Harry, Hermione & Hagrid

British Highland

Goats are in many breeds, some bred for milk, some for meat and some especially for their wool. Goats’ milk is higher in butterfat and protein than cows’.

British Toggenburgs are especially good milking goats. Most other breeds are dual purpose or for meat.

The Angora goat’s long, fine silky hair is called MOHAIR. The hair of the Kashmir Goat makes Cashmere wool.

The goat is a browser, eating hedges, paper, your clothes, if you let them (!), as well as grass.

They are difficult to recognise apart from sheep. But the tail of the goat sticks up and the sheep’s down. Also the goats horns grow up and back, whereas the sheep’s grow out sideways and back. Male goats wear beards. And the forehead of the goat is convex (bulging outwards), but the sheep’s is concave.

Goats are from the Cattle (Bovidae) family, which chew the cud and are cloven hoofed so are classified in the Bible as “clean” animals, that God allowed man to eat after the Great Flood. Noah would have taken 7 pairs of the family into the Ark, hence the huge diversity of species that have developed since then. They all have 4 stomachs and no teeth on top in front.