what are benefits of goats compared to other livestock? Why did people around the world decide to raise them?
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They are smaller than cows, but like cows, also produces milk and hides. That meant it was a cheaper option to a cow of you where either poor or didn’t have enough room for cows.
Goats are sort of the default livestock because they can usually make do. Smidgen of grass on rocky soil? Goats will eat it. Cows are big and need more land and resources, but any farmer can string a few goats on a leash and let them graze. Chickens and pigs don’t give milk or have useful skins.
Vegetarian? Just drink the milk. Religious prohibition? They’re kosher and halal.
Goats are better herbivores than sheep – sheep need more care or they will eat stuff that makes them sick. Goats can eat more toxic things without illness – much more general than a sheep is. Goats are less panicky and put up more of a fight against predators.
Goats have useable hair, just not as much as sheep.
I went to school with a pair of brothers whose mother raised them on goat’s milk. They were very healthy and fit.
I’ll tell you one thing. In the country, there is the one guy with at least 50-60 goats. He contracts them out to certain areas, especially hilly areas, and those goats eat EVERYTHING. They do a better job of than any good landscaper because the difficult slopes are easy for them to climb, and they don’t cause any chemical damage. Plus, they make it look like someone just put fresh dirt there, so the landowners are happy it makes their property look nice.
Goats are the minivan of animal husbandry. They are economical, can go anywhere, can sustain a family and while not as glamorous as cows or as good tasting as pigs, they reliably feed your family for generations.
They’re hardy. They give milk and meat, and some of them also give wool. No religion says you shouldn’t eat goat.
They are kosher and halal, Need very little land, small, make milk, taste quite nice, good leather.
Something nobody else has mentioned.
The breed like crazy and have a relatively short gestation period. (Only 150 days.)
Well, they have an iron stomach, they are a lawn mower and poison ivy mower, and anything-they-can-chew-on mower
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