Nera Verzasca goat
Nera Verzasca goat is a resilient goat breed in Switzerland. The stoutly built, black ( Italian nera : “black”) mountain goat originally comes from the Verzasca Valley and is now widespread throughout the canton of Ticino and the neighboring states of the southern Alpine region. Their advantage is their suitability for a traditional, regionally typical (and low-cost) type of husbandry, in which the goats spend part of the year completely free in the upper mountain regions. It is considered the robust goat breed in the Alpine region.
Traditional attitude and meaning
In the barren, mountainous and low-precipitation regions of southern Switzerland , the frugal and capable goats have always played the main role in caring for the inhabitants and still shape the image of agriculture today. At the turn of the century there were three times more goats than inhabitants in the Maggia Valley . In Ticino, in contrast to the rest of Switzerland, where it plays a minor role, there is also a large number of goat cheese specialties. (e.g. «Fromaggini bassi», «alti» or «alle erbe»).
One of the characteristics of goat farming in Ticino is that only a small part of the goats are kept as home goats and most of them are summered in the Alps , where their milk is processed into cheese. Preserved in this way, it used to be used as a food source for the winter months. On the other hand, after a comparatively short lactation period, the goats are dried out at the end of August and then spend their lives in complete freedom in the upper mountain regions until the big snowfalls in December.
This type of husbandry, not least through natural selection, formed the extremely resilient Nera Verzasca goat breed, which, even when completely feral - which sometimes occurs and has been documented in Bergell - is able to cope with the climatically and geologically tough ones To survive the environmental conditions of the high Alps .
The goats spend the winter in the valley with the farmers. In the climatically warmer regions, e.g. B. in the Sottoceneri they are allowed out during the entire winter to graze in paddocks or in the open pasture. In the other regions, too, the animals are given daily exercise, if the weather permits. This saves a lot of hay, but from a purely economic point of view it is questionable whether this justifies the resulting additional work. In spring the goats graze the lower slopes of the valley.
Even if this type of husbandry is by and large the epitome of species-appropriate goat husbandry and the animals make an important contribution to the preservation of the species-rich cultural landscapes of Ticino, there are also points that are viewed critically:
Traditional keeping provides for the tethering of the goats, which is not considered animal-friendly in modern animal husbandry, for the (comparatively very short) time they spend in the barn. This is justified with the aggressive temperament of the goats, which makes it impossible to keep them in the loose housing because of the risk of injury. Animal welfare officers question the validity of this argument, accuse the Ticino farmers of being hostile to innovation and encourage them to switch to the (much less labor-intensive) loose housing. Some of these initiatives seem to be bearing fruit, as there is a slight trend towards converting the stables to loose housing.
The right to free grazing of goats is also under discussion in Ticino, as goats, especially in young coniferous forests, can cause considerable damage through browsing . Forestry representatives fear not only a drop in turnover but also lasting damage to the forest, which in some places contributes to increased erosion and thus to an increase in the risk of avalanches. In most of the other Swiss cantons, the right to free grazing, a relic from the time when goats provided food for the poor landless population, has already been abolished.
The time the goats spend free in the mountains falls during the animals' rutting season . Since several goats are always given to the herds for various reasons, the paternal descent can never be traced, which makes targeted breeding difficult. It can rarely even happen that individual animals or even the entire herd are covered by a wild ibex . Although the resulting from such matings bastards are fully fertile, will not be bred with them because their milk yield is low and because - surprisingly - have a very high susceptibility to disease.
Physical characteristics
The Nera Verzasca is a large goat (height at the withers: female 80 cm, male 90 cm, weighing 60 kg for goats and 80 kg for rams) with strong limbs, large horns and a muscular build. All animals have beards. Although the pure black, smooth fur is short, Nera Verzasca goats have a very high cold tolerance, as they develop a dense undercoat in winter.
Essence
The Nera Verzasca goat is a very original breed of goat that displays many of the instincts of their wild ancestors. These include a strong herd instinct, a very high urge to move and a preference for steep (and therefore predator-proof) terrain. They are completely unsuitable for stable housing. Many goat breeders in Ticino accept extra work in order to enable their goats, which are hungry for exercise, to run out during the winter months. For the above in traditional husbandry, a good relationship between the goats and their owners is essential.
power
Nera Verzasca goats give an average of 456.4 kg of milk per lactation period, which is short with an average of 206.2 days, which corresponds to 2.21 kg per day. This is the lowest value of all Swiss dairy goat breeds. The average content is 3.0% fat and 3.0% protein. Even if she does not perform above average in terms of frequency of multiple births or weight gain, she is considered a two-way goat, i.e. This means that it generates significant income in both milk and meat production, since its meat is traded regionally as a delicacy and generates higher prices than exported Gitzis. The keeping of the Nera Verzasca goat v. a. in traditional, extensive husbandry, where there are only low costs for feed, pasture lease and medication.
Inventory development
Even if the Nera Verzasca goat in traditional Ticino was less affected by the general decline in goat husbandry in the 1970s, the number of Nera Verzasca goats has been declining for many years. With 1233 animals listed in the herdbook , it is now the rarest of the officially recognized Swiss goat breeds. Since targeted herd book breeding is not always possible, less than a third of the goats are registered in herd books. The actual population in Switzerland is likely to be around 5000 animals. The reasons given for the decline are rural exodus, overbuilding and increasing tourism. In the Alpine regions of Italy there are around 600 herdbook animals. The Swiss Goat Breeding Association lists the Nera Verzasca goat as an endangered breed.
literature
- Urs Weis (ed.): Swiss goats. Birken Halde Verlag, 2004.
- Hans Hinrich Sambraus: Color atlas of farm animal breeds . 263 races in words and pictures. 7th expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8001-7613-7 , Nera Verzasca, p. 206 .
Web links
- Swiss Goat Breeding Association (SZZV): Nera Verzasca goat
- Nera Verzasca on ProSpecieRara, website of the Swiss Foundation for the cultural-historical and genetic diversity of plants and animals
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Hinrich Sambraus: color atlas of farm animal breeds . 263 races in words and pictures. 7th expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8001-7613-7 , Nera Verzasca, p. 206 .
- ^ Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (Eds.) Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 73
- ↑ Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (Ed.) Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 71
- ↑ a b c Jürg Paul in Urs Weis (Ed.): Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 9.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, p. 255.
- ^ Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (Eds.): Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 74
- ↑ Christian Gall Ziegenzucht , Stuttgart 2001, p. 106
- ↑ Nera Verzasca goat. (No longer available online.) In: http://szzv.caprovis.ch/ . Swiss Goat Breeding Association (SZZV), archived from the original on July 16, 2015 ; Retrieved July 16, 2015 (breed standard and characteristics). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.) Schweizer Ziegen, Winterthur 2004, p. 133
- ^ Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (eds.) Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 76
- ↑ a b Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (ed.) Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 70
- ^ Daniele and Brigit Rovelli in: Urs Weis (Ed.) Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004, p. 72
