, wavy or curly, hanging down to the ground. These are small animals, weighing about 50 kg, with 5-6 kg. of which is pure wool fleece. They are bred en masse in Australia and some European countries.

The Kashmiri goat breed is famous for its finest, light, elastic down, which has excellent heat-insulating properties.

Weightless, openwork products made from the fluff of Kashmiri goats are so soft and thin that the shawl can be pulled through a ring.

Pictured is a Kashmiri goat

Goat lifestyle

The external similarity of goats and sheep does not indicate the sameness of their characters. Goats do not have a very developed herd sense; in the pasture they do not try to stay in a group.

In addition, they are much more cunning and smart than sheep. Goats love to explore new territories, find various loopholes to new pastures.

Although, if you bring a goat to a new place, then at first they will stay close to their owner.

But this is by no means an indication of their cowardice - unlike sheep, goats are quite capable of protecting kids from small predators.

Goats are quite smart animals, they can be trained, they are able to find their barn on their own, walk calmly on a leash, and carry light loads.

It happens that they become attached to one owner and allow themselves to be milked only by him. These playful animals love to climb high places and can often be seen on the roof of a house or in a tree.

If goats graze in the same herd with sheep, then you can highlight their cleanliness - they will not walk in the dust next to a dense crowd of sheep, and at a watering hole they will not climb with their feet into the water, as sheep will do, but will carefully kneel down and drink clean water .

Caring for dairy goats

Goats are unpretentious animals, the main thing is to provide them with warm conditions. In cold conditions and high humidity they may get pneumonia or be poisoned by poisonous grass.

In order for the milk to be tasty and not bitter, you need to choose pastures where there are no herbs such as wormwood.

They try to place animals of approximately the same age and size in one stall. Goats need to be kept warm and free of drafts during the winter.

Goat nutrition

Goats are practically omnivorous. They eat many types of plants, and can pull them out by the roots, which has a bad effect on the further greening of the pasture.

In addition to grass, they eat tree bark, branches, and leaves. They also like to taste completely inedible things: cigarette butts, ropes, paper bags.

IN winter time they are fed waste from the human table, boiled root vegetables, but hay must be included in the diet.

In autumn, animals pick apples from the ground, which significantly increases milk yield. When kept in a pen, they must be given at least 8 kg. herbs a day.

Reproduction and lifespan of a goat

Sexual maturity occurs at 3-6 months, but goats are fully developed only by 3 years. Mating should be arranged no earlier than at the age of 1.5 years.

One goat can cover a herd of 30-50 goats. The resulting pregnancy develops over 145-155 days and ends with the birth of 1-5 kids.

The babies are born immediately with fur and good eyesight, and within a few hours they are jumping around their mother.

Life expectancy is 9-10 years, maximum 17. But animals up to 7-8 years of age are suitable for agricultural use.

Despite all the benefits of goats for humans, in the wild they harm the ecosystem and are included in the list of dangerous invasive species.

They eat a large number of grasses, contributing to soil erosion, and also being competitors for more fastidious animals that simply die out from lack of food. Therefore, goat populations were exterminated on the 120 islands to which they were previously introduced.

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Books

• I'm a goat, Boris Kuznetsov. I'm a goat! The creature is proud, independent and very smart! And why? Because I and all my many relatives are descended from rugged mountain goats. And life in the mountains...
• Goat milk, goat cheese and goat hair, Natalia Ermilova. For 5,000 years, goat's milk has been goat cheese and goat hair are considered a real elixir of life and an effective healing remedy for many diseases. Doctors recommend goat milk...

It is believed that goats (like sheep) began to be domesticated in ancient times: from 12 to 8 thousand years ago, in the late Stone Age (Neolithic), as evidenced by fossils and rock carvings found in various areas of Europe, Asia Minor and Central Asia.

For example, images on stone tiles show that already in the 4th–3rd millennia BC, in the ancient Mesopotamian states of Sumer and Akkad, domestic goats with long, wavy hair, very similar to modern Angora goats, were bred. Assyrian bas-reliefs depict goats with drooping ears, which distinguishes them from their wild ancestors.

Domestic goats belong to the class Mammals, the order Artiodactyla, the suborder Ruminantidae, the family Bovidaceae, the subfamily Goataceae and the genus Goat.

Several species are considered their wild ancestors. One of them is bezoar, or bearded, goats. Bezoar goats were found in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Asia Minor up to the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. They get the name "bearded" for their thick and long "beard", and bezoars are mineralized deposits of food debris ("stones") that are sometimes found in their stomachs or intestines. Now bezoar goats are preserved only in inaccessible regions of the Himalayas, in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan and in southern Turkmenistan at altitudes from 500 to 4500 meters above sea level. They are listed as threatened species in the International Red Book.

Bezoar goats are larger than domestic goats - the height at the withers of goats reaches 95 cm. They have a reddish-gray or brownish-yellow color with a black stripe along the back. The forehead, chest and front of the neck are brownish-black. Coloration varies depending on gender and age. The wool of bezoar goats consists of a coarse awn, and in winter also of a fine downy undercoat. The body is slender, on high limbs, with developed muscles, the horns are large, flattened on the sides, form a semicircle and diverge from the base to the sides. In females, the horns are much less developed.

The second probable ancestor could be the markhor, or markhor, which lives in the mountains of North-West India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. In Persian, “mar” means snake, “khur” means devouring. There was a belief that the horned goat devours snakes, deliberately looking for them in the mountains, so its meat is healing, neutralizing snake venom. This goat has long, flat horns directed upwards and somewhat backwards.

Each horn is corkscrew-shaped, forming from one and a half to five turns of a spiral. In some animals, the horns take the shape of a screw, having six or more turns. Females have curved but small horns. The coat of horned goats is more developed than that of bezoars. Goats have a well-developed mane and beard. Winter coloration, due to regrown down, is lighter than summer coloration. The height of males at the withers is up to 105 cm, the length of the horns in a straight line is more than 100 cm. The horned goat is also listed in the International Red Book.

The third ancestor of domestic goats is considered fossil species, discovered in Eastern Galicia in deposits of the Neolithic period and called the “primitive goat prisca”. The horns of Prisca goats bend back, diverge to the sides and have a weak spiral twist, with the right horn twisting to the right and the left horn to the left, that is, the direction of the turns is opposite to that observed in the markour. Domestic goats with prisca horns are widespread throughout the world. However, a number of scientists consider the Prisca goat itself not a wild, but a domestic species or a variety of bezoar goat that appeared as a result of mutation.

Wild goats of various species can be tamed and in captivity interbreed well with domestic breeds.

On our planet there are different types wild goats, including:

In Europe, Alpine, Bezoar, European, Pyrenean goats; Dagestan, Caucasian and West Caucasian (or Severtsov) tours;

In Asia, ibex (or Siberian goat), markur, tahr;

In Africa, the Nubian goat;

In America there is a snow goat.

In general, evidence of the relationship of domestic goats with one or another wild species is considered to be similarity in the structure of the horns, which is firmly transmitted by inheritance, and by some other characteristics, as well as the production of fertile offspring as a result of crossing.

In the several thousand years since domestication, domestic goats have changed both in appearance and in terms of productivity. Selection took place artificially and also depended on external, natural conditions. In the domesticated goat, the legs became shorter and wider, the neck shortened, and the body became relatively longer and deeper, mainly due to the development of the rear part. Domestic goats are smaller than wild goats, their live weight and height vary greatly, they do not have such powerful horns as wild ones, and some breeds of goats are predominantly polled (hornless). Domestic goats have lost the protective coloring and powerful mane characteristic of wild goats.

The wool of domestic coarse-haired goats differs significantly from the wool of wild relatives in the diameter of the fluff and awn, and transitional hair has appeared in the coat. The fleece of Angora goats is not even remotely similar to the hair of wild goats. The fleece of goats of the Don breed is unique. Their wool is more like the wool of Romanov sheep, consisting of long gray fluff and short black awn.

Dairy goats are significantly superior to their wild relatives in mammary gland size, milk production and length of the lactation period.

As a result, domestic goats have 10–20 times higher milk yield, 2–5 times higher wool yield, and 10–15 times higher fluff. The meat of wild and domestic goats differs noticeably in taste and smell, which is due to feeding habits, as well as differences in microstructure and chemical composition muscle tissue.