Chat
12-27-2016, 11:58 AM
Sounds like a fun project! My hope is that in 20 years a packgoat business will be allowed! Right now the government is giving a lot of packgoat outfitters a hard time because of the Bighorn Sheep issue. The North American Packgoat Association is pushing back and coming at them with science that says our goats aren't a disease threat to Bighorns, but it's hard to convince people in power when they are already sure they know everything.
I'm not sure I see much changing in the goat herding scene in 20 years. What we know now about keeping goats is rooted in a history that is thousands of years old--almost as old as humankind itself. It's thought that goats are possibly the first animals ever domesticated by humans. Science has helped us incredibly with battling diseases and injury during the last century, but good animal husbandry doesn't usually change much throughout time and across cultures because the animals' basic needs remain the same. That's why my neighbor can hire people from Central or South America who don't speak English and they can go to work caring for his goats and cattle right away with very little instruction. Animal husbandry is like a common language spoken all over the world.
If you want stories on packgoats, you might buy the Goat Tracks Magazine archive collection. I believe the magazine has been going for about 20 years, and there are so many wonderful tales there.
As for things passing, I'm not sure about that. I believe most undigestible objects become lodged in the rumen, which I once read is kind of like a sieve. I've read that when an older animal is opened up, there are often some strange things lodged in the rumen that have been there for years that could never pass but that never bothered the animal since they weren't actually blocking the rumen. I could be wrong about that though. When a goat eats something that disagrees with it, they usually react within 2-12 hours. A baby goat with diarrhea usually starts scouring an hour or two after feeding. If a goat's rumen gets blocked, they'll usually start to bloat within an hour or two. But generally if a goat eats a nail or a piece of plastic, you'll likely never see any ill effects, but you probably won't see the object again either.
I'm not sure I see much changing in the goat herding scene in 20 years. What we know now about keeping goats is rooted in a history that is thousands of years old--almost as old as humankind itself. It's thought that goats are possibly the first animals ever domesticated by humans. Science has helped us incredibly with battling diseases and injury during the last century, but good animal husbandry doesn't usually change much throughout time and across cultures because the animals' basic needs remain the same. That's why my neighbor can hire people from Central or South America who don't speak English and they can go to work caring for his goats and cattle right away with very little instruction. Animal husbandry is like a common language spoken all over the world.
If you want stories on packgoats, you might buy the Goat Tracks Magazine archive collection. I believe the magazine has been going for about 20 years, and there are so many wonderful tales there.
As for things passing, I'm not sure about that. I believe most undigestible objects become lodged in the rumen, which I once read is kind of like a sieve. I've read that when an older animal is opened up, there are often some strange things lodged in the rumen that have been there for years that could never pass but that never bothered the animal since they weren't actually blocking the rumen. I could be wrong about that though. When a goat eats something that disagrees with it, they usually react within 2-12 hours. A baby goat with diarrhea usually starts scouring an hour or two after feeding. If a goat's rumen gets blocked, they'll usually start to bloat within an hour or two. But generally if a goat eats a nail or a piece of plastic, you'll likely never see any ill effects, but you probably won't see the object again either.