Goats Hired for Wildfire-Fighting
Around 220 goats are helping San Diego Gas & Electric take a bite out of potential wildfire ignition sources and carbon emissions.
About Goats
The domestic goat or simply goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) is a subspecies of C. aegagrus domesticated from the wild goat of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the animal family Bovidae and the subfamily Caprinae, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. There are over 300 distinct breeds of goat. It is one of the oldest domesticated species of animal, according to archaeological evidence that its earliest domestication occurred in Iran at 10,000 calibrated calendar years ago.
Goats have been used for milk, meat, fur, and skins across much of the world. Milk from goats is often turned into goat cheese.
Female goats are referred to as does or nannies, intact males are called bucks or billies, and juvenile goats of both sexes are called kids. Castrated males are called wethers. While the words hircine and caprine both refer to anything having a goat-like quality, hircine is used most often to emphasize the distinct smell of domestic goats.
Environmental Benefit
of Goats
Raise your own meat
Raising goats for meat can be a great thing to do for your own family, to provide for your food needs, but it can also be a profitable small farm business.
Produce milk
Dairy goats give copious amounts of milk, usually more than a family can use. You can make goat cheese, goat yogurt, and whatever other dairy products you can dream up.
Produce soap
Goat milk makes a wonderful, soft and mild soap that is often used by people with sensitive skin.
Make manure
Okay, any animal does, but goat manure is great for fertilizing your fields. An average goat produces about 300 pounds of manure each year, and the feces are in pellet form, which makes them easy to handle.
Clear land
Goats are great browsers and they love to eat weeds and blackberry brambles. Pasture them on whatever you want to clear out and let them act as living brush hogs.
Use them as pack animals
Goats can be trained to carry your gear on hikes, and are especially suited to steep and rocky paths. They can easily carry 20 to 30 percent of their body weight.
Use their dung as fuel
Plenty of people all over the world use goat dung to fuel fires. This is certainly an option for those of us who are big on self-sufficiency.
Use their skin and hide
Goat skins can be dried and tanned like leather and used in any number of products, including goatskin gloves.
Easy to train and handle
Goats are social animals and they are easy to train. They're easy to handle, even by children. They're a good size compared to cows, and that size makes them easier to handle as well.
Wild Fire Protection
Throughout California, goats were dining out. Above the championship golf course at Pebble Beach, a herd was systematically carving a 35-acre firebreak.
Economic Use
The business of goat farming has been gaining a lot of popularity these days. There is significant demand for goat products, and they also need less investment and provide high profit margin in a short time period. These are known to be the main reasons behind rising popularity of this business.
Being a profitable business, goat farming makes a great source of income for millions of entrepreneurs across the world. But you need to consider some important things before you venture into this business. You should determine the size of your project for goat farming, i.e. number of goats you can keep, your target market, and location like a goat farm. These choices vary by the capital you actually have in hand and size of target market.
Goat Farming Business Plan Templates
sample economic profit forcast predicted by ogscapital.com in 2014
Recent News
The best goat rental services on Yelp!
Discover the best offers and affordable prices of goat rent for city grazing, farming, wildfire prevention etc.