Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1600000000
1400000000
1200000000
1000000000
Cattle
Goats
Pigs
Sheep
800000000
600000000
400000000
200000000
0
Years
Figure 19.1
Changes in the world's livestock numbers. Cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep numbers
increased by 14.4%, 84%, 24%, and 1.4% during the last 27 years, respectively. Source: FAOSTAT,
2007, www.faostat.fao.org.
Table 19.1
Number of records (hits) for goat,
sheep, and cattle retrieved by searching
National Agricultural Library, USDA (February 8,
2009).
mation about goats compared with sheep and cattle is
evident from a simple search for published literature,
records of journal articles, theses, patents, software, and
technical reports related to agriculture using databases
such as Agricola, PubMed, PubMed Central, and the
USDA website (Table 19.1). This lack of information and
proper training has been clearly stated in the literature and
confi rmed in the chapters of this topic. The following sec-
tions will elaborate the future needs for classroom instruc-
tion, areas of research, extension programs, and outreach
activities for goats.
Items
Goat
Sheep
Cattle
Total Hits
8,972
>
10,000
>
10,000
Meat/Beef
395
1,451
>
10,000
Dairy
1,315
1,097
>
10,000
Fiber/Wool
268
2,732
—
Milk
1,883
1,386
3,671
Nutrition
359
1,781
2,489
Breeding
405
2,291
4,476
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION ON GOATS
The last comprehensive pieces of information written on
goats were Goat Production by C. Gall (1981), and
Extension Goat Handbook by Haenlein and Ace (1984),
which are more than a quarter of a century old. Recently
C. Devendra (2007) released his book Goats: Biology,
Production and Development in Asia, providing detailed
information on development of this species in Asia. The
Handbook of Milk of Non-Bovine Mammals by Park and
Haenlein (2006) is another unique publication that covers
goat milk.
The goat population in the world has experienced a
strong increase (from 497 million in 1986 to over 850
million in 2007) during the past few decades, while most
other species (except poultry) either decreased (sheep) or
did not change signifi cantly (Figure 19.1). However, sci-
entifi c investment in goat science education and research
Genetics
209
870
1,970
Reproduction
347
1,850
2,654
Parasites
59
350
639
Management
398
1,889
5,549
Extension
151
367
2,068
Teaching
3
12
38
the future. However, not even one of those reports covers
the need of higher education in goat technology to provide
the necessary tools for future researchers and educators of
this sector of the livestock industry.
In most cases, in the U.S. for example, most of the
researchers and outreach personnel are trained with cattle
(dairy and beef), and working with goats is an on-the-job
training activity that requires transformation and applica-
tion of knowledge for goats. The limited amount of infor-
