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A dairy goat will give 2-3 quarts of milk a day, up to 2000 lbs. a
year,
a boon to the 80% of the world's rural poor who do not have a source of
milk. With the milk from one goat, a family can drink
the milk and have enough left over to give or sell to neighbors.
They can also make yogurt,
butter, & cheese from the milk.. The cheese can be stored for months, giving
them nourishment during the time that the goats need to rest.
Goats are particularly suitable to the harsh conditions
that exist in many rural areas: Unlike cows, they can thrive on woody
brush and weeds and in extremes of weather. And, every year
female goats bear twins, which the family can sell or keep to have more
milk for themselves, their relatives, friends, and neighbors.
Goats' role in a sustainable farm: Besides the milk they produce, goats do work that is essential to
farming, work that is very costly to take care of by machine. They
clear brush and all the woody weeds that no other animal will touch,
like Canadian thistle, multiflora rose, poison ivy/oak.
Unlike sheep, they will not eat grass; they prefer vegetation that
is off the ground, which is perfect for clearing land and transforming
scrub land into farm land. Goats get the land ready for the sheep
to come in and finish the weeding by eating the ground vegetation down
to just a couple of inches.
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