Here is a little bit of information about Goats.
These are goats. Goatee the
Beanie Baby shown at right. All the other goat plush toys are Gerti and Buffy from Douglas Cuddle Toys. The grey goat is Garret from Bearington. Check the goat section of our sponsor's gift shop to see if any of these goats are available.
Goats belong to the family of hollow-horned ruminants, or Bovidae, and are members of the genus Capra, closely related to the sheep. (Ruminants are animals that chew the cud*, are even toed and have 3- or 4-chambered stomachs.)
Domesticated goats are descended from the pasang (Capra aegagrus). Probably the east was its original home, since the earliest records of goats are from Persia.
In China, Great Britain, Europe and North America the domestic goat is basically a producer of milk. The goat is well adapted to producing just enough milk for the family table. One or two goats will supply enough milk for a family throughout the year and can be kept in a relatively small space where it would not be practical to keep a cow.
*cud: food brought back up into the mouth to be chewed again from a ruminating mammals first stomach.
