Saanen goat
The Saanen goat is a large, mostly ungehörnte goat with white, short fur, originally from the Saanen valley in the Bernese Oberland comes. Today it is widespread throughout Switzerland as well as in many European, American and Asian countries. Due to her excellent milk production , she has been crossed into many land races around the world . That is why it is regarded as the main breed of practically all today's high-performance milk goats and as the "most successful goat breed in the world".
Traditional attitude and meaning
Today Switzerland is one of the wealthiest nations on earth . Until the turn of the 19th but the 20th century lived a significant part of the Swiss, particularly the landless population in poverty, extremely precarious conditions: without own cattle and land they sought to make a living as day laborers and hired themselves out for example as. Heuerleute at Large farmers. This made them dependent on the fluctuating demand for labor and the arbitrariness of their employers. Even the vegetables grown in subsistence farming in community gardens were always threatened by extreme weather conditions (such as violent onset of winter as early as the end of August) due to their geographic location . The keeping of a cow was usually not possible due to the lack of sufficient pasture area. So goat milk was the most important and most reliable source of nutrition for the landless population in Switzerland. This is borne out by numerous historical laws that protect the goats of poor families to a large extent, as otherwise starvation quickly spread through the country in bad weather: the right to free grazing allowed every goat owner to let his goats forage independently on common land outside the villages . Thus was accepted that the straying goats browsing inflicting serious sometimes raping in forestry and agriculture, and additionally ensured much potential for conflict. Owning up to three goats was exempt from tax and in the event of a seizure, they would not be confiscated. The Saanen goat was a breed of goat that was typically kept as a home goat (or "poor man's cow"). It can be assumed that the breed spread throughout Switzerland early, possibly as early as the 18th century.
The goats grazed in free pasture, so they were driven out of the pen in the morning after milking and looked for food independently during the day. In the evening they were caught again and driven back to their home (unless they habitually did this independently). Often this was a task entrusted to the children of the family. There they were milked again and spent the night with their owners in a stable, a shed or, not infrequently, in the same rooms in which the family stayed.
The characteristics of the Saanen goat, which later made it a sought-after and successful breeding goat, emerged as a breeding adaptation to the requirements placed on the goats by keeping the goats as domestic goats:
White color
The goat's light color makes it stand out more from its surroundings, making it easier to spot from a distance, which makes it much easier to find it every evening.
Polled
Polled animals are more peaceful with one another and require less space. The way people (often children) deal with the goats is also less problematic. In addition, polled goats give more milk. That is why breeding for genetic polledness took place very early on: Paintings show that polled white goats were kept in Switzerland as early as the 18th century, although their fur was much longer than that of today's Saanen goats.
High milk yield
Was the most important criterion in breeding, as space and feed was rarely enough for more than one or two goats. The breeding success that has been achieved with the Saanen goats is very remarkable: On average, they produce about five times more milk than goats, which are kept in large numbers in subtropical climates and whose milk is still the most important nutritional basis for several hundred million people.
Little urge to move
In the case of the home goats, who had to be looked for anew every evening and driven back to the shed, an overly pronounced urge to move was undesirable. Goats that were very active probably ended up in the cooking head or were at least excluded from breeding. This characteristic is contrary to that of many Swiss mountain goat breeds, which were specifically bred to be able to walk.
Short coat
Makes maintenance easier and increases cleanliness in the stable.
Physical characteristics
The Saanen goat is a large goat with a withers of 74–85 cm (rams: 80–95 cm) and a minimum weight of 50 kg (rams: 75 kg).
The fur of the Saanen goat should be short-haired, lying flat and pure white.
Small pigment spots on the skin are allowed and are particularly common on the udder.
It was only discovered a few decades ago that the sex anomalies (hermaphroditic formation, sterility, seed congestion) frequently occurring in many genetically polled goat breeds, including the Saanen goat, are genetically related to being polled, because these problems are practically unknown in horned goat breeds . That is why horned (or dehorned) goats are now also allowed for breeding.
In addition to the main type of Saanen goat, there are some local breeds in Switzerland: Most of them are smaller, often horned and with longer fur (not to be confused with the Appenzell goat) and are better adapted to keeping in the mountains at the expense of a lower milk yield.
Essence
Saanen goat has a calm, stoic disposition. She is sociable towards people and conspecifics, but extremely peaceful and, despite her body size, willingly leaves the lead positions to other, more agile goats in multiracial herds . In the goat alps, where goats of several breeds are summered by different farmers , the representatives of the Saanenrace often have difficulty or little interest in keeping up with the other goats. Their herd instinct is rather weak, some individuals are downright loners.
Their urge to move may be low compared to other (mountain) goat breeds, but it is still so great that year-round housing, especially when tethered, is now considered unsuitable for the species.
power
Saane goat give in Switzerland by country-specific feeding high Raufutteranteil per lactation average of 856.1 kg milk at an average of 271.4 Melktage what corresponds to 3.15 kg per Melktag. This is a top value among the Swiss goat breeds, 102 kg or 12% higher than that of the Gems-colored . However, such comparisons are only of limited informative value, since apart from the breed, the type of husbandry plays an important role in milk production and Saanezats are kept more intensively than other breeds.
The British Saanen , a goat breed that was the result of crossing the Saanen goat with English land races, averages 1261 kg with 3.68% fat and 2.8% milk protein when fed in the UK, making it one of the most productive breeds in the world.
Top animals of the Saan breed produce over 3000 kg of milk per lactation. These specimens are not only the best goats, but also the most effective dairy farm animals of all, both when you put their body weight and when you put the amount of feed consumed in relation to the milk yield. (From an economic point of view (workload, keeping costs), however, cow's milk is about twice as profitable.)
Such top performance is made possible by a rumen that is very large in relation to body size , which creates the conditions for a high energy turnover, as well as a metabolism that uses a large part of the energy consumed for milk production. However, this leaves the organism of the high-performance goats only a few reserves in order to be able to react successfully to physical stress, adverse weather conditions or diseases. That is why Saanen goats are exposed to harsh environmental conditions (such as those prevailing in the high Alps, and in the valley also the cold and damp spring winds, known in Switzerland as "goat killers"), and more often than the average fall victim to illnesses, miscarriages or even death. This is the reason why they do not enjoy a good reputation among Swiss mountain farmers, who are proud of their local, robust and marching mountain goats. “Las chavras albas sun fallatschusas” is what they say in the Engadin, “The white goats failed” (in the sense of not being very resistant).
Duration
In the course of the general improvement in the standard of living, the introduction of compulsory schooling , which withdrew the children to work for goat husbandry, and the industrialization of agriculture , the number of goats in Europe has declined sharply since the 1950s, since goat husbandry is inexpensive, but also very labor-intensive is. The Saanen goat was less affected by this decline than other Swiss goat breeds, which were on the verge of extinction, as their properties, especially the high milk yield and the relatively low level of movement, predestined them to be kept intensively in large industrialized farms. For a long time it was by far the most common breed. The number of goats in Switzerland has been increasing again since the 1990s, not least because their use in landscape and pasture maintenance was recognized. The population of Saanen goat has risen less sharply since then, as more and more breeders are opting for more robust goat breeds that are better suited for extensive keeping, above all the chamois-colored mountain goat . Nevertheless, the Saan breed remains the second most common in Switzerland and is of course not considered endangered.
The Saanen goat was exported worldwide and crossed into many local goat breeds and, thanks to its facility for very high milk yield, could certainly do its part to make goat breeding more lucrative overall and largely established the excellent reputation that Swiss breeding goats enjoy internationally. She is z. B. in Great Britain, South Africa, the Czech Republic, USA, Israel, France, Mexico, China and Australia a recognized breeding goat and represents a notable part of the national goat population there. Most of the time it kept its name abroad, only in Germany in 1937 the descendants of imported Saanen goats were renamed “ White German Noble Goats ”. The herds of goat breeding farms that do not breed pure but rather select for performance are often strongly influenced by the genetic material of the Saanen goats.
However, crossing European high-performance dairy goats in breeds that are kept extensively in areas of extreme heat and drought makes little sense or is counterproductive . The milk yield can only be increased insignificantly and the genetically determined adaptation of the goat there to heat and drought can be lost. Gall reports on development workers who tried to improve the supply of goat milk to the population in tropical countries by crossing Saaneboks. In retrospect, the results were described as disastrous. Although a certain increase in the amount of milk was recorded (which, however, fell far short of expectations), this advantage was turned into the opposite by the fact that the descendants of the Saanebok, as it soon turned out, only had a short life expectancy in this country. See also : goat milk
literature
- Norbert Benecke: Man and his pets - the story of a relationship that is thousands of years old. Stuttgart 1994
- Hans Hinrich Sambraus: Color atlas of farm animal breeds. Stuttgart 2001
- Urs Weis (Ed.): Schweizer Ziegen , Winterthur 2004
- Christian Gall: Goat Breeding Stuttgart 2001
Web links
- Zwergziegen.ch: Saanen goat
- The Saanen goat in the goat lexicon , accessed on September 28, 2009
Individual evidence
- ^ Hugo Raaflaub in: Urs Weis (Hrsg.): Schweizer Ziegen. Winterthur, 2004, p. 37.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 16.
- ^ Hugo Raaflaub in: Urs Weis (Hrsg.): Schweizer Ziegen. Winterthur, 2004, p. 36.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, p. 274.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, p. 16.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 34.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 132.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 104.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, p. 139.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, pp. 142-143.
- ^ Christian Gall: Goat Breeding. Stuttgart 2001, p. 146.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 18.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 17.
- ↑ Urs Weis in: Urs Weis (Ed.): Swiss goats. Winterthur, 2004, p. 102.