At Kingston goat farm, spring brings wealth of curious, nuzzling baby goats
At Kingston goat farm, spring brings wealth of curious baby goats
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Amelia Kunhardt
Beth Corbettis surrounded by the goats she breeds and sells at Center Stage Farm in Kingston. Over the years, Corbett says she has developed a rapport with the animals.


 

  By Edward B. Colby
GateHouse News Service
Posted Apr 23, 2008 @ 03:56 AM
Last update Apr 23, 2008 @ 09:05 AM

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KINGSTON — As she milked goats at her small farm off Wapping Road, Beth Corbett singled out the best of the 18 kids born there since February.

Appraising half the additions to the herd as they scampered about a pen at Center Stage Farm, Corbett picked Lady in Waiting — who has a ridge of black hair going down her back surrounded by light brown on either side, with a swath of white around her belly.

The kid got her name because she was born more than a day after her two brothers last month.

“They were born, and I thought the mother was done,” Corbett said. ‘‘But Topaz didn’t seem right afterwards,” so Corbett checked her again the next night.

“Thirty-four hours later, the kid came out alive. I think that’s a record,” she said of Lady in Waiting’s birth.

Corbett said the birthing season, which lasts until June, is her favorite time of year.

“The babies are so much fun. No matter what happens the rest of your day, you come out to the barn and the goats entertain you to death,” she said.

“They love to play king of the mountain,” she said.

The animals are also smart: Corbett said a baby goat will learn its name within a few weeks.

Corbett, 54, began raising goats in 1979 on the Cape, then in Tennessee and New Hampshire before moving to Hanover in 1987 and to Kingston in 1991.

She juggles goat farming with driving a UPS tractor-trailer overnight around Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island five nights per week.

Some of the goats at Center Stage Farm are owned by Ladies Choice, a partnership that Corbett started with her friend Jen Abdelnour, who has since moved to New Hampshire.

Corbett’s goats start at $300. She said she mostly sells them for “show stock,” and also as pets and livestock.

One of her customers, LaShawna Ayala, 27, said she is trying to convince her husband to buy two baby goats for their place in Pembroke. Ayala brings her 21-month-old son, Kingston, to see the goats every week.

“They are awesome with kids,” she said. “They nibble on his fingers.”

Ayala buys goat milk for her son, who is sensitive to dairy products.

Corbett said the milk is creamier and sweeter than cow’s milk, which she finds bitter.

Her herd only eats high-quality clover and alfalfa hay, which results in better milk.

“My goats won’t eat bad hay,” Corbett said. “I can put it in the hay rack, and they just plain won’t eat it.”

Published Thursday, April 24, 2008
County extension offers goat care tips
State sees growing demand for easy-to-maintain, tasty animal


By Jason Morton
Staff Writer


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A herd of graze in a pasture off Tingle Tangle Road in Vance in June 2007. More Alabamians are raising goats these days.
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GOAT FIELD DAY

What: Tuscaloosa County Extension Office’s first Meat Goat Field Day
When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Ralph Stutts’ farm, 14526 Forest Drive in southern Tuscaloosa
Cost: Free and open to the public
RSVP: Call ahead at 205-349-4630 so organizers can plan.


 
TUSCALOOSA | “Goat” is the term given to an athlete that fails in the clutch. Its image has even been adopted into Satanic culture, with its ears, beard and horns drawn into inverted pentagrams.

That’s a raw deal for an animal that comes across more as a pet than a beast, and it’s an image that, in recent years, seems to be changing.

The Tuscaloosa County Extension Office has witnessed a steady increase in goat-related inquiries and will host its first the Tuscaloosa County-area Meat Goat Field Day on Saturday.

“The challenge is how to cope with parasites, or problems with goat health,” said Wayne Ford, coordinator for the Tuscaloosa County Extension Office. “We’re trying to train people [so] the goats will be healthier.”

While popular in many regions of the planet, goat meat, or chevon, is not common in Western cultures, particularly the U.S., though that too appears to be changing.

According to statistics compiled by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, an outreach group that develops research-based educational programs, there were about 51,000 goats on almost 2,300 goat farms across the state in 2002. Ford estimates that Tuscaloosa County residents are raising about 1,000 goats.

Of those, 28 percent were being raised for commercial slaughter, 25 percent were being raised as pets or as a hobby and another 24 percent were used for brush control.

Ease of entry

Darrell Rankins, an extension animal scientist at Auburn University who plans to attend Saturday’s field day, said their popularity appears to come from the relatively low cost and little space needed to get started.

“A lot of people, for whatever reason, want to have some animals,” Rankins said. “Obviously, if you go out and buy 10 cows, it’s a pretty substantial investment. But with goats, it’s not that much. You don’t have to have a large parcel of land and it doesn’t take a large amount of initial capital to get in.”

That’s why Tuscaloosa resident Ralph Stutts began looking into goats about four years ago, when he purchased his first three. That and he didn’t need a lot of space to raise them.

“We live out here in the county, and I just wanted something eat the grass,” Stutts said.

Since then, his goat herd has grown to 23. Ten are babies, or kids, ranging in ages from 4 years to 6 months.

Stutts said he initially looked into raising show goats, which can fetch thousands of dollars, but soon realized he lacked the connections to do so.

Now he raises them to sell to others looking to start their own herds.

“I just predominantly raise them for breeders,” Stutts said. “I’d rather sell my goats to someone who’s starting a herd than someone who’s just going to take them to slaughter.”

Americans essentially are playing catch-up in the market for goats, which have been domesticated and raised for food, clothing and other purposes for about 10,000 years.

The animals produce a meat that nutritionists say is healthier than beef because it’s lower in fat and cholesterol. The taste has been compared to lamb or deer, depending on the breed.

Saturday’s field day is open to the public and intended for novice to experienced goat farmers. It will cover feeding health management, hoof trimming and properly giving shot and ear tags and feature experts from Auburn University and Alabama A&M University.

 


 

GENERAL NEWS Expert: Getting your goats is not enoughby Brian Brus
The Journal Record April 25, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – The meat goat industry has a lot of potential to enter the general market, but many small Oklahoma producers are still floundering for lack of a business plan, book author Ellie Winslow said.
“I’ve lived in rural America all my life, and I’ve watched people around me who don’t have much experience in business and marketing kind of flounder because they don’t know what to do,” Winslow said. “They like the lifestyle, but at some point they realize, ‘Holy cow, this is costing me a lot of money and I need to bring in some income.’”Article Tools Printer friendly edition E-mail this to a friend RSS Feed Digg this history Add to Del.icio.us Winslow is one of several speakers scheduled for the annual Goat Field Day at Langston University on Saturday. The event is planned as an opportunity for rural entrepreneurs to share information about animal husbandry and marketing.
Among the presentation topics planned are: herd health, goat farm budgeting, federal government programs and even barbecue preparation. Experts from Langston, Oklahoma State University Extension Office, state Department of Agriculture and private industry will lead the sessions.
Raising meat goats can be attractive to experienced ranchers as well as new entrepreneurs because overall operations can be scaled down, much like the animal itself when compared with cattle. Investments in the livestock can be much less expensive, experts said. But a business of any size is still a business, Winslow said.
Winslow, now retired and living in Oregon, wrote Making Money With Goats, Marketing Farm Products and Growing Your Rural Business. She has experience with raising goats for milk products, “but goats are goats,” Winslow said.
“You have to understand that you’re fishing for customers,” Winslow said Thursday. “And you’ve got to bait your hook with something the fish want to bite on. … People like to talk about their farm and their animals and their stuff. But when they finally grasp the idea that running a business isn’t about them, it’s about the customer and marketing their animals, it makes a huge difference.”
Winslow said she’s observed the same growth pains in the nation’s fledgling emu and alpaca markets: “What they’re experiencing is very similar, because you find people attracted to the lifestyle but they don’t understand marketing yet,” she said.
Oklahoma is ranked fifth in the country for meat goat production, behind Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and California, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. The state is gaining on California for fourth place – that state maintained a steady herd of about 100,000 head while Oklahoma grew to 86,000 in this year’s count, up by 5,000 head. Nationwide, meat goat production grew by 98,000 head, the USDA reported.
James “J.J.” Jones, a meat goat producer and educator with the OSU Extension Office, said many of Oklahoma’s goat ranchers still default to a marketing plan that involves sale barns, or collection points for large sales, much like other livestock such as hogs and cattle. The number of those sale barns is still small, however, which drives up travel expenses.
Some have discovered alternatives more closely aligned to the ultimate market niche that meat goats fill.
“There are certain ethnic groups that buy the goats right off the farm and slaughter them themselves,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of home slaughtering that goes on. And a lot of these animals are only 25-70 pounds, so you don’t need big machinery for harvest; a sharp knife will work real well.”
Goat meat is a mainstay in many countries and more goat’s milk is consumed worldwide than cow’s milk.
 

Deworming goats and sheep
published: Saturday | April 26, 2008


Dr Graham Brown in his veterinary laboratory.

Worms are the number one health problem affecting small ruminants, especially in tropical climates. Sheep and goats are more susceptible to these parasites due to their grazing behaviour and poor immunity. Most farmers rely heavily on anti-parasitic drugs (anthelmintics) to control these parasites. Unfortunately, drug resistance has become an increasing problem.

The parasite that is most problematic for goats is Haemonchus contortus, also called 'barber pole' worm. This worm feeds on blood and lives in the abomasum (stomach).

The signs associated with this worm are anaemia, characterised by pale or white gums and inner eyelids, and 'bottle jaw' - an accumulation of fluid under the jaw. Diarrhoea (scours) does not usually occur with barber pole infestation.

Other parasites of concern include the brown stomach worm (Ostertagia circumcinta) which causes diarrhoea and weight loss, tapeworms, lungworms, liver flukes and occidian.

Recommendations for deworming your goats


1. Consult with your veterinarian.

2. Dose, using the heaviest animal as a guide.

3. Under-dosing results in resistant worms.

4. Oral drenching is the recommended method of treatment and the drug should be placed over the back of the tongue.

5. Fasting animals for up to 24 hours before drenching may improve efficacy (do not restrict water).

6. Drugs should NOT be rotated after each use. Use for at least one year or until it is no longer effective.

7. Do not deworm your goats frequently (for example, more than three times per year).

8. Always deworm newly purchased goats.

9. Deworm two to four weeks before kidding/lambing.

10. Goats require higher dosage. (one and a half to two times higher than for sheep or cattle. In the case of levamisole the dose is one and a half times).

11. Do not treat every animal in your herd at once, since approximately 20 per cent are responsible for pasture contamination.

FAMACHA

This technique uses a colour eye-chart depicting degrees of anaemia to determine the need for anthelmintic treatment. It only works for 'barber pole' worms.

It was developed for sheep, but works with goats with slight modifications. The FAMACHA technique reduces the number of animals treated because only animals showing physical signs of infestation are dewormed.

Some uses and advantages of FAMACHA

1. A significant drop in the frequency of deworming, reducing the amount of money spent on drugs.

2. Because fewer animals are treated, the development of worm resistance will be slowed.

3. Inspecting the eyes is quick.

4. If examined regularly, animals can be treated before the signs and effect of anaemia become too severe.

5. Individual animals that repeatedly fail to cope with worms, in spite of the control programme, can be identified and culled.

6. Build-up of infected larvae on the pasture can be detected early by the sudden increase in the number of anaemic animals.


- Adapted from FAMACHA Training Course, University of Maryland, USA.

Contributor: Paul O. Clarke, DVM.

U.S. raising more goats for meat


Published: April 28, 2008 at 5:03 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:HILLSBORO, Mo., April 28 (UPI) -- Goat farmers in the United States say they are seeing growing demand for meat, especially from immigrant communities.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Monday that the U.S. goat herd has grown from 2.5 million in 2002 to about 3 million today with more than 80 percent of the animals being raised for meat.

"It's the No. 1 consumed meat in the world," said Scott Hollis, a goat specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's very popular, except here."

Much of the demand comes from Muslim and Hispanic communities where goat has often been a staple of religious holiday dinners.

Farmers say goats are relatively inexpensive to purchase and raise and don't require a lot of land. That means small and weekend farmers find it an attractive niche market, the Post-Dispatch said. On the downside, goats are vulnerable to disease and major supermarket chains aren't big buyers of goat meat.

UCD researchers alter goats with human genes
By Chris Bowman -
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, April 28, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

Print | E-Mail | Comments (| 

 
UC Davis animal science professor James Murray tends a herd of goats that have been genetically altered – with human genes – to produce milk that contains more of an antibiotic-like protein.
José Luis Villegas / jvillegas@sacbee.com

Click on photo to enlarge

 
UC Davis professor James Murray knows his experiments with human genes and goats give some people the creeps.

Crossing anything human with four-legged hoofers evokes images of mythical half-man, half-animal centaurs from ancient Greece.

In reality, genetically altered goats look and behave no differently than regular ones – both are just as eager to gnaw Murray's sleeves and untie his shoes at the university goat barn.

 
"Could you get your grubby paws off?" Murray asked of his inquisitive test subjects during a recent tour.

Murray and fellow animal scientist Elizabeth Maga engineered a small herd of Alpine and Toggenburg dairy goats to produce high levels of a human antibiotic-like protein in their milk.

Just as mother's milk helps protect infants from germs, the researchers figured, humanized goat's or cow's milk would better defend dairy animals and their offspring from illness. Germ-fighting milk might also slow spoilage, prolonging the shelf life of dairy products.


The big question

The scientists' ultimate question, though, is a humanitarian one:

Could the same procedure produce fortified powdered milk and, eventually, genetically modified goat herds for poor regions of the world?

The beneficial protein, lysozyme, destroys bacteria that cause intestinal infections and diarrhea, which every year claim more than 2 million impoverished young lives. That's a toll among children under age 5 higher than from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, according to the World Health Organization.

"If we can prevent some of that, I think we should do it," Murray said, mindful of long-standing protests from animal rights activists, ethical concerns and fears of messing with Mother Nature.

The goat's milk represents one of the first genetically engineered food products designed to improve human health, though none has been approved for human consumption.

Scientists have been manipulating animal genes for nearly 25 years. They've changed properties of milk for human food and as raw material for pharmaceuticals - turning animals into virtual medicine factories. Murray himself has changed the genes of cows, sheep, pigs and mice.

The goat's milk experiments, however, are among the few to transfer human genes to animals, said Michael Fernandez, former director of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

"It's certainly not the predominant practice right now," Fernandez said. Private biotechnology companies and universities usually obtain genetic material from microbes or plants, not humans, he said.


Concerns about technology

Sacramento's Ventria Bioscience is a prominent exception. The company is growing genetically altered rice that contains lysozyme and another antibacterial ingredient in human breast milk. The company aims to produce an over-the-counter rehydration solution made from the fortified rice.

Ventria recently found a place to farm their patented rice in Junction City, Kan., after running afoul of Sacramento Valley and Missouri growers who fear medical rice might mix with their grains.

Doug Gurian-Sherman, a biotechnology specialist with the Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy group, said he has similar concerns about transgenic goats.

Should the goats get into the wild – their altered genes indeed make them more fit to survive – they could more easily multiply and over-browse a landscape, threatening native species and causing erosion, he said.

"We don't have a regulatory system that addresses these kind of environmental issues in this country, let alone developing countries," Gurian-Sherman said.


Allergy protection

Why human genes for goats?

Goats, humans and all other mammals have lysozyme in milk, saliva and tears. Human breast milk, however, carries at least 1,600 times more than goat's milk.

UCD dairy goats born with the human gene that regulates lysozyme in mammary glands have far more lysozyme in their milk than they would naturally - 67 percent of human levels compared with 0.06 percent, Murray said.

While other animals carry high levels of the protein, Davis researchers chose to inject the human gene to minimize chances of an allergic reaction, should people ever drink the modified goat's milk.

"You drink lysozyme every day in your saliva, so the chances of you reacting to it are pretty small," said Maga, a research biologist in the animal science department.

Several more studies are needed to satisfy food safety regulators in the United States and elsewhere that this medicinal milk would be safe to drink, researchers said.

The latest findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Nutrition, show altered goat's milk helps fend off common E. coli-related illnesses in pigs, which have human-like digestive systems.

Pigs fed the lysozyme-rich milk from transgenic goats had significantly lower levels of harmful bacteria in their small intestines than those raised on regular goat's milk.

Dr. Miriam Aschkenasy, a public health doctor with the nonprofit humanitarian aid group Oxfam America, doesn't share Murray's optimism that the goat's milk would provide comparable protection for children.

While human breast milk is considered beneficial to infants, "there is, as far as I know, very little evidence that if you feed it to an older child these same affects apply," Aschkenasy said.

Said Murray: "The absence of evidence does not mean it isn't so, it just means we do not yet know. Hopefully studies with our transgenic goat's milk will help to answer this question."

The UCD Academic Federation Committee on Research funded the experiment with pigs. Murray is seeking additional funding from philanthropies interested in improving health in developing nations.

For the next experiment, Murray wants to see whether modified goat's milk not only prevents intestinal illness in pigs but also treats it.

"We'll make them sick and see if they get better," he said.






 

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« Video: Israel's Robocop Draws Drool | Main | Killer Drone Strikes Hit New High in Iraq »

Iraq WMD Evangelist's New Crusade: Secret Ray Guns
By Sharon Weinberger April 29, 2008 | 8:00:00 AMCategories: Animal Kingdom, Lasers and Ray Guns, Less-lethal   
Dave Gaubatz is no stranger to controversy.

The former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent maintains he found Saddam's WMD bunkers, but that the U.S. military declined to follow up. His repeated allegations were picked up by a number of media outlets -- and attracted the attention of prominent Congressmen, like then-Sen. Rick Santorum, then-Rep. Curt Weldon, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra. There hasn't been any confirmation, however.

Lately, Gaubatz has been pushing another eye-opening assertion. Earlier this month, Gaubatz claimed that the Active Denial System, the military's allegedly-nonlethal "heat ray," is really a killer weapon, after all. It's an allegation that, if true, would mean the entire public face of the program is a cover up of sorts. Gaubatz says he saw first hand the military testing the ray gun on... goats.

DANGER ROOM caught up with Gaubatz recently to quiz him a bit about his claims:

DR: Can you tell me about your involvement in the Active Denial System?

Gaubatz: My background in directed energy was from July 2000 till right after the war, September 2003. I was involved with active denial. I was the point of contact [for security] at [Air Force Research Laboratory] AFRL at Kirtland where it was tested and evaluated. Anything they did went through us for security. We had the Chinese, Russians, and many countries trying to steal this technology. Anything they did, bringing in the animals, or testing, had to go through me. I signed off on it, whether it could move or not move forward on this particular day.

DR: What sort of animals would they use?

Gaubatz: Goats, primarily.

DR: Can you describe what took place with the animals?

Gaubatz: They’d bring the animals in, put them in the pens. They'd put curtains down, or a wall, to see if [the beam] could go through walls. And it would. You can go to different degrees; you can do nonlethal. But it was not designed as nonlethal.

DR: Would the animals die quickly?

Gaubatz: It was quick.

DR: I hate to be gruesome, but what did the animals look like after they had been killed? Did they have visible burns.

Gaubatz: No, not visibly, I didn’t get right up to the cages.... I’m a big animal lover, it was very hard for me in 2000 to see that. I know it has its purpose, but it’s very difficult for me to see the animals suffer like that.

DR: You talk about changing the dial between lethal and nonlethal. As I understand it, the nonlethal version of Active Denial System operates at 95 Ghz, which heats up the top layer of skins. What frequency then does the lethal version operate in?

Gaubatz: We get into the technical [details], I’m not the one who can give you the technical aspects. All they had to do was change a dial if you wanted a nonlethal form. And then it could be pumped up to whatever range you wanted.

Okay, the lack of technical details leaves me with some doubts, but I don't doubt his account of using goats. I mean, the military just loves to test things on goats. Poor goats.

These days, Gaubatz is involved with another project sure to stoke controversy (depending on what he finds). The Mapping Sharia project is gathering intelligence on U.S. mosques to determine which ones may pose a threat to U.S. security. How do they do that? Infiltration.

"People go in under the guise of being long-term Muslims," he says.

Posted: Tuesday, 29 April 2008 7:37AM

Fire Season Starts Early, Good News for Hungry Goats

 
SAN JOSE -- Dry grass and warm weather have prompted fire officials across the state to ramp up their suppression efforts early this year. San Jose plans to activate its brush patrols this week, and Cal-FIRE will start training and putting other resources in place over the next few weeks.

In Southern California, more than 500 acres have already burned since Saturday near a popular hiking area at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains near Sierra Madre. At least 1,000 have been forced from their homes and evacuation orders remain in effect for hundreds, but the blaze is likely to burn for at least another week.

There have been no major fires in the Bay Area yet, and 800 goats chomping on the tall grass around the Santa Teresa Water Treatment plant are also doing their part to keep it that way.

  KCBS's Mike Colgan reports
 

SAN JOSE -- The Santa Clara Valley Water District is turning to grass-eating goats, hoping to prevent wildfires this summer.

Water District Spokeswoman Susan Siravo says 800 goats leased from a company called "Goats are Us" are now eating their way up a hillside near the district's Santa Teresa water treatment plant.

She says the goats are working in sections and should be finished clearing the grass and brush in about a week.

Siravo says the area's steep terrain makes it difficult to use mowers and other heavy equipment to cut the overgrowth.

And she adds, goats make less noise and don't pollute the air.
Copyright 2008 by KTVU.com. All rights reserved.

Goat surprises owner by giving birth to quintuplets
4 hours ago

MECHANICSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Ralph Burge had to count three times to make sure what he saw was real. His reliable nanny goat, Honeybear, had given birth to five baby goats, or kids.

Burge, a longtime goat owner, says he's never seen anything like it. A year or so ago Honeybear had another litter — with just three kids.

Scientists say that Burge is right to be amazed. Curt Youngs, an associate professor in animal science at Iowa State University, says that while goats can have up to six or seven kids at a time, they rarely do.

He says estimates show quintuplets happen in about one in 10,000 goat births.

Burge and his wife, Helen, have yet to decide on names for the five kids. For now, they're calling them A, B, C, D and E.
Hosted by  Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Goats for Africa are put in prison
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Thursday May 01 2008

Shelton Abbey got some new arrivals recently, but not of the human kind. Thirty young goats landed up at the prison which are part of the Bothar charity project to help people help themselves in Third World countries.The goats arrived and were housed in a purpose-built shed designed and constructed by volunteer inmates.
Shelton Abbey got some new arrivals recently, but not of the human kind. Thirty young goats landed up at the prison which are part of the Bothar charity project to help people help themselves in Third World countries.

The goats arrived and were housed in a purpose-built shed designed and constructed by volunteer inmates.

They will now take on the task of feeding and raising the goats before they are shipped off to Tanzania to be distributed among families.

As a large area of grass land was going to waste behind Shelton Abbey it was decided that this project would be a winner all round.

Speaking of the arrival of the goats at Shelton Abbey the Director General of the Irish Prison Service, Mr Brian Purcell, said I am delighted that Shelton Abbey and the Irish Prison Service are able to assist Bothar in the fine work that they do. This is a very positive partnership which will benefit Bothar in a very practical way, and also has very real benefits for our prisoners and the rehabilitation process. Engaging prisoners in these types of projects helps to strengthen their links with wider society and the communities to which they will return upon release.'

'Hard case' boy killed chasing goats
Sunday, 04 May 2008

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A neighbour of a 12-year-old boy, who died chasing wild goats in hill country on the East Coast, says the boy was "a bit of a hard case".


Bradon Lee John McKie was chasing goats with his 10-year-old brother on a farm at Kotemaori, 45km south-east of Wairoa when he plunged over a 60m cliff yesterday.

His brother raised the alarm.

McKie family neighbour Leonard Griffin told the Herald on Sunday Bradon was a friendly and mischievous kid - "a bit of a hard case".

His parents worked on a dairy farm and it was believed they also had two daughters.

Mr Griffin said children often chased wild goats around the hills.

"There are heaps of wild goats round here. All the kids are into it. The land can be steep - but a 60m cliff? I don't know where he might have been playing," he said.

"My young fella saw the police car rushing past and the ambulance. The kids are the same age as those boys. They'll be pretty upset."

Wairoa mayor Les Probert said Bradon's death was a tragedy.

It happened on the last weekend of the school holidays and Mr Probert said young people at home on farms during holidays could be left in dangerous situations.

 - NZPA

Watsonville slaughterhouse owner accused of animal neglect; goats, sheep seized
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 05/04/2008 12:45:17 PM PDT


WATSONVILLE (AP) - Animal control officers are accusing a slaughterhouse owner of animal neglect after seizing sick livestock from his Watsonville ranch.
Santa Cruz County officials said eight emaciated goats and a sheep were all suffering from respiratory infections when they were removed from Toledo Harkins Slough Ranch on Saturday.

County animal control supervisor Todd Stosuy said officers returned to the facility Saturday after a veterinarian found several animals taken Thursday were sicker than initially thought.

Owner Efrain Toledo was cited with having a non-ambulatory animal at a slaughterhouse, failing to provide vet care and depriving an animal of food and water, all misdemeanors.

State agriculture officials said there was not an imminent food-safety concern at the slaughterhouse, which has not been closed.

 
Home> National/Politics Updated May.7,2008 07:19 KST 
 
 
 

Authorities Hunt Down Disruptive Wild Goats
 
Wild goats are reportedly destroying habitats in quite a few islands in Korea and relevant authorities are choosing to hunt them down. Many of these islands are so overpopulated with domestic goats, normally all black in color, that some people are opting to shoot them on the spot.
The problem, hunters say, is the goats are eating up anything that's edible, including rare plants and upsetting the local ecosystem. One rare multicolored bird, the fairy pitta, is only found in small numbers in certain areas, including on these islands.

At one island off the shore of Boryeong city in South Chungcheong Province, all that remains are plants with thorns; the only thing goats won't eat.

Nobody thought the goats would get out of hand when they were first introduced to these islands in the early 1970s. Through a government-backed project back then, farmers used the islands to raise goats, which eventually turned wild.

Environmental officials say 4 percent of the nation's 2,000 islands are overrun by goats. And they are growing fast in population -- a goat on average gives birth three times a year.

Environmentalists agree that the number of goats needs to be contained but advise caution for those holding the guns, asking them to take alternative measures such as nets and traps. But one good thing is they could be a great opportunity for doctors who use goat material in traditional medicines.




 
 
 
 

Gawk at grazing goats at the Getty
6:28 PM, May 6, 2008
 

The Getty is grateful for goats.

Travelers on the 405 Freeway between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles will see about 60 goats roaming the hillsides, along with goat-herder Hugh Bunten and two dogs, Steve and Boo, for two to three weeks, The Times' LA Now blog reports.

The Getty Center, about 110 acres, contracted the goats to munch away at brush that could serve as fuel for wildfires, Veronique de Turenne writes.

For the story behind the goats, step back in time to 2005 by clicking on our jump for a more in-depth look at the Getty's acquisitions.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Herd mentality in Brentwood

The Getty Center's artful approach to clearing treacherous hillsides of brush: Rent a few hundred goats.

By Merrill Balassone, Times Staff Writer

It's 9:30 in the morning, and visitors at the Getty Center in Brentwood are enjoying the mild weather as they stretch out under shady walnut trees. Some crowd the gates expectantly, eager to get in on the action.

"Ready, goats? Let's go!" yells goatherd John Adams.

And on command, a team of 300 goats files out of the pen in an orderly line down a dirt road on the museum's north side, tearing away mouthfuls of dry foxtails and buckwheat from the hillside.

For the last three weeks, the all-goat landscaping team has been eating away at the dry brush on 8 acres of land at the Getty Center, too treacherous and steep for the maintenance crew to reach.

"At first I thought, 'Oh, my God, will they have dogs chasing the goats?' And you think of those sheep competitions," said Lynne Tjomsland, manager of grounds and gardens at the Getty Center. "But there's a real hazard of one of our guys getting hurt, and if there's a way to avoid the risk, we'll do it."

For Tjomsland, the goats have provided an ideal solution to the threat of brush fires. The goats are mostly attracted to low-lying brush and grasses and can stretch up to 8 feet to strip low branches off trees while leaving the canopies intact. The animals naturally "recycle" the plants, fertilizing the soil and reducing the chance of mudslides.

Sarah Bunten and her husband, Hugh, manage the goats, and their company, Nannies and Billy's, was spawned after a co-worker gave them a goat as a wedding present.

Since that quirky gift, goats have become a way of life for the Bunten family. For the last year, the Buntens and their daughter Annie, 25, have been living on the road, away from their house in Lakeview, Ore. They have set up a base camp next to the goat pen -- a small teal-and-white trailer where Annie sleeps, with a dusty easy chair and a refrigerator outside and a small tent for Bunten and her husband. At the opposite side of the pen is another trailer, where Adams and his friend Keith Pugh, a fellow goatherd, stay. While Adams has lived outdoors for the last three years, he says that the lack of modern conveniences can still test his patience.

"It can be great because you get to travel and have crazy experiences like living at the Getty, but then you have to deal with the weather and the bugs, and you don't have a couch and a remote control," he said.

"But there's no rent and no dishes," adds Annie, who met Adams while attending the University of Oregon. "When you tell people you're a goat herder, they always ask you where your staff is."

The Buntens use Boer goat mixes, developed in South Africa to feed miners. They started their business selling goat meat to some of Portland's upscale "sit-down suit-and-tie" restaurants, where the entrees were as much as $40 a plate.

They soon realized the goats were more valuable as landscapers than as meat. Goats can be easily trained and are able to memorize the terrain and obey spoken commands. Tjomsland said she was surprised to find how easily the goats navigated the twisting access roads at the Getty a year after they first cleared brush on the property.

The goats finish their tour of duty at the Getty on Friday. Then they travel south to their next gig, at Peck Park in Palos Verdes.

While the Buntens use three dogs as guides, the goats aren't always easy to handle. The goatherds must tap into the herd mentality and take the role of the "lead goat." If not led correctly, the goats can wander into people's homes. Bunten's goats have chomped on tobacco plants and survived rattlesnake bites.

"There's a lot of strategy involved," Annie said. "Sometimes they get a little tricky, and they divide and conquer. Other times, they don't think the food is as good as we're telling them it is. But basically, it's just about being smarter than the goats."

Posted by Francisco Vara-Orta on May 6, 2008 in Goats